372 Proceedings of Indiana Academy of Science. 



last days of June. 190."j, two or three were seen and heard singing on the 

 fences about the meadows and along the road at the old home farm. 



Vigo Countij: Equally common summer resident: often noted in the fields 

 north, east, and south of Terre Haute. 



Monroe Count]/: Probably more common than in either Carroll or Vigo. 

 Several pairs could he .^een any line day in late spring or early summer in 

 or about the fields north or east of Bloomington. 



158. PiRANGA KRYTIIKOMKLAS Vicillot. SCARLET TANGER. (60S) 



A common summer resident : chiefly in open woodlands and along the 

 streams. 



Carroll County: Arrives from the south about the middle of April to the 

 first of May, and remains until in September. October 5, 1878, taken ; 

 June 17, 1882, set of three fresh eggs ; May 3. 1883, saw several males near 

 Camden ; May 12, first female seen ; June 11, found a nest with five eggs, 

 two of which were Cowbird's, about 3U feet from the ground in a beech 

 tree in the east woodland on my father's farm near Burlington ; incubation 

 had begun. May 5, 1884, first noted, a male and a female ; May 11, saw a 

 female building her nest, 50 feet up in a tree in Dillon's woods southeast of 

 Camden; April 23, saw a female in Little Deer Creek bottom near Joseph 

 Trent's ; June 25-July 1. 1905, a male seen in pasture west of house on 

 home farm. 



This beautiful bird is of especial interest to all ornithologists and others 

 who know about it. as being the bird that kindled in Elliot Cones, when a 

 child, an undying interest in bird life. Dr. Coucs's story of the event is so 

 interesting and so charmingly written that I cannot refrain from giving it 

 here. He says: "I hold this bird in particular, a'niost superstitious, recol- 

 lection, as the very first of all the feathered tribe to stir within me those 

 emotions that have never ceased to stimulate and gratify my love for birds. 

 More years have passed than I care to remember since a little child was 

 strolling through an orchard one bright morning in June, filled with mute 

 wonder at beauties felt, but neither questioned nor understood. A shout 

 from an older companion — "There goes a Scarlet Tanager !" — and the child 

 was straining eager, wistful eyes after something that had flashed upon 

 his senses for a moment as if from another world, it seemed so bright, so 

 beautiful, so strange. What is a Scarlet Tanager V mused the child, whose 

 consciousness had flown with the wonderful apparition on wings of ecstasy ; 

 but the bees hummed on. the scent of flowers floated by, the sunbeam passed 

 across the greensward, and there was no repl.v — nothing but the echo of a 

 mute appeal to Nature, stirring the very depths with an inward thrill. 

 That night the vision came again in dreamland, where the strangest things 

 are truest and known the best ; the child was startled by a ball of fire, 

 and fanned to I'est again by a sali'c winu. The wax was soft then, and the 

 impress grew indelible. Nor would I l)lnr it if I could — not though the 

 flight of years has borne sad an-;wers to reiterated questionings — not 

 though the wings of hope are tipped with lead and brush the vei'y earth, 

 instead of soaring in scanted sunlight." 



It was the thoughtless killing of a Scarlet Tanager that gave me my first 

 pang in i-elation to the destruction of useful birds. It was many years ago. 



