54 THE BLUE-HEADED TANAGER. 



A naturalist, who was very fond of studying 

 the habits of birds, once caught a young Tanager, 

 and carried it to his home. He then procured a 

 cage, placed his prisoner within it, and hung the 

 cage in a tree. There was a nest in the tree occu- 

 pied by a number of young birds called Orioles. 

 The parent Orioles kept flying backwards and for- 

 wards to feed their brood, and the naturalist hoped 

 they would take pity on the little Tanager in the 

 cage, and give it something to eat. But no such 

 thing seemed likely to happen. The parent 

 Orioles were far too busy attending to the wants 

 of their own offspring to notice the Tanager, 

 though they flew close by it. And as the poor 

 little captive refused to be fed by the naturalist, 

 there was some danger lest it should die of 

 starvation. 



Such a fate would, indeed, have befallen it, but 

 that a deliverer was at hand. A Scarlet Tanager, 

 full-grown, and no doubt the parent bird come in 

 search of its little one, arrived at the cage, and 

 made an attempt to get in. This it could not do, 

 and after many fruitless efforts it flew away. But 



