Conspicuously Red of any Shade 



gifts; but if our bright-colored birds have become shockingly 

 few under existing conditions, would any at all remain were the 

 females prominent, like the males, as they brood upon the nest ? 

 Both tanagers construct a rather disorderly-looking nest of fibres 

 and sticks, through which daylight can be seen where it rests 

 securely upon the horizontal branch of some oak or pine tree; 

 but as soon as three or four bluish-green eggs have been laid 

 in the cradle, off goes the father, wearing his tell-tale coat, to 

 a distant tree. There he sings his sweetest carol to the patient, 

 brooding mate, returning to her side only long enough to feed 

 her with the insects and berries that form their food. 



Happily for the young birds' fate, they are clothed at first in 

 motley, dull colors, with here and there only a bright touch of 

 scarlet, yellow, and olive to prove their claim to the parent whose 

 gorgeous plumage must be their admiration! But after the moult- 

 ing season it would be a wise tanager that knew its own father. 

 His scarlet feathers are now replaced by an autumn coat of olive 

 and yellow not unlike his mate's. 



Pine Grosbeak 



(Pinicola enucleator) Finch family 



Called also: PINE BULLFINCH 



Length— Variously recorded from 6.5 to n inches. Specimen 

 measured 8. 5 inches. About one-fifth smaller than the robin. 



Male— General color strawberry-red, with some slate-gray fleck- 

 ings about head, under wings, and on legs. Tail brown; 

 wings brown, marked with black and white and slate. A 

 band -shaped series of markings between the shoulders. 

 Underneath paler red, merging into grayish green. Heavy, 

 conspicuous bill. 



Female— Ash-brown. Head and hind neck yellowish brown, 

 each feather having central dusky streak. Cheeks and 

 throat yellowish. Beneath ash-gray, tinged with brownish 

 yellow under tail. 



Range— British American provinces and northern United States. 



Migrations— Irregular winter visitors; length of visits as uncer- 

 tain as their coming. 



As inseparable as bees from flowers, so are these beautiful 

 winter visitors from the evergreen woods, where their red 



219 



