18 



HOME STUDIES IN NATURE. 



efforts to lure me from the spot ; but gradually he be- 

 came reconciled to my presence, and by the time the 



SCARLET TANAGER. 



young were hatched he would feed them while I stood 

 beneath the tree. 



The species is very abundant in some localities, but 

 this is the first pair I have observed here. It is not 

 much larger than the house-sparrow, and the body of 

 the male is a bright scarlet, while its wings and tail are 

 a jetty black. 



Another brilliant denizen of the grove was the Bal- 

 timore oriole {Icterus haltimore). In the spring I 

 brought from Florida a large amount of the long gray 

 moss, Tillandsia usneoides, and hung it on the lower 

 branches of the trees, where it grew and blossomed 

 finely. Several pairs of orioles soon found this good 



