In the gardens many exquisite varieties of the German iris, the showy orange- 

 lily S the glowing oriental poppies, the day-lilies-, the mock-orange, weigelias, snowballs, 

 w^oodbines, upright honey-suckles, deutzias, several clematis, etc., are now in full bloom. 



June is also the month of bird song and bird nesting. Without the birds, these 

 cheerful and charming summer guests, woodland and meadow, field and forest would 

 be w^ithout poetry and life. Even the most delicate songsters have arrived at the 

 beginning of the month. Their songs resound from every nook and dell. Their nests 

 are concealed in every grove and orchard, among the branches of the trees and bushes, 

 or on the ground beneath a tuft of ferns, a bunch of grass, or a small shrub. 



Many of these cheerful summer sojourners are birds of great beauty, but the most 

 beautiful of all is the Scarlet Tanager. Indeed, it is the most elegant and distin- 

 guished of all our northern birds, dressed in rich fiery scarlet, which is relieved on 

 wings and tail by a deep jetty black. Wherever we may chance to see it, especially in 

 the deep green foliage of the w^oods, or on the ground, it is such a conspicuous object 

 that even the most indifferent observer is struck with its beauty. Noble and retiring in 

 its manners, confiding and trustful toward the true friend of nature, sweet in its song, 

 brilliant in its attire, and useful in its destruction of harmful insects, the Scarlet Tana- 

 ger is one of our most valuable birds, well meriting a cordial welcome. 



Of all the species of the family the Scarlet Tanager is distributed farthest to the 

 North, being found in Maine and even in the region of Lake Winnipeg. How far it is 

 found southward during the breeding season, I am not prepared to say. I did not find 

 it in summer in the Ozark region of south-western Missouri. In other southern States I 

 have never met with it except during migration. Col. N. S. Goss reports it as common in 

 the eastern part of Kansas. "In the southern half of Illinois," says Prof. Robert Ridgway, 

 "the Scarlet Tanager, while not an uncommon summer resident in some localities, is 

 decidedly a less abundant bird than his plainer but more musical relative, the Summer 

 Redbird. He is also much more retired in his habits, preferring the high timber of the 

 bottom lands to the upland woods, and therefore brought not so much in contact with 

 the abodes of man." It is found as far west as the Great Plains. I have nowhere observed 

 this Tanager more numerously than in Wisconsin and northern Illinois during the days 

 of my youth. Every beech wood, every maple grove, the mixed woods of white pine, 

 hemlock, and foliage trees, and even the large apple orchards harbored one or more 

 pairs of these exquisite birds. It belongs to my first acquaintances among our birds, 

 and once seen its picture never fades away from the memory. This reminds me of a beau- 

 tiftil passage in Dr. Elliott Coues' "Birds of the Colorado Valley" : 



"One of the best known members of the family is the Scarlet Tanager, whose 

 encrimsoned body, contrasting with wings and tail as black as night, makes him only 

 too conspicuous an object, the never-failing bait to the greed of the mere collector and 

 dealer in bird-skins. I hold this bird in particular, almost supei-stitious, recollection as 

 the very first of all the feathered tribe to stir within me those emotions that have never 

 ceased to stimulate and gratify my love for birds. More years have passed than I care 

 to remember since a little child was strolling through an orchard one bright morning 

 in June, filled with mute wonder at beauties felt, but neither questioned nor understood. 



I Lilium croceum, ' Uemerocallis, 



v.. 



