EASTERN SUMMER TANAGER 497 



north, it has been recorded as late as April 25 by myself and April 27 

 by Griscom; but these were stragglers that had lingered behind the 

 main migration." 



The summer tanager is one of many species of small birds that 

 evidently migrate directly across the Gulf of Mexico from Central 

 America to the Gulf States. M. A. Frazar (1881) reported that a 

 few of this species were observed while he was cruising from the coast 

 of Texas to Mobile, Ala., and when his small schooner was about 30 

 miles south of the mouths of the Mississippi. Further evidence of 

 trans-Gulf migration is given in the following contribution from 

 Francis M. Weston regarding the spring migration of the summer 

 tanager, as observed near Pensacola, Fla. : "Abundance of the sum- 

 mer tanager at this season depends upon weather conditions, as is 

 the case with most of the trans-Gulf migrant species that make their 

 first landfall on this part of the coast. A season of long periods of 

 good weather brings us no more tanagers than would be needed to 

 provide our rather sparse breeding population, and it is presumed 

 that at such times great numbers must pass over unseen on their 

 way to more northerly nesting grounds. In bad weather, however, 

 when an incoming flight meets rain, heavy fog, or strong north winds, 

 and halts on the coast instead of continuing on its way inland, tan- 

 agers in uncountable abundance swarm in city gardens and parks 

 and in coastwise patches of woods. I recall my amusement, one 

 spring, at the confusion of a visiting ornithologist who, delighted at 

 the sight of several tanagers, set out to count the number he could 

 find in a single vacant, wooded city block. All went well, the birds 

 flitting along before him as he slowly traversed the block. Then, 

 looking back, he saw that more new birds had come into the area 

 behind him than he had already chased out and counted. He finally 

 gave up the project as hopeless and contented himself with noting 

 the species as 'very abundant'. A swarm of tanagers like that can 

 be expected during any or every spell of bad weather from the last 

 week of March through all of April. This spring influx persists even 

 into May, for, on May 8, 1945, a mixed flight of incoming migrants, 

 halted by bad weather, included a fair sprinkling of summer tanagers." 



The tanagers of this species that breed in Florida, and perhaps 

 some of those that nest farther north, evidently pass over Cuba and 

 the Florida Keys to reach the mainland of Florida. A heavy storm, 

 resulting in many casualties to this and other species, at Key West 

 and the Tortugas, is described by Commander F. M. Bennett (1909). 

 Migration through Texas serves to bring the birds to the more western 

 portions of their breeding range, though some of these apparently 

 cross a portion of the Gulf of Mexico. The earliest birds reach 

 Florida before the end of March, but the main northward migration 



