S6 Birds Every Child Should Know 



their family. Moreover, cedarbirds are very 

 good to feathered orphans. 



THE SCARLET TANAGER 



Called also: Black-winged Redbird 



People who are now living can remember 

 when scarlet tanagers were as common as robins. 

 Where are they now? You see a redbird at 

 the north so rarely that a thrill of excitement is 

 felt when a flash of scarlet among the tree-tops 

 makes the day a red-letter one on your bird 

 calendar. Alas! He has, what has certainly 

 proved to be, the fatal gift of beauty. A 

 scarlet coat with black wings and tail, worn by 

 a bird larger than a sparrow, makes a shining 

 mark among the foliage for the shot gun and 

 sling shot. Thousands of tanagers have been 

 slaughtered to be worn on the unthinking heads 

 of vain girls and women. Many are killed 

 every year, during the spring and autumn 

 migrations, by flying against the great light- 

 houses along our coasts, the birds' highway 

 of travel. Tanagers, who are only summer 

 visitors from the tropics, are peculiarly suscepti- 

 ble to cold; a sudden change in the weather, 

 a drop m the thermometer some time in May 

 just after they have come here from a warmer 



