THE BIRDS OF NEW JERSEY. 249 



passed on, the summer resident Tanagers take to the tree-tops, and in 

 the thick foliage we see them less frequently, but their powerful song 

 comes down to us from the topmost bow or floats out across the fields 

 from the distant woodland. It resembles very much the chant of the 

 Robin, but has a peculiar harsh quality that renders it easily recog- 

 nized. In autumn we find the Tanagers, then all in dull green, asso- 

 ciating with the mixed flocks of birds that feed on the sour gum and 

 dogwood berries. 



610 Piranga rubra (Linnaeus) 



Summer Tanager. . 



Adult male. — Length, 7-8. Wing, 3.75. Above, dull poppy red, brighter, 

 more vermilion on the under parts. 



Adult female. — Above, yellowish olive-green; below, dull yellow. 



Young in first summer. — Above, yellowish-brown ; below, dull white, tinged 

 with yellow and streaked with olive-brown. 



Young m first autumn. — Similar to adult female, but brighter and more 

 tinged with orange. 



Male in first nesting season. — Sometimes similar to adult, but with wings 

 edged with olive instead of red ; other birds have only a scattering of red 

 feathers over the body, and there are all sorts of intermediates ; the full red 

 plumage is always assumed at the end of the first nesting season and is not 

 afterwards changed to olive. 



Nest and eggs similar to those of the preceding. 



A very rare straggler from farther south. 



Formerly this bird was of regular occurrence in summer in south- 

 ern New Jersey. Wilson says: "In Pennsylvania they are a rare 

 species, while in New Jersey, even within half a mile of the shore 

 opposite the city of Philadelphia, they may generally be found during 

 the season" [May to August]. This was in 1807. In 1857 Beesley 

 gives it as a rare breeder in Cape May county, and in 1869 Turnbull 

 lists it as rather rare. Mr. G. N. Lawrence (1866) says he saw it in 

 magnolia swamps near Atlantic City, but no farther north.^ Dr. C. 

 C. Abbott in 1868 says that up to 1850 it was as abundant as the 

 Scarlet Tanager, but that he had seen no nest since 1855, and no bird 

 since 1862. Writing in 1870,- he extends its period of abundance to 

 1857, and in 1886" records a pair nesting near Trenton in June, 1884. 

 While Dr. Abbott's statement about the liird's abundance prior to 1850 



^Ann. N. Y. Lye, VIIL, p. 286. 



= Am. Nat., IV., p. 536. 



* Upland and Meadow, p. 118. 



