TANAGERS. 83 



161. PYRANGA RUBRA. 



SCARLET TANAGER. 



This Tanager is distributed over a wide extent of territory, 

 from Texas to Maine, and from South Carolina to the northern 

 shores of Lake Huron, in all of which localities' it breeds. 



The Scarlet Tanager, one of the most brilliant and striking of all 

 our birds is a common summer resident in Ohio, arriving the last 

 week in April and remaining until the latter part of September, 



They begin to build about the last of May or early in June. The 

 nest is placed on the horizontal branch of a forest tree, from ten to 

 twenty feet from the ground. They are usually very nearly flat, 

 measuring from four and one-half to five and one-half inches in 

 diameter, and about two in height, with a depression of only about 

 half an inch. They are loosely constructed of twigs, stems, fine 

 strips of bark and lined v/ith fine rootlets, and fine inner bark. The 

 eggs are from two to. five, of a greenish blue, blotched and spotted 

 with a reddish or rufus-brown more or less confluent, in some 

 chiefly at the greater end. They vary in length from an inch to 

 .90, and have an average breadth of .65. 



Mrs. N. E. Jones in the superb work on "The Nests and Eggs of 

 the Birds of Ohio" gives us an exquisite colored illustration of the 

 nest and eggs of this species. 



Dr. Howard Jones in the text of the same work states that he has 

 "never found over three in a set, and this seems to be the common 

 number ; but there is good authority for the statement that as 

 many as five are sometimes laid." 



162. PYRANGA LUDOVICIANA. 



WESTERN TANAGER. 



This Tanager is found throughout the western portions of United 

 States, from the Great Plains to the Pacific. The nest is almost 

 identical with that of the preceding species. 



Mr. B. W. Evermann informs me that he found a nest of this 

 species June 26, 1880, in the Yosemite Valley. This nest was 

 placed about fifteen feet from the ground, upon the horizontal 



