16 SUMMSR HEDBIRD. 



and blotched with brown, lilac, and brownish-purple. They are not with any certainty 

 distinguishable from the eggs of the Scarlet Tanager. 



The food of this Tanager consists mainly of insects. Later in the season, when 

 the different wild berries ripen, these constitute a large part of their diet. In Texas 

 they are exceedingly fond of ripe sweet figs. At one time I counted about twelve of these 

 birds in one large fig tree. Two of them were caught, and I kept them a considerable 

 time in the cage, caring for them in the same way as I did for my Bluebirds and Mock- 

 ingbirds. They became very tame, taking worms, flies, and berries out of my hand. 



When taking my regular woodland walks in July, August, and September in the 

 beautiful bottom woods traversed by the West Yegua, I often heard the peculiar ^unds 

 or call-notes of these Tanagers, sounding like chicky-'chucky-chuck, and coming firora the 

 tops of the tallest trees. 



By the middle of September the Summer Redbirds leave the Southern States for 

 their winter home, all in the inconspicuous dress of the old female. 



The Summer Redbird has many enemies. The Cowbird frequently deposits one or 

 two eggs in its nest. The Tanager's own brood is lost thereby, while the parasite 

 leaves the nest of its foster parents in the very best condition. Blue Jays, squirrels, 

 opossums, raccoons, and more especially snakes only too fi-equently destroy the eggs and 

 devour the young. But the worst enemy of our beautiful bird is man. Its glowing 

 garb makes it the target for the common skin collector. The imp of fashion and the 

 morbid desire of many people to have a collection which does not benefit them, because 

 they are neither friends nor students of birds and their ways, cause this beautiful 

 bird to become scarcer from year to year, particularly in the northern part of its 

 summer home. In the glass-cases of milliners and in the show-windows of taxidermists 

 and their customers the Summer Redbird is regularly seen in company with its congener, 

 the Scarlet Tanager, the Baltimore Oriole, and other beautiful native birds. These 

 bright colored birds, so lovely and attractive in our landscapes, are no longer safe 

 there; death and destruction lurk everywhere. Even during the breeding time, when 

 the young brood is in the nest, these birds are being ruthlessly shot. Feeling for, and 

 true enjoyment of the beauties of nature, real enthusiasm for our native omis, are 

 beyond the conception of the average bird-collector. I know quite a number of such 

 destroyers of nature's beauties who annually murder hundreds and even thousands of 

 our small birds, at the same time carrying off their nests and eggs, persons who are unable 

 to tell the correct names of fifty and barely the correct scientific name of a single 

 species. Works of our great ornithologists, like Wilson, Audubon, Nuttall, Baird, Coues, 

 Ridgway, Merriam, and the publications of the American Ornithologists' Union are 

 hardly known to them by name, but they diligently read papers printed for skin and 

 egg collectors, or journals of that ilk. If a collection has been gathered, it is sold, and 

 in the following year a new collection is made. It is for good reasons that the Ame- 

 rican Ornithologists' Union does not permit into their ranks the average collectors and 

 dealers in bird-skins, and that this society appointed a committee for the protection 

 of birds. To the ornithologists we are indebted for the good laws for the protection of 

 birds in different States. The true ornithologist is also the true friend of the birds, and 

 he does everything in his power to have his feathered friends protected. 



