348 S YS TEMA TIC S Y NOP SIS. — PA S SERES — OSCIXES. 



warmer parts of America. The name of this genus has been commonly spelled Pyranga, after 

 VrEiLLOT, Analyse, 1816, p. 32 ; but as Vieillot used Piranga in the first instance, Ois. Am. 

 Sept., i, 1807, p. iv, this form is to be preferred as a choice of evils in the barbarous name. 



Analysis of Species. 



(f Crimson or scarlet, with black wings and tail : $ clear olive and yellow. No wing bars .... erythromelas 

 ij Vermilion or rose-red, including wings and tail : $ brownish-olive and buffy-yellow. Bill light. 



Smaller : length about 7.50 ; wing 3.75 rubra 



Larger : length about 8.00 ; wing 4.'i5 cooperi 



(f Dusky-red above, including wings and tail. $ ashy-oli^e and yellow. Bill dark hepatica 



(J Yellow, vrith scarlet head and black back, wings and tail ; two wing-bars. 5 clear olive and yellow. ludoviHana 

 no wing-bars, but lesser and middle coverts yellow. (ExtraUmital.) riibriceps 



P. erythro'melas. (Gr. tpvOpos, eritthros, red, imd fieXas, melas, black.) Scarlet Tanager. 

 Black-winged Redbird. Adult ^ in summer : Crimson or scarlet ; wiugs and tail black ; 

 bill and feet dark horn-color. Adult 9 • Above, clear olive-green ; below, clear greenish- 

 yellow ; wings and tail dusky, glossed with color of back. Winter ^ similar to 9 j but wings 

 and tail black. Young ^ : Similar to 9 ; later, when changing, patched with red, green, and 

 black. Adult males often show abnormal coloring, the body being yellow, orange, or flame- 

 color; or red patches appearing on wing-coverts. Length 6.75-7.00; extent 11.00-12.00; 

 wing 3.50-3.90; tail about 3.00. Eastern U.S. and adjoining British Provinces; W. to 

 Kansas, Indian Ten, and Texas; not common N. of Massachusetts; breeds nearly through 

 U. S. range ; winters in W. Indies, E. Mexico, Cent. Am., and northern S. Am. This brilliant 

 creature nests in woods, groves, and orchards, upon the horizontal bough of a tree, building a 

 rather loose and shallow fabric of twigs, fibres, rootlets, etc. Eggs 3-5, 0.95 X 0.65, dull 

 greenish-blue, fully spotted with brown and lilac. This is P. rubra of authors generally, and 

 of all former eds. of the Key; but, unfortunately, according to our rules of nomenclature, the 

 name rubra must be transferred to the Summer Tanager, and the Scarlet Tanager become 

 known as P. erythromelas Vieillot, 1819 ; A. 0. U. Lists, No. 608. 



P. rub'ra. (Lat. rubra, red.) Rose Tanager. Summer Redbird. Adult $ : Rich 

 rose-red or vermilion, including vrings and tail ; the former dusky on unexposed portions of 

 the feathers ; biU pale ; feet darker. Adult 9 : DnW brownish-olive above, below dull 

 brownish-yellow ; no wing-bars. Young ^ : Like 9 • <? changing plumage shows red, 

 greenish and yellowish in irregular patches, but no black. The 9 distinguished from 9 ^'"Z/" 

 thromelas by the dull brownish, ochrey, or buffy shades of the olive and yellowish, the greenish 

 and yellowish of 9 erythromelas being much clearer and paler ; by paler bill and feet, and also 

 by lack of any evident tooth of upper mandible, as this formation is obsolete in the present 

 species. The tint of mature males varies greatly ; from rosy to bricky red. Size of erythro- 

 melas, or rather larger. Eastern U. S., strictly, and rather southerly ; N. rarely to Connecti- 

 cut, only casually farther, as in Massachusetts, Nova Scotia, Ontario, etc. ; W. to Kansas, 

 Indian Territory, and Texas, Migratory, abundant ; breeds throughout its range ; winters 

 extralimital in Cuba, Mexico, Cent. Am., and as far S. as Peru. Nesting and eggs like 

 those of erythromelas. It is unluckily the fact that Linn.«US first named the Summer Tan- 

 ager Fringilla rubra in the 10th ed. of the Systema Naturae, i, 17.58, p. 181, and Muscicapa 

 rubra in the 12th ed., 1766, p. 326; for by our rules we umst accept the specific name rubra, 

 and that of course debars us from using it for the Scarlet Tanager, which LiNNiEUS named 

 Tanagra rubra in 1766, Syst. Nat., i, 12th ed., p. 314. This necessary change caused some 

 confusion at first, but we have already become used to it, and it is not likely to make any trouble 

 in future. See my "Birds of the Colorado Valley," i, 1878, p. 351 , where I made the point 20 

 years ago, stating that " the name rubra should stand in place of (estiva for the summer red- 

 bird," though I was not enough of a stickler for strictness to make in former editions of the Key 



