446 THE BIRDS OF MAINE 



2. Plumage without red. 



§. Under wing coverts white ; under parts yellow, tinged with green- 

 ish. Scarlet Tanager (female and immature). 

 §§. Under wing coverts huffy yellow ; no greenish tinge to under 

 parts. Summer Tanager (female and immature). 



Genus PIRANGA Vieillot. 



607. Piranga ludoviciana (Wils.). Louisiana Tanager; 

 Western Tanager; Crimson-headed Tanager. 



Plumage of adult male : wings with two broad yellow bands ; rump and 

 lower parts yellow ; back, scapulars, wings and tail black ; head and neck 

 red or orange. Plumage of adult female : grayish olive green above ; wing 

 bands yellowish white ; grayish yellow below. Immature plumage : streaked 

 with dusky above and below, otherwise like female. Wing 3.80 ; tail 3.40. 



Geog. Dist. — Western North America, north to British Columbia, east to 

 the Plains ; wintering south to Guatemala ; accidental in Maine, Massachu- 

 setts, New York and Connecticut. 



County Records. — Penobscot ; an adult male taken near Bangor, about 

 October 1, 1889, was sent to S. L. Crosby and there seen in the flesh and 

 compared with authentic specimens by Manly Hardy, (Hardy, List Birds of 

 Maine, p. 104). 



In the west and especially in some sections of California and 

 Oregon this is a common species, placing the nests preferably 

 in the branches of evergreen trees at heights usually under 

 thirty feet from the ground on the horizontal lower branches. 

 Three to five, usually four eggs are laid and these are light 

 bluish green, finely sprinkled about the larger end with grayish 

 and clove brown. 



A nest, sent me from Oregon, was taken at Portland, June 

 25, 1894. It was placed on the horizontal limb of a pine tree 

 twenty-five feet from the ground, and was composed of roots, 

 twigs and lined with horsehair. It was a rather frail struc- 

 ture two and a half inches high outside and two inches deep 

 inside, the external diameter four and internal diameter two 

 and a half inches. It is lined heavily with hair and rather 

 better built than the usual nest of the Scarlet Tanager. The 

 eggs measure 0.94 x 0.68, 0.93 x 0.66, 0.91 x 0.66. In southern 

 California I often saw the species feeding on various insects 



