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T A N A G E R. 



the manners of by far the majority of which we know 

 absolutely nothing : " Passing through an orchard 

 one evening, I caught one of these young birds that 

 had but lately left the nest. I carried it with me 

 about half a mile, to show it to my friend, Mr. Wil 

 liam Bertram ; and, having procured a cage, hung it 

 up on one of the large pine trees in the botanic 

 garden within a few feet of the nest of an orchard 

 oriole which contained young, hoping that the cha- 

 rity or tenderness* of the orioles would induce them 

 to supply the cravings of the stranger. But charity 

 with them, as with too many of the human race, 

 began and ended at home. The poor orphan was 

 altogether neglected, notwithstanding its plaintive 

 cries ; and, as it refused to be fed by me, I was about 

 to return it back to the place where I found it, when, 

 towards the afternoon, a scarlet tanager, no doubt its 

 own parent, was seen fluttering round the cage, 

 endeavouring to get in. Finding this impracticable, 

 he flew off, and soon returned with food in his bill, 

 and he continued to feed it till after sunset, taking up 

 his lodgings on the higher branches of the same tree. 

 In the morning, almost as soon as day broke, he was 

 again seen most actively engaged in the same affec- 

 tionate manner ; and, notwithstanding the insolence 

 of the orioles, continued his benevolent offices the 

 whole day, roosting at night as before. On the third 

 or fourth day he appeared extremely solicitous for 

 the liberation of his charge, using every expression 

 of distressful anxiety, and every call and invitation 

 that nature had put in hjs power, for it to come out. 

 This was too much for the feelings of my venerable 

 friend ; he procured a ladder, and, mounting to the 

 spot where the bird was suspended, he opened the 

 cage, took out the prisoner, and restored him to 

 liberty and to his parent, who, with notes of great 

 exultation, accompanied his flight to the woods." 



Such is the tale of most perfect and most graphic 

 truth, told by one of nature's own ornithologists ; 

 and the tanager, and Wilson and Bertram, must share 

 the admiration of every reader who can feel. It 

 would not be right, however, to suppress Wilson's 

 reflections " The happiness of my good friend was 

 scarcely less complete, and showed itself in his bene- 

 volent countenance, and I could not help saying to 

 myself If such sweet sensations can be derived 

 from a simple circumstance of this kind, how exqui- 

 site, how unspeakably rapturous, must the delight of 

 those individuals have been who saved their fellow- 

 beings from death, chains, and imprisonment, and 

 festered them to the arms of their friends and rela- 

 tions ! Surely, in such godlike actions, virtue is its 

 own most abundant reward!'' Where, among the 

 romances of human life, shall we find expressions so 

 pure and warm from the heart as these ; and who, 

 that sees its aspirations rise to this height, would re- 

 frain from being an ornithologist living, as one of 

 nature's brotherhood, with the lovely and lively 

 tenants of the wood ? 



Summer Red Tanager (T 1 . (estiva). This species 

 is found in nearly the same places, and at the same 

 time, as the preceding, and either of them might be 

 characterised by the epithet redov the epithet summer; 

 for they are both red birds and both summer birds. 

 The two are, however, at once distinguished from 

 each other, and the present is by no means so 

 brilliant a bird. 



The male is not scarlet, but rich vermilion-red, 

 most brilliant on the under parts of the body, and 

 the inner margins and tips^of the quills are reddish- 



brown ; the bill is very large, and inflected with a 

 prominence on the upper mandible, and it is of a 

 yellowish horn-colour in its whole length ; the tarsi 

 and toes are light-purplish blue; the eye is large, 

 and the iris hazel. It is rather larger, and also 

 better winged, than the scarlet tanager, being seven 

 and a half inches long, and a foot in the stretch of the 

 wings. The female is rather smaller, and different in 

 the colours, the upper part being brownish yellow- 

 olive, the under part orange-yellow, and the tips 

 and inner webs of the quills brown. The naked 

 parts are the same colour as those of the male. 

 The nest is in the woods, on a lateral branch of ai 

 tree, or on an evergreen, and rarely more than ten 

 or twelve feet above the surface of the ground. Like 

 that of the scarlet species, it is composed entirely of 

 vegetable fibres, but a little more elaborately finished 

 than the other. The eggs are three in number, and 

 of a black colour. The nesting-time is in May and 

 June ; and in August the birds depart from the 

 United States for the south. Whether they have or 

 have not an autumnal brood on their southern retreat 

 is a point which has not been ascertained. 



The young differ much in colour from the full- 

 grown birds, and these are also very differently 

 coloured before or after the autumnal moult, or 

 rather, perhaps, during the progress of that moult. 

 The young are at first of a yellowish-olive on the 

 upper part, something resembling the under part of 

 the native female. They are partially mottled when 

 they make their first appearance in the south, but 

 acquire their full tint in the spring of that year. It 

 is probable that those tanagers which visit North 

 America in the summer return to Mexico, or to the 

 narrow but thickly-wooded country near the Isthmus, 

 in the winter, and do not pass either into the West 

 India islands or into South America ; at least, none 

 of the species which are described as South American 

 agree exactly with these in their characters. The 

 South American ones have the tails nearly square, 

 or rounded, or wedge-shaped, while those North 

 American ones have them forked. This causes a 

 difference in the style of flight, which has probably 

 reference both to the feeding and the migration. 

 They appear to feed more upon the wing, and more 

 upon winged insects, than the South American birds, 

 and they are certainly much more migratory in their 

 habits, so that they are perhaps better entitled to be 

 considered a separate genus than any of the other 

 sections. 



There is a beautiful provision of nature in the 

 difference of colour between the females and young 

 of these , birds, and the old males, in the season of 

 rearing the brood. The old males, in their red 

 livery, are among the most conspicuous objects which 

 can be placed in the green leaves of a forest. Their 

 colour is the complicated colour of the leaves, and 

 thus they mutually render each other more conspi- 

 cuous. The colour of the females and young, again, 

 is nearly that of the leaves themselves, and thus it is 

 with difficulty that any enemy can see them while 

 quiet, or in the nest. Now, in the hatching time, 

 the female remains remarkably close and still, while, 

 if any cause of alarm appears, the male is all bustle 

 and activity, and can scarcely fail in drawing upon 

 himself the attention of the enemy, at the same time 

 that he is so alert that few enemies can harm him. 

 This is equally true of the scarlet species and the 

 darker red one. The green colour which comes 

 upon the male at the time of the. moult seems to be 



