340 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



as New England and Nova Scotia. It winters in Central and South America. 

 In New York it is only an accidental visitant. Of 13 specimens definitely 

 recorded from this State, 6 were taken on Long Island between the 6th 

 and the nth of April, and 7 were taken between the 1st and i8th of May. 

 No specimen taken in summer or fall, as far as I can learn, is in existence, 

 and no unquestioned breeding record for this State can be given, although 

 it has been reported several times as breeding in different localities, as 

 by Judd in " Birds of Albany," page 75. This record is on the authority 

 of Mr H. A. Slack, an enthusiastic bird student; but, as the birds were 

 not secured nor the identification verified by " professional ornithologists," 

 it is possible that the reports were due to error in observation. It is prob- 

 able that the early date of many of the tanagers taken on Long Island 

 is due to the fact that these birds were driven by storms while passing 

 from the West Indies to the Southern States, and drifted up the coast, 

 or that they alighted on coastwise trading ships and left the rigging as 

 the boats approached New York harbor. At any rate, we can not regard 

 this species as a summer resident of the State, but only an accidental spring 

 visitant. It is not a common species farther north than the vicinity of 

 Washington and Baltimore. 



Haunts and habits. It inhabits woodland like our Scarlet tanager, 

 which it resembles in breeding habits. Its common call note is set down 

 by ornithologists as resembling the syllables " chicky-tucky-tuck." 



Family HIRUXDIXIDA.E 



Swallows 



Wings strong and much elongated, the feathers rapidly graduated from 

 the first or second to the secondaries ; primaries 9 ; tail forked ; rectrices 1 2 ; 

 bill short, broad and flat, the gape extending far backward beneath the 

 eyes equal to twice the length of the culmen; tarsi very short; the feet 

 small and weak; plumage more or less iridescent, soft and smooth; head 

 short, broad and depressed. 



This family is cosmopolitan in distribution and consists of about 100 

 species, several of which are found in the eastern United States. They 



