seems to be the common number; but there is good authority for the statement that as many as five are 

 sometimes laid. 



The ground-color of the shell varies from a light bluish-green to almost white. The marks consist 

 of blotches, spots, and speckles of reddish-brown, in various combinations and shades. Some eggs are 

 marked chiefly on the basal half; others are marked pretty evenly over the whole shell, excepting a 

 slight wreath of more or less confluent blotches about the crown, which is pi-esent in nearly every spec- 

 imen. They measure, in long-diameter, from .88 to 1.00 — average about .92; in short-diameter, from .63 

 to .68 — average about .65. 



DIB^FERENTIAL POINTS : 

 See Pyranga mstiva. 



REMAEKS : 



Plate XXXIII represents a nest of the Scarlet Tanager taken May 27, 1881, from the branch of an 

 elm tree which overhung a country road. It is composed entirely of soft vine-stems, except the lining, 

 which is made of very clean, fine I'ootlets. The diameter of the cavity is two and five-eighths, the depth 

 one and one-half inches. The illustration gives a better idea of the an^angement of the materials of con- 

 struction than can be conveyed by a description. The eggs figured represent the average and extremes 

 in size, shai^e, color, and markings commonly observed. 



During the fall of 1880, I noticed one day, as I was driving, a nest which seemed to be a Tanager's, 

 on an elm limb that projected across the road. In May, 1881, I went to the place to see if the same 

 tree would again be occupied. To my surprise, I found a new nest, with the bird sitting upon it, on the 

 very limb which had contained the nest the previous year. AVith some difficulty, I drove the bird from 

 her eggs by throwing clods at the limb. She perched upon a neighboring branch and began to peer 

 about, stretching her slender neck to its utmost limit. To make sure that she was not a P. cestiva, I 

 shot her. I then procured the nest, which is drawn on Plate XXXIII, and two eggs far advanced in 

 incubation. The male was not seen, but I was told by a gentleman that he had jast seen a Tanager 

 feeding in a hedge about half a mile away.. This, I suppose, was her mate. 



118 



