328 NOTES ON NEW ENGLAND BIRDS 



saw one of these birds on the top of a tree before him in 

 the woods, but he did not see a deep ditch that crossed 

 his course between him and it. As he raised his gun, he 

 exclaimed, " Fire never redder ! " and, taking a step or 

 two forward, with his eye fixed on the bird, fell head- 

 long into the ditch, and so the name became a byword 

 among his fellows. 



June 23, 1858. The tanager's nest of the 19th is four 

 and a half to five inches wide and an inch or more deep, 

 considerably open to look through ; the outside, of many 

 very slender twigs, apparently of hemlock, some urn- 

 belled pyrola with seed-vessels, everlasting, etc. ; within, 

 quite round and regular, of very slender or fine stems, 

 apparently pinweed or the like, and pine-needles ; hardly 

 any grass stubble about it. The egg is a regular oval, 

 nine tenths of an inch long by twenty-seven fortieths, 

 pale-blue, sprinkled with purplish-brown spots, thick- 

 est on the larger end. To-day there are three rather 

 fresh eggs in this nest. Neither going nor returning 

 do we see anything of the tanager, and conclude it 

 to be deserted, but perhaps she stays away from it 

 long. 



May 24, 1860. As I sit just above the northwest end 

 of the Cliff, I see a tanager perched on one of the top- 

 most twigs of a hickory, holding by the tender leafets, 

 now five inches long, and evidently come to spy after 

 me, peeping behind a leaf et. He is between me and the 

 sun, and his plumage is incredibly brilliant, all aglow. 

 It is our highest-colored bird, — a deep scarlet (with a 

 yellower reflection when the sun strikes him), in the 

 midst of which his pure-black wings look high-colored 



