ONTARIO. 



GENUS PIRANGA VIEILLOT. 



231. PIRANGA ERYTHROMELAS (VIEILL.). 608. 

 Scarlet Tanager. 



Male, scarlet, with black wings and tail ; bill and feet dark. Female, 

 clear olive-green, below clear greenish-yellow ; wings and tail dusky, edged 

 with olive. Young male at first like the female ; afterwards variegated with 

 red, green and black. Length, 7-7^ ; wing, 4; tail. 3. 



HAB. Eastern United States, west to the Plains and north to Southern 

 Canada. In winter, the West Indies, Central America and Northern South 

 America. 



Nest, on the horizontal limb of a low tree on the outskirts of the bush ; a 

 shallow, saucer-shaped structure, composed of vine-bark, rootlets and leaves, 

 lined with vegetable fibre. 



Eggs, 3 to 5 ; dull greenish-blue, spotted with reddish-brown and lilac. 



The Scarlet Tanager is one of our most brilliant colored 

 birds, but his rich plumage is all he has to commend him to 

 popular favor, for he is neither handsome in form nor eloquent in 

 tongue. Still he sings his song as well as he can, and it probably 

 pleases his female for whose gratification it is intended, so 

 we will let him pass. In Ontario the species is peculiar to the 

 south and makes but a short stay, arriving about the loth of 

 May and leaving again about the middle of September. 



In the fall the bright scarlet of the male's plumage is replaced 

 by green, but he retains the black on wings and tail. 



The food of the species consists chiefly of insects, in the 

 capture of which they exhibit considerable dexterity . In the 

 fall, when the wild berries are ripe, they take to them with 

 evident relish, and though they usually keep to the retired parts 

 of the woods, sometimes at this season they visit the farmer's 

 raspberry patch in such numbers that they leave but few for 

 household use. 



In Southern Ontario they are generally distributed but 

 nowhere abundant. 



233 



