Plate XXXIV. 



PYR/\I\IGA /ESTm-Summer Redbird. 



The Summer Redbird arrives in the neighborhood of Columbus the latter part of April, and remains 

 until the first of October. Nest-building begins the second or third week in May. The young are gener- 

 ally all hatched by the 10th of June. But one brood is usually reared by a single pair during the season. 

 The female is very difficult to distinguish from the female Scarlet Tanager; the closest inspection being 

 necessary for correct identification. 



LOCALITY: 



Three miles east of Circleville, on the slope of rising ground which bounds the great trough of the 

 Scioto Valley, is a large tract of M^oods composed principally of oak and hickory trees of various kinds. 

 The soil is well set with grass, and, at short intervals, small clumps of briers or haw-trees are to be 

 seen. The woods is divided into two unequal sections by a turnpike, and, for the want of fences, is open 

 to the use of such loose horses, cows, and other animals as choose to pasture there. On one side of the 

 road a small stream flows, during the rainy season, between deep-cut banks, and, in the dry summer- 

 time, little pools of water may be found along its shaly course. In this locality, I remember having first 

 seen the beautiful Summer Redbird. Every year numbers of them come to this woodland to rear their 

 young, and in no other section of the State, so far as I can learn, are they so plentiful. This locality 

 may, therefore, be taken as a typical nesting place. 



The Summer Redbird does not, however, live only in such choice timber-land, nor are they common 

 to every kind of woods. As a rule, they do not nest in other than woods of oak and hickory, and 

 where these trees abound, it is immaterial whether the land is high or low, or whether it is densely or 

 sparsely overgrown with weeds and bushes. In the woods referred to above, I found three nests in about 

 as many houi's, one day in June, 1881. All were in hickory trees, as every nest which I remember to 

 have seen has been. In this particular my expeinence agrees with that of Mr. Ridgway, in Indiana. 



POSITIOI^: 



The nest is generally placed upon two or three small horizontal branches, and is supported at two or 

 three points on its circumference by small upright twigs. The position selected is usually near the end 

 of a limb, from five to twenty feet above the ground; ten or twelve feet being the usual height. Some- 

 times it is built among a number of irregular stems, such as occur at the free extremity of a hickory 

 branch. 



MATERIALS : 



Dead o-rass of various kinds is the chief material of construction. It is sometimes well selected, and 

 of a light straw-color ; at others, it is poor in quality, and dirty-brown in color. The foundation and 

 superstructure are ordinarily inseparable. Occasionally a few slender weed-stems are added to the grass- 



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