FAMILY Tanagrid*. 



averaged ten to each square mile and that they remained 

 in their winter range two hundred days, we should have 

 a total of 1,750,000 pounds, or 875 tons, of weed seed con- 

 sumed by this one species in a single season. Large as 

 these figures may seem, they certainly fall far short of the 

 reality. The estimate of ten birds to a square mile is 

 much within the truth, for the Tree Sparrow is certainly 

 more abundant than this in winter in Massachusetts 

 where the food supply is less than in the western States; 

 and I have known places in Iowa where several thousand 

 could be seen within the space of a few acres. This esti- 

 mate, moreover, is for a single species, while, as a mat- 

 ter of fact, there are at least half a dozen birds (not all 

 Sparrows) that habitually feed on these seeds during the 

 winter." 



Family Tanagridce. TANAOERS. 



The Family of Tanagers belongs exclusively to the 

 New World, and the great majority of its members 

 are found only in the tropics. According to Mr. Chap- 

 man but five out of about three hundred and fifty species 

 visit the United States. Of these there are two which 

 may be seen in the eastern section of the country, the 

 Scarlet Tanager and the Summer Tanager, and the latter 

 is an extremely rare bird north of southern New Jersey 

 and Illinois. Even the Scarlet Tanager can not be called 

 common; he comes late and departs again quite early, 

 frequenting, in the northern parts of his range, the se- 

 cluded margin of the woods. The Tanager Family is 

 remarkable for the splendor of its plumage, and a few 

 of its members possess unusually fine voices bearing a re- 

 mote resemblance in song-form to the robust voice of 

 the robin. v 



Scarlet Tanager This splendidly apparelled bird a flash 

 Piranga of color from tne tropics invariably 



erythromelas 



L. 7.20 inches causes an exclamation of surprise and 

 May i4th delight to burst from the lips of even the 



most unemotional observer. A sight of him through 

 the opera-glass is an unexpected revelation of vivid scar- 

 let, the like of which is only comparable to one of those 

 140 



