146 BIRDS THROUGH AN OPERA-GLASS. 
XLII. 
SCARLET TANAGER. 
LIKE the vireos, the scarlet tanager is asso- 
ciated with green tree tops; but if you ask just 
where you will see him, it is hard to answer. In 
Northampton, I remember finding him in three 
quite dissimilar spots. 
The bird of Paradise has become a familiar 
sight in our museums, but the good people of 
Northampton follow Dante and see “ Paradise” 
itself before they die. ‘“ Purgatory” is there, 
too, for warning, and the river runs between the 
two abodes! They lie just outside the town, and 
if you could get some kindly spirit to guide you, 
they would surely seem well named. 
“ Purgatory” hes barren and desolate, strewn 
with sand and stones on which the sun beats 
down as if with intent to torture imprisoned 
souls. Opposite stands ‘“ Paradise,” a wood of 
wondrous beauty, —a true elysium for the im- 
mortal spirits of birds and flowers! In its heart 
is a grove of musical pines, whose brown, pine- 
needle carpet is garlanded with clumps of ferns. 
Close to the river’s edge, reaching their branches 
low over it as it narrows to a stream, the maples 
and birches offer cool green shade when the sun 
is parching the banks of “ Purgatory”; and in 
autumn, when the bare sand and stones grow cold, 
