Conspicuously Red of any Shade 
Scarlet Tanager 
(Piranga erythromelas) Tanager family 
Called also: BLACK-WINGED REDBIRD; FIREBIRD; CAN- 
ADA TANAGER; POCKET-BIRD 
Length—7 to 7.5inches. About one-fourth smaller than the robin. 
Male—In spring plumage: Brilliant scarlet, with black wings and 
tail. Under wing coverts grayish white. /1 autumn. Simi- 
lar to female. 
Female—Olive-green above; wings and tail dark, lightly margined 
with olive. Underneath greenish yellow. 
Range—North America to northern Canada boundaries, and south- 
ward in winter to South America. 
Migrations—May. October. Summer resident 
The gorgeous coloring of the scarlet tanager has been its 
snare and destruction. The densest evergreens could not alto- 
gether hide this blazing target for the sportsman’s gun, too often 
fired at the instigation of city milliners. ‘‘Fine feathers make 
fine birds ’—and cruel, silly women, the adage might be adapted 
for latter-day use. This rarely beautiful tanager, thanks to them, 
is now only an infrequent flash of beauty in our country roads. 
Instinct leads it to be chary of its charms; and whereas it 
used to be one of the commonest of bird neighbors, it is now shy 
and solitary. An ideal resort for it is a grove of oak or swamp 
maple near a stream or pond where it can bathe. Evergreen 
trees, too, are favorites, possibly because the bird knows how 
exquisitely its bright scarlet coat is set off by their dark back- 
ground. 
High in the tree-tops he perches, all unsuspected by the vis- 
itor passing through the woods below, until a burst of rich, sweet 
melody directs the opera-glasses suddenly upward. There we 
detect him carolling loud and cheerfully, like a robin. He is an 
apparition of beauty—a veritable bird of paradise, as, indeed, he 
is sometimes called. Because of their similar coloring, the tana- 
ger and cardinal are sometimes confounded, but an instant’s 
comparison of the two birds shows nothing in common except 
red feathers, and even those of quite different shades. The incon- 
spicuous olive-green and yellow of the female tanager’s plumage 
is another striking instance of Nature’s unequal distribution of 
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