104 OUR SOUTHERN BIRDS 



green undergrowth, would never be safe from 

 the eyes of enemies while she sat on the eggs. 



There are three or four of those eggs, cradled - 

 and hidden and guarded and defended like the 

 treasures they are; bluish eggs, marked with 

 brown. In the treetops the beautiful Tanager 

 sings about them, a bright carol somewhat resem- 

 bling the Robin's. Up in the world of green 

 leaves, too, he hunts his food and calls down 

 ' 4 chip-cherr " to his brooding mate, coming to 

 the ground only to bathe or drink. On the 

 ground his brilliant scarlet and black make him 

 as conspicuous as a blaze or a jewel; and he has 

 not the daring which enables the Cardinal so 

 often to risk descent. 



SUMMER TANAGER 



Almost as gorgeous as his wilder cousin is 

 this red bird of open woods, hedges, and orchards, 

 and perhaps he is a better singer. His wings 

 and tail are bronze-red, instead of black like 

 the Scarlet Tanager 's; and he is easily distin- 

 guished from the Cardinal by his smooth round 

 head, not tufted; by the absence of any black 

 marking round the beak ; and by the difference in 

 size. This Tanager ? s call-note, too, is distinc- 

 tively his own, a sharp "chicker" and "ehicky- 

 tucky-tuck, chicky-tucky-tucky-tuck, ' ' being a 

 well-known summer sound. 



