98 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF ALABAMA 
in his journal: “I found to-day in an oak the nest of a 
tanager. It is the first that I have ever seen.” 
In the first series of numbers, 13 was an adult male 
summer tanager shot near Greensboro, June 9, 1876, and 
later presented to the Smithsonian Institution. Under 
this entry is written: “Stomach contained debris of in- 
sects, was stained internally with the juice of blackber- 
ries, and contained some seeds of blackberries. 
“Found here in summer and spring. Disappears when 
its food becomes scarce. 
““Pyranga rubra’ and ‘Pyranga aestiva’ are the same 
bird. There is quite a variety of plumage in the tan- 
ager; some (the males) being red and green, others red 
having the wings and tail slightly shaded with black.” 
(The variation in the plumage of the summer tanager 
is one of age and season and occurs only in the male. The 
female is constantly orange olive-green above, with yel- 
lowish orange underparts.) 
Among the old journal sheets are three or four pages 
of ‘“Oological Register,” the first entry of which follows 
in toto: 
“No. 1 Nest of Pyranga rubra; 26 May, 1876. This 
nest was found in an oak tree on the Greensboro and 
Millwood read 114 miles southwest of Greensboro, and 
very near ‘Contentment.’ ‘Clutch’ of four eggs. 
“The nest was built on an oak limb within a few feet 
of the ground, and overhanging the side of the road. 
In walking under the linib I frightened the bird, and 
suspecting that there must be a nest, upon search I found 
it concealed by the dense foliage; and but for her having 
flown, the parent bird might have kept the secret, hatched 
her brood and departed undisturbed with her off-spring 
to her winter home. 
“This bird, called also Tanagra aestiva, affects the oak 
as a building place. He appears in our country early in 
the spring as soon as his insect food becomes abundant 
and disappears in the fall with frost. The male may 
often be seen perched high upon a dead limb of his oak 
home, where he pours forth his song, not a very melod- 
ious one. His notes are rather feeble, but quite sweet. 
