132 UPLAND AND MEADOW. 



I have asked a half-dozen observing persons living 

 near by what were their impressions as to the times of 

 arrival and departure of tanagers, and, curiously enough, 

 they all agreed that not until the apple-blossoms were 

 fully blown did these birds come, and before the hot 

 week of September was spent they were gone. This 

 would imply considerable irregularity in the coming 

 and uniformity in the date of departure, for the first 

 week of September, for nine years in every decade, is 

 tlie hottest w^eek of the summer. As has been often 

 remarked concerning migratory birds, they are frequent- 

 ly supposed to be absent because not looked for. The 

 truth is, not a year passes but that I see tanagers ear- 

 lier than apple-bloom. For instance, in '84 I saw a tan- 

 ager as early as April 27. It was on the top of a tall 

 sassafras, and sat there for half an hour, singing, in its 

 own fashion, " Chip'-pa-ra'-ree!" This bird was fully 

 sixty feet from the ground, and, seen from below, the 

 deep-red color of its body was not to be recognized. 

 The bird appeared to be of a uniform black or brown. 

 Although I knew it by its song, I waited until it flew 

 away, when its color was at once apparent, and the iden- 

 tification no longer a doubt. 



It was not until the following Sunday, a week later, 

 that I saw others, and then the summer birds generally 

 were here. It is not to be supposed that we have no 

 summer birds until they have all appeared. There are 

 always a fair number of early arrivals antedating the 

 main flight by one or two weeks; and I am convinced 

 that, since the days of Wilson, these advance birds 

 have been coming earlier and earlier, and that, decade 

 after decade, the main body has tarried later and later. 



