The nest I have oftenfound in the borders of woods and several times in orchards. 

 It is always built on a horizontal branch of a forest tree and is not easily seen from 

 Delow, being hidden among a dense growth of leaves, and quite often scrieened from 

 view by grape-vines and other climbers. Oaks, beeches, maples, lindens, and, further 

 east, chestnuts are the favorable nesting trees. In orchards they usually select old 

 apple trees for nesting purposes, and, in one case, a nest was found in a belt of Norway 

 spruces planted around a large orchard. The nest is very carelessly built, the material 

 consisting of fine bark-strips, grasses, plant-stems, rootlets, and is lined with delicate bark- 

 strips. The color of the material is light brownish. It is such a loosely built open 

 structure that one can plainly see the eggs from the ground through the bottom of the 

 nest. The eggs, four to five in number, are very delicate and break easily. Their 

 ground-color is light greenish-blue, speckled, blotched and spotted, more or. less densely, 

 with rufous-brown. Some authors say that in the East the Scarlet Tanager is particu- 

 larly fond of swampy places, and that the nest is generally found in low, thick woods, 

 or in the skirting of tangled thickets. This is, according to my observations, not the 

 case in the Northwest. In the localities where I found this Tanager breeding, the nest 

 is usually found with a full set of fresh eggs by the middle of the second week in June. 

 Incubation lasts about thirteen days. Near the nest the brilliant colored male is rarely 

 seen, and I have never observed that the sitting female was fed by him. More in the 

 interior of the woods he is comparatively safe from his enemies. If it becomes necessary to 

 take part in feeding the young, which is often the case in rainy weather, he approaches 

 the nest with caution and stealth, to avoid the betrayal of the location of his family 

 home by his presence.. The female, whose greenish coloration assimilates with the sur- 

 rounding foliage, incubates alone and is only partially assisted by the male in carrying 

 food, to the young. If the nest, however, is invaded or hostily approached, both male and 

 female take part in defending it. It is a beautiiul sight to observe at such an intrusion 

 the gorgeously colored male hop and skip around the observer in company with the 

 entirely different looking female. The young are clad in the same greenish-yellow dress 

 as the female, and the male in July changes his bright colors also and leaves his 

 summer home in the plain dress of the female and young. 



The food consists almost entirely of insects, w^hich are collected from the leaves 

 and flowers of the trees and sometimes taken on the wing. The birds rarely come down 

 to the ground for the purpose of searching for food. June-berries {Amelanchier canadensis), 

 huckle and rasp-berries, and other wild soft fruits of the woods are also eaten, forming 

 no small part of their diet in summer. When food is very scarce, w^hich sometimes 

 happens just after arrival, even some kinds of seeds are not refused. 



Though the Scarlet Tanagers arrive very late at their summer quarters, they are 

 among the first to depart. Late in August they leave Wisconsin, and I have seen, 

 them pass through south-western Missouri September 15. Their winter home is at the 

 West Indies, in southern Mexico, Central America, and South America to Ecuador. 



No bird is so much killed for its beauty than our Tanager. In this connection I 

 quote the following from Dr. Elliott Coues' "Birds of the Colorado Valley" : 



"These birds are famed for the beauty and variety of their coloration, being among 

 those most frequently exhibited in the show-cases of bird-stuffers and milliners, as well 



