308 SINGING BIRDS. 



for the South about the middle or close of August, or as soon 

 as the young are well able to endure the fatigue of an extensive 

 migration in company with their parents. The female shows 

 great solicitude for the safety of her only brood, and on an 

 approach to the nest appears to be in great distress and appre- 

 hension. When they are released from her more immediate 

 protection, the male, at first cautious and distant, now attends 

 and feeds them with activity, being altogether indifferent to 

 that concealment which his gaudy dress seems to require from 

 his natural enemies. So attached to his now interesting brood 

 is the Scarlet Tanager that he has been known, at all hazards, 

 to follow for half a mile one of his young, submitting to feed 

 it attentively through the bars of a cage, and, with a devotion 

 which despair could not damp, roost by in the branches of the 

 same tree with its prison ; so strong, indeed, is this innate and 

 heroic feeling that life itself is less cherished than the desire 

 of aiding and supporting his endearing progeny (Wilson) . 



The food of the Scarlet Tanager while with us consists 

 chiefly of winged insects, wasps, hornets, and wild bees, as 

 well as smaller kinds of beetles and other shelly tribes ; it 

 probably also sometimes feeds on seeds, and is particularly 

 partial to whortleberries and other kinds which the season 

 affords. 



About the beginning of August the male begins to moult, 

 and then exchanges his nuptial scarlet for the greenish livery 

 of the female. At this period these birds leave us ; and having 

 passed the winter in the celibacy indicated by this humble 

 garb, they arrive again among us on its vernal renewal, and 

 so soon after this change that individuals are at this time occa- 

 sionally seen with the speckled livery of early autumn, or with 

 a confused mixture of green and scarlet feathers in scattered 

 patches. 



The Scarlet Tanager is common throughout this Eastern Prov- 

 ince north to about latitude 44°, and occurs sparingly along the 

 Annapolis valley, in Nova Scotia and along the valley of the St. 

 John in New Brunswick, also near the city of Quebec and in the 

 vicinity of Lake Winnipeg. It breeds from Virginia northward 

 and winters in northern South America. 



