PYRANGA RUBRA : SCARLET TANAGER. 177 



FAMILY TANAGRID^E : TANAGERS. 



SCARLET TANAGER. 

 PYRANGA RUBRA (Z,.) V. 



Chars. Male, adult : Scarlet, with black wings and tail. Female : 

 Above, clear olive-green ; below, clear greenish-yellow ; wings 

 and tail dusky, edged with the color of the back. Young males 

 are at first like the female ; during the change, interminably va- 

 riegated with colors of both sexes. There is much difference in 

 the shade of red of the male. There are sometimes red feathers 

 among the black wing-coverts. Length, 7.00-7.50 ; extent, 11.00- 

 12.00; wing, 4.00; tail, 3.00; bill, 0.56; tarsus, 0.70. 



The gleaming Tanager, one of the most brilliant of 

 all our birds, is a common summer resident of New 

 England though somewhat locally distributed, and 

 rare or wanting in northernmost portions of the coun- 

 try. It belongs properly to the Alleghanian Fauna, 

 and is not found in any numbers beyond such limits. 

 The gaudy and richly-contrasted colors of the male 

 are first seen in spring, at the height of the migration 

 of the Warblers and other small insectivorous birds, 

 about the second week in May ; and the birds are most 

 numerous during the remainder of that month. With 

 the beginning of June they are settled in their summer 

 homes, and nesting is already in progress. Belong- 

 ing to an essentially tropical family, of which they are 

 among the few outliers of temperate regions, Tanagers 

 are delicate birds, as would naturally be supposed, 



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