338 NESTS AND EGGS OF 



the Scarlet Tanager but is not so retiring, frequenting open groves 

 and often visiting towns and cities. According to Col. N. S. Goss it is 

 a common summer resident in Eastern Kansas where it begins laying 

 about the 2Oth of May. The nesting season of this bird extends to 

 the latter part of July, but varies with the degrees of latitude and 

 season. 



The nest is composed chiefly of bark-strips and leaves interwoven 

 with various vegetable substances. The structure is usually built on a 

 horizontal or drooping branch, near its extremity, and situated at the 

 edge of a grove near the roadside. All the nests of this species 

 which I have seen collected in Ohio, are very thin and frail structures ; 

 so thin that the eggs may usually be seen from below. A nest sent me 

 from Lee county, Texas, by Mr. J. A. Singley, is compactly built of 

 a cottony weed, a few stems of Spanish moss, and lined with fine grass 

 stems and a few catkins. Mr. L. O. Pindar states that nests of this 

 species in Kentucky are compactly built but not very thickly lined. 



The eggs are bright, light emerald green, spotted, dotted and 

 blotched with various shades of lilac, brownish-purple and dark brown ; 

 they cannot, with certainty, be distinguished from the eggs of the 

 Scarlet Tanager, but the brown tint in the markings predominate. Ten 

 specimens offer as great variation in their sizes as do those of P. 

 erythromelas, and average about the same, .94 x .64. 



6100. Piranga rubra cooperi RIDGW. [1640.] 



Cooper's Tanager. 



Hab. Arizona, New Mexico, north to (Denver) Colorado south to Western Mexico. 



According to Mr. Scott this sub-species is a common migrant and 

 summer resident about Tucson, Riverside, Florence, and at Mineral 

 Creek and in the San Pedro Valley of Southern Arizona. They seem 

 to be more rare than either of the other species of the Tanager in the 

 oak region of the Catalinas, where a few breed. The eggs are 

 described as being not distinguishable from those of P. rubra. 



611. Progne subis (LINN.) [152.] 



Purple Martin. 



Hab. Whole of temperate North America, south in winter to Mexico and farther. 



The Martin, conspicuous for its striking color and screaming, 

 crackling noise, breeds throughout its United States range. It origin- 

 ally built in hollow trees, and some of the " old fogies" do yet, but 

 those who find suitable nesting places in eaves and cornices of build- 

 ings or in boxes prepared for their use, are thus bred to American ideas 

 and never return to their old log cabins in the air. This jolly fellow 

 who puts life into the quiet streets of country towns, and large cities 



