84 BIRDS 



The gorgeous coloring of the scarlet tanager has been its 

 snare and destruction. The densest evergreens could not 

 altogether hide this blazing target for the sportsman's gun, 

 too often fired at the instigation of city milliners. "Fine 

 feathers make fine birds" — and cruel, silly women, the 

 adage might be adapted for latter-day use. This rarely 

 beautiful tanager, thanks to them, is now only an infrequent 

 flash of beauty in our countryside. 



Instinct leads it to be chary of its charms; and whereas it 

 used to be one of the commonest of bird neighbors, it is 

 now shy and solitary — a frequenter of woodlands. An 

 ideal resort for it is a grove of oak or swamp maple near a 

 stream or pond where it can bathe. 



High in the tree-tops he perches, all unsuspected by the 

 visitor passing through the woods below, until a burst o£ 

 rich, sweet, mellow melody directs the field-glasses sud- 

 denly upward. There we detect him carolhng loudly and 

 cheerfully, an apparition of beauty. Because of their 

 similar coloring, the black-winged scarlet tanager and 

 the all-red crested cardinal are sometimes confounded, but 

 an instant's comparison of the two birds shows nothing 

 in common except red feathers, and even those of quite 

 different shades. The inconspicuous olive-green and 

 yellow of the female tanager's plumage is another striking 

 instance of Nature's protective coloration; for if our bright- 

 colored birds have become shockingly few under existing 

 conditions, would any at all remain were the females 

 prominent, like the males, as they brood upon the nest? 

 Both tanagers construct a rather disorderly looking nest 

 of fibres and sticks, through which daylight can be seen, 

 where it rests securely upon a low horizontal branch of 

 some oak or pine tree; but as soon as three or four bluish- 



