522 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK 



Cheer chee r r chunic chunic. 



Wee wick cheere wick." 



Very much like a robin, but with a sound as if 

 one were saying e r r down in one's throat. 



A scarlet tanager at Wild Lands on an August 

 day, found a very large luna moth caterpillar, the 

 larva was about the size of one's first finger; in- 

 deed it was so large that it seemed to be with 

 great difficulty that the bird could fly with it and 

 as it did so the larva was allowed to drop 

 three times before the tanager succeeded in 

 reaching a dead branch about thirty feet above the 

 ground. 



Upon the branch there is a bunch of lichens ; 

 here the bird placed the fat, flesh-colored cater- 

 pillar and then taking hold of one end of the 

 worm-like body, it bruised it with its bill until 

 the larva's insides were mashed to a pulp, then 

 with evident enjoyment, it sucked out the juices 

 of the dainty morsel as one would suck an orange. 

 I have since seen this bird so often feeding upon 

 the larva of the luna moth, that I am led to be- 

 lieve this big ungainly caterpillar to be an im- 

 portant part of its diet. 



THE TANAGER'S RED COAT IN AUGUST is MOTTLED 

 with blotches of dingy white or greenish white 

 where the feathers have fallen out. This particu- 

 lar Wild Lands bird nests somewhere in the swail 

 adjoining* my log house, and I have seen what I 

 have every reason to believe to be the same bird 

 here season after season. 



