May 
exertion of migration to be altogether too much 
for him, and you cannot help wondering, as he 
indolently hops about, how he will ever get back 
south again. He is another instance of the 
handsome face that means nothing. The plain- 
est bird in the Park is a better entertainer than 
he. Said to be an indifferent singer, and only a 
clumsy architect in nest-building, it was a mer- 
ciful Providence that gave him beauty, for it 
gave him nothing else, and a well-stuffed speci- 
men would be quite as satisfactory, were it not 
that the finest quality of every color passes away 
with the life. It is a touch of tropical luxuri- 
ance that is startling, seeming almost out of 
place in this colder, paler zone, but inwardly he 
is soft, fluffy, and indolent ; and here endeth the 
lesson of the scarlet tanager.* 
The tanager family is a large and brilliant 
one, and distinctively American. ‘There are in 
all over three hundred species, most of them in 
tropical America, with only five species through- 
out all North America. 
Many of the flycatchers are So extremely 
alike that it is hardly more than a theoretical 
* My previous impression of this bird was afterward 
both confirmed and a little modified on hearing its song, 
which is a weary warble, but rich and full-toned. 
149 
