SCARLET TANAGER. 



things yet to be learned than can be discovered in the life-time of any man. — The single 

 genus of Tanagridai, which properly finds a place in this work, is one of the most 

 typical of the whole family, and includes two of our most brilliant songsters." 

 (R. Ridgway, in "The Ornithology of Illinois." Vol. I.) 



The family is represented in our country by the following genera : 



Genus Piranga Vieillot. Pour species. 

 " Euphonia Demarest. One species. 



SCARLET TANAGER. 



Piranga erythromelas ViEiLLOT. 



Plate XXV. Fig. 1. 



O June ! the month of tnerry song, 



Of shadow brief, of sunshine long; 



All things on earth love you the best, — 



The bird who carols near his nest ; 



The wind that wakes and, singing blows 



The spicy perfume of the rose 



And bee, who sounds his muffled horn 



To celebrate the dewy morn ; 



And even all the stars above 



At night are happier for love. 



As if the mellow notes of mirth 



Were wafted to them from the earth. 



O June! such tnusic haunts your name; 



With you the summer's chorus came. 



P. D. Sherman. 



JUNE, the month of merry song, of fresh verdure, of a proud assemblage of wild 

 flowers in woodland and meadow, of balmy air and a serene sky, has come at 

 last. June is the real spring month in the northern parts of our country. The mornings 

 and evenings now have acquired a delightful temperature, that invites us to rise early 

 in the morning, and to enjoy the balmy breezes of the evening out of doors. The dew 

 hangs heavily on grass and herbage, glittering like innumerable silver jewels. The 

 early flowers, like the hepatica, the pasque-flower, the claytonia or spring beauty, the 

 blood-root, the early dwarf wake-robin ' are now half hidden beneath the dense foliage 

 of the flowers of the summer. The violets and other delicate plants can hardly look up 

 to us from underneath the stately fern" leaves and the almost tropical foliage of the 

 heracleum. The anemones, the flowers of the ground-nut^, and many other heralds of 

 spring are fast fading below the dense shrubbery. In the mixed woods of evergreens and 

 deciduous trees the trailing arbutus and the wintergreen, the creeping snow-berry' and 

 the partridge-berry* are beautiful in their new dress of tender foliage among the old 

 dry leaves and pine needles which cover the forest ground. The voice of the true har- 

 bingers of spring, of the Song Sparrow and the Bluebird, whose tender warblings were 



1 Trillium nivalc. 2 Aralla trifolia. a Cliiogenes liispidula. * Mitcliella repeas. 



