SCARLET TANAGER 483 



somewhat clouded and portions of the ground color are concealed by 

 a suffusion of light brown. Rarely a set of eggs may be found with 

 one or more eggs entirely lacking the blue ground color, which is 

 replaced by a creamy white color, upon which are the usual brown 

 spots. 



The measurements of 50 eggs, according to Harris, average 23.3 

 by 16.5 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 

 26.9 by 16.8, 23.9 by 17.8, 19.8 by 16.0 ,and 21.3 by 15.2 millimeters. 

 Young. — Louis S. Kohler (1915a) reports on the study of three 

 nests of the scarlet tanager found in New Jersey. The incubation 

 period was 13 days in one nest, and 14 days in the other two nests, 

 the incubation in all three nests being performed wholly by the 

 female parent. In the first nest both parents fed the young, which 

 were hatched on July 5, until they were fledged, a period of 15 days, 

 when "the male disappeared from the vicinity and the young were 

 seen daily with the adult female until August 1st when they all 

 disappeared." In the second nest the young were fed by both parents 

 for 2 days. After this "the male discontinued his efforts and only 

 visited the nest at intervals of perhaps 30 minutes bringing no food, 

 and finally "left the vicinity." The female, unaided, raised three of 

 the four young. At the third nest the young were fed for 2 days by 

 the female, the male "never approaching the nest closer than five or 

 six feet. However, at the beginning of the third day the male began 

 bringing food to the 3'oungsters and continued to do so for five days 

 thereafter. At this time, for some inconceivable reason, he took a great 

 dislike to his mate and their offspring and began administering 

 vicious pecks and jabs with his beak at her and the young. She 

 quickly took on a defensive mood and after several hours of conflict 

 drove him off and kept him away. * * * The young of this brood 

 progressed with equal regularity with Number One and about August 

 1st moved from the vicinity of the nest about two hundrd feet down 

 the valley and here were seen with the mother bird until the 15th 

 when they also disappeared." 



Plumages. — [Author's Note: D wight (1900) describes the 

 juvenal plumage as "above, olive-yellow, including sides of head and 

 neck, the back greener with dusky edgings. Wings and tail dull 

 brownish black, the secondaries, wing coverts, tertiaries, and rectrices 

 edged with olive-yellow, whitish on the tertiaries and primaries. 

 Below, dull white, sulphur-yellow on the abdomen and crissum, 

 broadly streaked on the breast and sides with grayish olive-brown." 

 The sexes are alike in this plumage. 



A partial postjuvenal molt occurs in late July and August, involving 

 the contour plumage and the wing coverts but not the rest of the wings 



