136 LAND-BIRDS AND GAME-BIRDS 
the nest, which was frailly composed of straw. During my 
ascent of the tree, without disturbing the branch in which the 
nest was placed, I observed tbe parents several times returning 
to the tree, and, upon my arrival at a point, from which I could 
look into the nest, I found it empty. A careful search dis- 
closed no pieces of. broken shell or traces of the yolk on the 
lower branches, or on the ground, directly below. The eggs 
were undoubtedly conveyed to a place of safety, but whether 
ever returned or successfully: hatched, I do not know. 
(d). The Scarlet Tanagers have an agreeable song or 
whistle, which reminds one of the Robin’s music, or the finer 
and delicious music of the Rose-breasted Grosbeak, but it dif- 
fers from both in having a certain harshness. Their ordinary 
note is a pensively uttered chip-churr, which is often introduced 
so as to interrupt their warble. Such other notes as they may 
have, I do not now recall. 
(B) astiva. Summer Red Bird. 
(Of very rare occurrence in Massachusetts, being for the 
most part an inhabitant of the Southern States.) 
(a). 74-8 inches long. ¢, vermilion. Q, like Q rubra 
(A), but duller, and with brownish rather than greenish shades 
(Coues). 
(b). ‘The nest is usually built on one of the lower limbs of 
a post-oak, or in a pine sapling, at a height of from six to 
twenty feet above the ground.”®7 The eggs average about ‘90 
X °65 of an inch, and are of ‘‘a bright light shade of emerald- 
green, spotted, marbled, dotted and blotched with various 
shades of lilac, brownish-purple, and dark brown.” (Dr. 
Brewer.) 
(c). The Summer Red Birds have been taken in Massachu- 
setts but a very few times, though they have wandered so far 
to the North as Nova Scotia. Wilson describes their habits 
as follows, and says of this species that ‘“‘its manners * * * 
partake very much of those of the Flycatcher; for I have fre- 
37 This statement is made on the authority of the late Dr. Gerhardt. 
