SCARLET TANAGER 479 



House, September 10. Montana — Fortine, September 25 (median 

 of 18 years, August 27). Idaho — Bay view, September 24. Wyo- 

 ming — Laramie, October 22 (median of 10 years, October 2). Utah — 

 Green Lake, Uinta Basin, September 15. Colorado — Pueblo, October 

 14; Fort Morgan, October 11 (median of 14 years, September 28). 

 Arizona — Tonto Basin, October 9. New Mexico— Clayton, October 3. 

 Mackenzie — Fort Resolution, July 12. Manitoba — Treesbank, Sep- 

 tember 4. South Dakota— Rapid City, October 2. Nebraska — Sioux 

 County, October 1. Oklahoma — Kenton, September 25. Texas — El 

 Paso, September 25. Mississippi — Gulfport, October 25. Sonora — 

 Caborca, October 30. 



Egg dates. — Alberta: 4 records, June 7 to June 15. 



California: 50 records, May 7 to July 15; 25 records, June 10 to 

 June 21. 



Colorado : 6 records, May 19 to June 28; 3 records, June 1 1 to June 14. 



Oregon: 10 records, June 11 to July 8; 5 records, June 13 to June 21. 



PIRANGA OLIVACEA (Gmelin) 



Scarlet Tanager 



Plates 31, 32, and 33 



Contributed by Winsor Marrett Tyler 



HABITS 



The scarlet tanager is a bird of contradictions. It possesses a 

 brilliancy of plumage almost unrivaled among North American birds, 

 yet the tanager, even the scarlet male, is seldom conspicuous; its 

 characteristic song is diagnostic to those of us who know it well, yet 

 when the tanager is heard singing, it is often mistaken for a robin, a 

 rose-breasted grosbeak, or even for a red-eyed vireo, birds which sing 

 somewhat like it: thus, unseen and unheard (or unregarded), it 

 is often considered a rare bird, even in localities where it breeds 

 commonly. The behavior of the tanager largely accounts for this 

 anomaly. 



Spring. — The scarlet tanager comes back to New England from the 

 tropics during the height of the spring migration, at a time when a 

 multitude of birds, residents and migrants, are here in great profusion. 

 The expanding leaves are fast shading the bare branches, shutting 

 from our view countless perches in the treetops where a bird may be 

 almost invisible, so that the tanager, an arboreal bird of quiet demean- 

 or, practically disappears from sight, hidden in the labyrinth of leafy 

 branches. Even when in full view against a bright sky, the bird often 

 appears as a shape rather than a bit of color, although sometimes, of 



