502 U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 211 



Several observers have referred to the summer tanager's habit of 

 catching bees, but Floyd Bralliar (1922) tells the best story. A friend 

 of his, a beekeeper, complained that his bees were not doing well, 

 though there were plenty of flowers in the vicinity and no disease was 

 apparent in the hives. They sat down to watch, and saw one tanager 

 catch 15 or 20 bees within a few minutes. Then another tanager came 

 and satisfied its appetite. 



"We did not know," he says, "how many birds were feeding there, 

 but it was evident that there were more than two, for no two birds 

 could possible eat so many bees as we saw caught that day. After 

 watching them for a week, my friend, himself something of a naturalist 

 and a great lover of birds, decided he would have to do a distasteful 

 thing in self protection, so he took his gun and began shooting tanagers. 

 The first day, he killed eight of these birds feeding on his bees. Within 

 a few days the bees began to grow strong, showing that this had been 

 their only trouble; and as he had killed all the summer tanagers near 

 by, he had no more trouble." 



He says further: "The summer tanager feeds largely on beetles, 

 caught on the wing or in trees. * * * It eats beetles so large that it 

 seems impossible for it to swallow them. After these insects are 

 digested the indigestible feet, legs, and shells are rolled into a ball by 

 the bird's stomach and disgorged." 



Behavior. — The summer tanager does not differ materially in its 

 mannerisms from the other tanagers. It is very deliberate in its 

 movements and rather solitary in its habits, spending much of its time 

 in the concealing foliage of the woodland trees, where it is surprisingly 

 inconspicuous in spite of the brilliant plumage of the male. Were it 

 not for its loud voice, the bird might easily be overlooked. 



Voice. — Aretas A. Saunders writes to me: "In the spring of 1908, 

 in Alabama, I became very familiar with the song of the summer 

 tanager. According to my note-books, I heard the song practically 

 daily from the bird's arrival in April to the end of my stay in early 

 June. My recollections of the song are that it is not harsh, as is the 

 scarlet tanager's, but musical, with more liquid consonent sounds 

 between the notes." 



Ridgway (1889) says that its notes are much louder than those of 

 the scarlet tanager: "The ordinary one sounds like pa-chip-it-tut-tut- 

 tut, or, as Wilson expresses it, chicky-chucky-chuck. The song resembles 

 in its general character, that of the Scarlet Tanager, but is far louder, 

 better sustained, and more musical. It equals in strength that of 

 Robin, but is uttered more hurriedly, is more 'wiry' and much more 

 continued." 



Mrs. Nice (1931) says: "The song is rich, musical and varied, 

 from 3 to 6 seconds in length, from 4 to 6 given a minute. One 



