HARBINGERS OF SUMMER 



sometimes think the mother bird herself 

 fails to find them and that may be one 

 reason why whip-poor-wills do not seem 

 to increase in numbers. 



Like the whip-poor-will the scarlet tan- 

 ager waits sight of the coming of summer 

 before he begins his nest. It is odd that 

 the two should have even this habit in 

 common, for otherwise they are far apart. 

 The tanager is essentially a bird of the 

 daylight, his very colors born of the sun. 

 I rarely hear him or see his scarlet flame 

 until the sunlight is on his tree top to make 

 him seem all the more vivid. Then as the 

 day waxes, and the robins one by one 

 cease their singing, he takes up their song 

 and continues it, often until the robins 

 return to the choir as the afternoon shad- 

 ows lengthen. The tanager's song is sin- 

 gularly like that of the robin, only more 

 leisurely and refined. After you have be- 

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