380 TANAGERS 



Nest. Usually on the horizontal branch of a fir, pine, or oak, 15 to 30 

 feet from the ground, made of twigs, sometimes with mosses and coarse 

 grass, lined with rootlets and horsehair. Eggs: 8 or 4, pale bluish 

 green, lightly spotted with browns and purples. 



Food. Insects. 



The western tanager breeds abundantly in the high mountain 

 forests, being common at 10,000 feet in Colorado. In the forests of 

 British Columbia on their first arrival the males have been found 

 singing at daybreak from the tops of the tallest trees, sometimes 

 300 feet from the ground. In the Sierra Nevada they are common 

 from an altitude of 3000 feet to the summit, and in the heavily tim- 

 bered parts, though a flash of red and yellow between the treetops 

 is often the most you get, their calls and songs are among the com- 

 monest bird notes heard. 



Their song has the rough-jointed, swinging rhythm characteris- 

 tic of the tanagers, but there are also a chattering call which sug- 

 gests the scold of an oriole, rendered as pitic, pitictic, and a plaintive 

 tu-weep', which is particularly noticeable when the birds are going 

 about with their young. At that time the tanagers descend to the 

 lower levels. I have seen them on the scrub oak and sagebrush of 

 the Wasatch foothills in cottonwood hedges, and even along barbed 

 wire roadside fences, making sallies to the ground for insects. On 

 San Francisco Mountain they come to the springs for water, and I 

 have seen one drinking from a pan in a ranch dooryard. 



The tanagers must eat a large variety of insects, for they are not 

 only expert fly-catchers and glean from the treetops, but are also 

 especially fond of caterpillars, judging by the numbers we have 

 seen probing tent-caterpillars' nests. 



608. Piranga erythromelas Vieill SCARLET TANAGER. 



Adult male in spring and summer. Brilliant scarlet ; wings and tail 

 deep black ; , under wing coverts white. Adult 

 female in spring and summer: upper parts yel- 

 lowish olive green, usually grayer on back and 

 scapulars ; under parts light yellow, washed with 

 olive green on sides ; under tail coverts canary 

 yellow. Adult male in fall and winter : similar 

 to adult female, but wings and tail black. Young 

 Fig. 469. male in Jirst autumn : like adult female, but yel- 



low of under parts clearer ; wings with two yellow- 

 ish bands ; black first appearing on wing coverts and scapulars. Young 

 male, nestling plumage : upper parts olive green, faintly mottled with dusky ; 

 wings and tail with olive green edgings ; wings with two yellowish bands ; 

 under parts white, tinged with yellow behind ; chest and sides streaked. 

 Male: length (skins) 6.25-6.75, wing 3.62-3.91, tail 2.56-2.82, bill .S7-.62. 

 Female : length (skins) 6.20-6.70, wing 3.45-3.72, tail 2.52-2.77, bill .57- 

 .62. 



Distribution. Breeds in Upper Sonoran and Transition zones of the 



