44-4 NORTH AMKUICAN BIRDS. 



fre(]iientiiiij: the open j^roves instead of the deeper woods and the forests of 

 tlie hottoni-Jands, l^einu especially sittached to the i)arks and •proves within the 

 towns. From its similarity in appearance, manners, and notes to the Scarlet 

 Tiinager, it is seldom distini^uished by the common people from that bird, 

 !ind those w ho notice the diiference in color between the two generally con- 

 sider this the younger staue of i»himage of the black-winged species. Its 

 sonn' is said to be somewhat after the style of the llobin, but in a firmer 

 tone and more continued. It differs from the song of the P. rubra in being 

 more vigorous, and delivered in a manner less faltering. Its ordinary note of 

 anxiety when the nest is apjaoached is a i^acvilvdY jju-chip it -tat -tut-t at, very 

 ditlerent from the weaker chip'-al, rd-ree of the F. rubra. The nest is placed 

 on a low horizontal or drooping branch, near its extremity, the tree being 

 generally an oak, or sometimes a hickory, and situated near the roadside or at 

 the edge of a grove. In its construction it is described as very thin, though 

 by no means frail, permitting the eggs to be seen through the interstices 

 from below. Mr. iJidi'wav never found more than three eggs in one nest. 



A nest (jf this species (Smith. Coll., r)89) from Prairie Mer llouge, Louisi- 

 ana, has a diameter of four inches and a height of two. Like all the nests 

 of this family, the cavity is very shallow, its deepest depression being hardly 

 half an inch. So far from corresponding with the descriptions generally 

 given of it, this nest is well and even strongly put together, although a por- 

 tion of the l)as(; and .some of the external parts are somewhat openly inter- 

 woven, as if for ventilation. These materials are fragTuents of plants, cat- 

 kins, leaves, stems, and grasses. These seem to constitute a distinct part of 

 the nest, and are of unecjual thicknesses in ditlerent parts of the structure. 

 Within this external frame is a much more artistic and elaborately interwo- 

 ven basket, composed entirely of fine, slender, and dry grasses, homogeneous 

 in character, and evidently gathered just at the time its seed was ripening. 

 It is of a bright straw-yellow, and forms the whole internal portion of the 

 nest. 



The eggs vary somewhat in s'ze and shape, from an oblong to a rounded 

 oval. Their length is from .80 of an inch to an inch, and their breadth 

 averages .i)S. Their color is a bright light shade of emerald-green, spotted, 

 marbled, dotted, and blotched with various shades of lilac, brownish-purple, 

 and dark-brown. These are generally w^ell diffused equally over the entire 

 eirg. 



CO 



Pyranga sestiva, var. cooperi, Ridcavay. 



Pyravga omjycri, RiDcavAY, Pr. Ac. Xat. Sc. Philad. Juno, 1869, p. 130, fig. .—Cooper, 

 Orn. Cal. I, 1S70, 142. 



Sp. Thar. Lon^rth, 8.00 (iVosh specimon) ; extent, la.oO; win^r, 4.24; tail, .1.08; ciil- 

 nien, .84; tarsus, .80. Male. fJenerally rich pure vorniiliou, similar to that of (Estiva, l»ut 

 lighter, briizhter tlian in eastern examples, and less rosaceous than in Central Ameri- 

 can specimens. Ui)per surface scarcely darker than lower, the h<'ad above being hardly 



