FAMILY Tanagrid2. 
averaged ten to each square mile and that they remained 
in their winter range two hundred days, we should have 
a total of 1,750,000 pounds, or 875 tons, of weed seed con- 
sumed by this one species in a single season. Large as 
these figures may seem, they certainly fall far short of the 
reality. The estimate of ten birds to a square mile is 
much within the truth, for the Tree Sparrow is certainly 
more abundant than this in winter in Massachusetts 
where the food supply is less than in the western States; 
and I have known places in Iowa where several thousand 
could be seen within the space of a fewacres. This esti- 
mate, moreover, is for a single species, while, as a mat- 
ter of fact, there are at least half a dozen birds (not all 
(Sparrows) that habitually feed on these seeds during the 
winter.” 
Family Tanagride. TANAGERS. 
The Family of Tanagers belongs exclusively to the 
New World, and the great majority of its members 
are found only in the tropics. According to Mr. Chap- 
man but five out of about three hundred and fifty species 
visit the United States. Of these there are two which 
may be seen in the eastern section of the country, the 
Scarlet Tanager and the Summer Tanager, and the latter 
is an extremely rare bird north of southern New Jersey 
and Illinois. Even the Scarlet Tanager can not be called 
common; he comes late and departs again quite early, 
frequenting, in the northern parts of his range, the se- 
cluded margin of the woods. The Tanager Family is 
remarkable for the splendor of its plumage, and a few 
of its members possess unusually fine voices bearing a re- 
mote resemblance in song-form to the robust voice of 
the robin. 
Scarlet Tanager This splendidly apparelled bird—a flash 
Prange of color from the tropics—invariably 
erythromelas : i 
L.7.20inches Causes an exclamation of surprise and 
May 14th delight to burst from the lips of even the 
most unemotional observer. <A sight of him through 
the opera-glass is an unexpected revelation of vivid scar- 
let, the like of which is only comparable to one of those 
140 
