288 TANAQEID^. 



Sumichrast includes this species as one of the three migratory Tanagers of the State 

 of Vera Cruz i^, and Mr. Sclater gives it a Mexican habitat on the authority of 

 Bullock 3 ; but we have no evidence of our own to bring forward as to its occurrence in 

 that country. In Yucatan, however, Mr. Gaumer says it is common near the town of 

 Merida. In Guatemala it must be considered a very rare bird, for we never met with 

 it ourselves, and only since our return did we find a specimen of a young male in a col- 

 lection made in Vera Paz. 



As we pass further gouth it has been more frequently noticed, and we have speci- 

 mens taken at various points, from Nicaragua, Costa Kica, and Panama, and thence 

 southwards as far as Bolivia. 



The line of migration of this species conforms to a great extent with that of several 

 species of the eastern portion of the United States. It is merely recorded from Mexico 

 and Guatemala, becomes common in the southern parts of the great isthmus, and thence 

 passes into western South America. A very similar line is taken by Turdus alicicB, 

 Helminthotherus vermivorus, and Qeothlypis Philadelphia. 



In North America Pyranga rubra is a familiar summer bird in the eastern province, 

 as far north as Winnipeg and westwards to Texas ^. It builds late in May or early in 

 June, making its nest in the horizontal branch of a forest-tree or occasionally in an 

 orchard. The nest is nearly flat, with but a slight depression in the middle. Its base 

 is loosely constructed of coarse stems of vegetables, strips of bark, and rootlets ; upon 

 this is wrought a neater framework, within which is a lining of long slender fibrous 

 roots, mingled with stems of plants and a few strips of fine inner bark. The eggs vary 

 from greenish blue to dull white. The spots vary in size and are more or less con- 

 fluent, and are chiefly of a reddish or rufous-brown intermingled with a few spots of a 

 brownish and obscure purple ^^. 



Concerning the changes of plumage of this species, Brewer remarks ^^ that " early in 

 August the male begins to moult, and, in the course of a few days, dressed in the 

 greenish livery of the female, he is not distinguishable from her or his young 

 family. In this humble garb they leave us, and do not resume their summer plumage 

 till just as they are re-entering our southern borders, when they may be seen in various 

 stages of transformation." Unfortunately most of our southern specimens are without 

 record of when they were shot ; but three of our Central- American examples are young 

 males in various stages of change, one from Calovevora being in almost full plumage. 

 Our Bolivian example is also in change of feather ; but all the rest of our specimens 

 are adult males in their full red fe^hering, and one of them, from Eemedios in Colombia, 

 was shot, according to Salmon's note, in September 1878. According to Brewer we 

 ought not to find birds in breeding dress south of the United States at all, still less in 

 September ! 

 In Cuba Dr. Gundlach found Pyranga rubra under precisely similar circumstances to 



