A shout from an older companion — 'There goes a Scarlet Tanager!' — and the child was 

 straining eager, wistful eyes after something that had flashed upon his senses for a 

 moment as if from another world, it seemed so bright, so beautiful, so strange. 'What 

 is a Scarlet Tanager?' mused the child, whose consciousness had flown with the won- 

 derful apparition on wings of ecstacy ; but the bees hummed on, the scent of flowers 

 floated by, the sunbeam passed across the greensward, and there was no reply — nothing 

 but the echo of a mute appeal to nature, stirring the very depths with an inward 

 thrill. That night the vision came again in dreamland, where the strangest things are 

 ti-uest and known the best; the child was startled by a ball of fire, and fanned to rest 

 again by a sable wing. The wax was soft then, and the impress grew indelible. Nor 

 would I blur it, if I could— not though the flight of years has borjie sad answers to 

 reiterated questionings — not though the wings of hope are tipped with lead and brush 

 the very earth, instead of soaring in scented sunlight. . . ." 



In northern Illinois the Scarlet Tanagers do not arrive before the last days of 

 May, and in Wisconsin I never observed them before the beech trees had unfolded 

 their tender green leaves. The quiet, plain-colored, unobtrusive females an-ive fully a 

 week later. In south-western Missouri I saw the first males about May 15, and in 

 southern Louisiana, in Florida, and south-eastern Texas I met with the migrants late 

 in April, when the most beautiful tree of our country, the great flowering magnolia 

 (^Magnolia grandiEora), was in full bloom, perfuming the air with the sweetest fra- 

 grance. In spite of its apparently strong constitution the Scarlet Tanager is exceedingly 

 sensitive to cold weather. At its arrival, spring must be in its full glory. Though the 

 air is usually mild, and the woodland in its full summer dress when the Tanager arrives, 

 it often happens in the Northern States that cold, cloudy, and rainy days predominate 

 during the forepart of June. At such times most of the insects are hidden in the crevices 

 of the bark or in other protected places. Warblers, Vireos, and other denizens of the 

 woods seem not to feel the inclemency of the weather. Cheerily they sing among the 

 tree -tops, searching for insects in the crevices of the bark, underneath the leaves and 

 in the flower trusses. At such times our beautiful Tanagers are found sad and silent, 

 with blustering plumage, in a secluded locality in the woods, evidently severely 

 suffering from cold and hunger. It is not uncommon that, during such a cold spell, we 

 find many of the brilliant birds dead on the ground. 



In northern Illinois the Scarlet Tanager's favorable haunts are the upland prairie 

 woods consisting mostly of a dense growth of oaks. It is also found in localities 

 where prickly ash, white-thorns, viburnums, crab-trees, dogwood, and other shrubs and 

 small trees form the outer edge of the woods, especially near rivers and creeks. In 

 places where the Wood Thrush pours forth its sweetest e-o-lie, where the Veery sings 

 in deepest seclusion its enchanting notes, where the Towhee is heard not far away, 

 where the Rose-breasted Grosbeak si«gs its indescribably beautiful notes, where Blue 

 Jays, these gaudy robbers, roam about in the woods, where Wood Pewees, Vireos, and 

 Warblers occur, we may also look for the Scarlet Tanager. As several small Hawks, 

 like the Sparrow Hawk, make the borders of the woods their favorable abode, the 

 male of this species prefers the interior of the woods. The female, which is of a 

 greenish-yellow color, is so perfectly in harmony with her surroundings that she is 



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