WESTERN HEPATIC TANAGER 495 



changes of the males, some retaining a few vestiges of immaturity 

 during their second winter. After the postjuvenal molt the female 

 produces no color changes of consequence, except that some old 

 females acquire orange feathers on the throat and forehead. 



Food. — In a grove of oaks, near Camp Apache, according to 

 Henshaw (1875), "they appeared to be feeding upon insects, which they 

 gleaned from among the foliage and smaller branches of the oaks." 

 He also saw them moving "slowly about in the tops of the pines 

 searching for insects. At this season [Jul}-], they capture these gen- 

 eralty while at rest, but occasionally sally forth and take them in 

 mid-air." 



Mrs. Bailey (1928) says: "Those seen by Major Goldman in the 

 Burro Mountains the middle of September were feeding on wild 

 grapes and wild cherries in a northeast slope canyon at 6,500 feet." 



Behavior. — Like all tanagers, the hepatic tanagers are rather slow 

 and deliberate in their movements. We did not find them particularly 

 shy and were able to observe them at their nest building. Henshaw 

 (1875), however, found them so "excessively shy" that he had difficulty 

 in getting within gunshot of them. On July 21, "young, just from 

 the nest, were taken. The old birds manifested much affection and 

 solicitude for their progeny, flying down on the low branches, and, 

 after venting their anger in harsh notes, returned to the side of their 

 young and led them away to a place of safety." 



Voice. — Henshaw (1875) says: "With the exception of the call 

 notes, used by both sexes, and which resemble the syllables chuck, 

 chuck, several times repeated, they were perfectly silent, and neither 

 here nor elsewhere did I ever hear any song." But Frank Stephens 

 wrote William Brewster (1881) that "the song is loud and clear, 

 but short." 



Enemies. — Frank C. Willard told me that he found an egg of the 

 bronzed cowbird in a nest of an hepatic tanager. This is probably 

 a rare occurrence, for I can find no such report by anyone else. 



Winter. — The winter range of this form of the hepatic tanager 

 seems to lie in western Mexico, from Sonora southward. Col. A. J. 

 Grayson wrote to George N. Lawrence (1874) : "I discovered this 

 species to be quite frequent in the Sierra Madre Mountains, on their 

 western slope between Mazatl&n and Durango in December, but 

 I have never met with it in the tierras calientes proper. It seems to 

 be a mountain species." 



DISTRIBUTION 



Range. — Arizona to western Mexico. 



Breeding range. — The Western hepatic tanager breeds from 

 northwestern and central Arizona (Hualpai Mountains, Bill Williams 



