DESCRIPTIVE LIST 257 



253. Piranga erythromelas" (Vieill). SCARLET TANAGER. 



Description: Ad. male in summer. -Bright scarlet, wings and tail black, under wing-coverts 

 white. Ad. male in winter. Similar to the female, but wings and tail black. Im. male in 

 winter. Similar to female, but wing-coverts black. Im. male in summer. Similar to ad. male 

 in summer, but primaries and secondaries as in winter. The adult summer plumage is acquired 

 at the second spring (prenuptial) molt. Ad. female. Upperparts light olive-green; wings and 

 tail fuscous, lightly margined with olive-green; underparts greenish yellow. L., 7.25; W., 3.75; 

 T., 2.09; B. from N., .46. (Chap., Birds of E. N,. A.) 



Range. Eastern United States, wintering in West Indies, Mexico, and south. 



Range in North Carolina. Migrant in the central part of the State, breeds in the mountains. 



FIG. 205. SCARLET TANAGER. 



The Scarlet Tanager, called in the Sapphire country "Toxaway Bird," is a late 

 April and early May migrant in the centre of the State, passing south again in 

 September and early October. In the mountains it remains for the summer. The 

 nest is generally in low thick woods on the horizontal limb of a low tree or sapling, 

 and is constructed of twigs and fine bark strips, lined with rootlets. The eggs are 

 three to five in number, of a greenish-blue ground-color, speckled, spotted, and 

 blotched with reddish-brown, often with confluent markings. Size .95 x .65. This 

 tanager nests in May and June in Buncombe County. 



It is quite a good singer, the song somewhat suggesting the Robin. The females 

 are difficult to distinguish from those of the following species by color alone, but 

 are usually lighter, and the bill is decidedly smaller, measuring only about half an 

 inch along the culmen, while that of the Summer Tanager measures three-fourths 

 of an inch. 



254. Piranga rubra rubra (Linn.). SUMMER TANAGER. 



Description: Ad. male. Rose-red, brighter below; wings fuscous, margined with rose-red. 

 Im. male in winter. Similar to the female, but with more or less of a reddish tinge throughout 

 the plumage. Im. male in summer. Variable; sometimes a mixture of ad. male and female 

 plumages, at others like the ad. male, but wing-quills as in female. The ad. male plumage is 

 acquired at the first postnuptial molt and retained thereafter at all seasons. Ad. female. 

 Upperparts orange olive-green; underparts yellowish orange. L., 7.50; W., 3.75; T., 2.90; B. 

 from N., .55. (Chap., Birds of E. N. A.) 



Range. Eastern United States, from Maryland southward, in summer; wintering in West 

 Indies, Mexico, and South America. 



Range in North Carolina. A summer visitor in the eastern and central parts, and in the valleys 

 among the mountains. 



The Summer Tanager, often called "Summer Redbird," is a common summer 

 resident throughout most of the State, arriving from the south about the middle 

 of April and leaving late in September. 



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