THE SCARLET TANAGER 



In South America, the Tanagers form a large family, but they 

 send to the more northern of our Eastern States only one represent- 

 ative, the well-known Scarlet Tanager. A sight of this splendid bird 

 properly, therefore, suggests the tropics. The Tanager is considered 

 a rare bird, but it can always be found in suitable situations, and 

 in certain parts of the country is really a common bird. Oak groves 

 are the favorite resort of the bird, and since it does not often 

 visit our dooryards, even in migration, and since we, as a people, 

 do not often visit oak groves, the sight of a Tanager remains for 

 most people a rare and exhilarating experience. The bird, too, is 

 of a rather sluggish disposition, so that even if we visit the spot 

 where a pair are nesting, they display only a rather languid curiosity. 

 The call-note used by both sexes is well worth learning, for by its 

 means our attention is often attracted to a pair which we should 

 otherwise overlook; it consists of two syllables, resembling the 

 syllables tschip, tschurr, uttered in a hoarse voice. The song of 

 the male is such as a Robin with a cold might produce. 



Either because the Tanager breeds generally at some distance 

 from man, or because he considers that his brilliant coloring will 

 make up for other deficiencies, the bird has never, as far as I know, 

 done much to win the affection of bird lovers. They have enthu- 

 siastic praise for his coat, but little to say of his manners. A story 

 which Wilson tells of a male Tanager is, however, a worthy exception 

 to this statement. Wilson found a young bird which had fallen out 



of the nest and, having brought it home, put it into a cage with 



17 



