92 SCARLET TANAGER. 



found one of their nests witli four young, from which circumstance I 

 think it probable that they raise two or more broods in the same.season. 



This bird measures five inches and three quarters in length, and ten 

 inches and a half in extent ; the upper parts are cinereous brown, 

 mottled with deep brown or black ; lesser wing coverts bright bay, 

 greater black, edged with very pale brown ; wings dusky, edged with 

 brown ; the exterior primary edged with white ; tail sub-cuneiform, the 

 outer feather white on the exterior edge, and tipped with white, the next 

 tipped and edged for half an inch with 'the same, the rest dusky, edged 

 with pale brown ; bill dark brown above, paler below ; round the eye is 

 a narrow circle of white ; upper part of the breast yellowish white, 

 thickly streaked with pointed spots of black that pass along the sides ; 

 belly and vent white ; legs and feet flesh colored ; third wing feather 

 from the body nearly as long as the tip of the wing when shut. 



I can perceive little or no difference between the colors and markings 

 of the male and female. 



Genus XXXVII. TANAGRA. TANAGER. 



Species I. T. RUBRA. 



SCAB LET TANAGER. 



[Plate XI. Figs. 3 and 4.] 



Tanagra rubra, Linn. Syst. i., p. 314, 3. — Cardinal de Canada, Briss. Orn. lu., p. 

 48, PL 2, fig. .5.— Lath, ii., p. 217, No. 3.— Scarlet Sparrow, Edw. PI. 343.— 

 Canada Tanager, and Olive Tanager, Arct. Zool. p. 369, No. 237-238. 



This is one of the gaudy foreigners (and perhaps the most showy) 

 that regularly visit us from the torrid regions of the south. He is 

 dressed in the richest scarlet, set off with the most jetty black, and 

 comes, over extensive countries, to sojourn for a time among us. While 

 we consider him entitled to all the rights of hospitality, we may be per- 

 mitted to examine a little into his character, and endeavor to discover, 

 whether he has anything else to recommend him besides that of having 

 a fine coat, and being a great traveller. 



On or about the first of May this bird makes his appearance in Penn- 

 sylvania. He spreads over the United States, and is found even in 

 Canada. He rarely approaches the habitations of man, unless perhaps 

 to the orchard, where he sometimes builds ; or to the cherry trees in 

 search of fruit. The depth of the woods is his favorite abode. There, 

 among the thick foliage of the tallest trees, his simple and almost 

 monotonous notes, chip, cliurr, repeated at short intervals, in a pensive 



