4 
Conspicuously Red of any Shade 
Scarlet Tanager 
(Piranga erythromelas) Tanager family 
Called also: BLACK-WINGED REDBIRD; FIREBIRD; CAN- 
ADA TANAGER; POCKET-BIRD 
Length—7 to '7.5 inches. About one-fourth smaller than the robin. 
Male—In spring plumage: Brilliant scarlet, with black wings and 
tail. Under wing coverts grayish white. /n autumn: Simi- 
lar to female. 
Female—Olive-green above; wings and tail dark, lightly margined 
with olive. Underneath greenish yellow. 
Range—North America to northern Canada boundaries, and south- 
ward in winter to South America. 
Migrations—May. October. Summer resident. 
The gorgeous coloring of the scarlet tanager has been its 
snare and destruction. The densest evergreens could not alto- 
gether hide this blazing target for the sportsman’s gun, too often 
fired at the instigation of city milliners. ‘‘ Fine feathers make — 
fine birds ”—and cruel, silly women, the adage might be adapted 
for latter-day use. This rarely beautiful tanager, thanks to them, 
is now only an infrequent flash of beauty in our country roads. 
Instinct leads it to be chary of its charms; and whereas it 
used to be one of the commonest of bird neighbors, it is now shy 
and solitary. An ideal resort for it is a grove of oak or swamp 
maple near a stream or pond where it can bathe. Evergreen 
trees, too, are favorites, possibly because the bird knows how 
exquisitely its bright scarlet coat is set off by their dark back- 
ground. 
High in the tree-tops he perches, all unsuspected by the vis- 
itor passing through the woods below, until a burst of rich, sweet 
melody directs the opera-glasses suddenly upward. There we 
detect him carolling loud and cheerfully, like a robin. He is an 
apparition of beauty—a veritable bird of paradise, as, indeed, he 
is sometimes called. Because of their similar coloring, the tana- 
ger and cardinal are sometimes confounded, but an instant’s 
comparison of the two birds shows nothing in common except 
red feathers, and even those of quite different shades. The incon- 
spicuous olive-green and yellow of the female tanager’s plumage 
is another striking instance of Nature’s unequal distribution of 
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