TANAGERS. 139 



Scarlet Tanagers, to which I have just referred, one could 

 plainly see their eggs from the ground through the bottom of 

 the nest, which was frailly composed of straw. During my 

 ascent of the tree, without disturbing the branch in which the 

 nest was placed, I observed the parents several times return- 

 ing, and, upon my arrival at a point from which I could look 

 into the nest, I found it empty. A careful search disclosed 

 no pieces of broken shell or traces of the yolk on the lower 

 branches, or on the ground, directly below. The eggs were 

 undoubtedly conveyed to a place of safety, but whether ever 

 returned or successfully hatched, I do not know. 



d. The Scarlet Tanagers have an agreeable song or whis- 

 tle, which reminds one of the Robin's music, or the finer and 

 delicious music of the Rose-breasted Grosbeak ; but it differs 

 from both in having a certain harshness. Their ordinary 

 note is a pensively uttered chip-chnrr, which is often intro- 

 duced so as to interrupt their warble. Such other notes as 

 they may have, I do not now recall. 



B. RUBRA. Summer Red-bird. Of very rare occurrence 

 in Massachusetts, being for the most part an inhabitant of 

 the Southern States.* 



a. 7^-8 inches long. $ , vermilion. , like erythro- 

 melas (i), but duller, and with brownish rather than green- 

 ish shades. (Coues.) 



b. " The nest is usually built on one of the lower limbs of 

 a post-oak, or in a pine sapling, at a height of from six to 

 twenty feet above the ground." M The eggs average about .90 

 X .65 of an inch, and are of " a bright light shade of emerald 

 green, spotted, marbled, dotted, and blotched with various 

 shades of lilac, brownish purple, and dark brown." (Dr. 

 Brewer.) 



c. The Summer Red-birds have been taken in Massachu- 

 setts but a very few times, though they have wandered so far 



* Although a good many Summer breeding 1 within our limits, nor does it 



Red-birds have been taken in New visit us with any apparent regularity. 



England, especially in Massachusetts W. B. 



and Connecticut, the species does not 56 This statement is made on the au- 



appear to have been as yet found thority of the late Dr. Gerhardt. 



