The Summer Tanagers 



Nesting. — Nest: Placed 15 to 20 feet up in willow or mesquite tree of riparian 

 associations; a careless affair of coarse grasses, weed-stems, and rootlets or trash, 

 saddled on horizontal limb. Eggs: 4; as in P. r. rubra, but markings perhaps averaging 

 smaller; not so clear-cut as in P. ludoviciana. Av. of 8 eggs in M. C. O. coll: 22.9 

 x 17 (.90 x .67). Season: June; one brood. 



Range of P. r. cooperi. — Breeds in Southwestern States and in northern Mexico 

 from southern Nevada and northeastern New Mexico, south to Nuevo Leon and Du- 

 rango; winters in Mexico south to Morelos and Colima; accidental (?) in Colorado. 



Distribution in California. — Breeds in the Colorado River valley. Of casual 

 occurrence in the San Diegan district; (Santa Barbara, "spring" of 1885, Streator; 

 San Clemente Island, Oct. II, 1907, Linton). 



Authorities. — Cooper, Orn. Calif., 1870, p. 142; Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway, 

 Hist. N. Am. Birds, vol. iii., 1874, p. 508 (Ariz.; desc. nest and eggs); Brewster, Bull. 

 Nutt. Orn. Club, vol. vii., 1882, p. 147 (Ariz.; meas., etc.); ibid., Auk, vol. ii., 1885, 

 p. 198 (Ariz.; desc. young, etc.) ; Grinnell, Univ. Calif. Pub. Zool., vol. xii., 1914, p. 182 

 (Colorado R.; habits, etc.). Streator, Orn. and Ool., vi., 1886, p. 52; Stephens, Condor, 

 vol. v., 1903, p. 104; Linton, Condor, vol. v., 1908, p. 85. 



THE WESTERN Summer Redbird occurs regularly in summer 

 along the valley of the lower Colorado. One surmises that it may have 

 occurred also in that oldtime mesquite forest of the Salton Sink, now 

 drowned out by the latest eruption of "New" River. For all it is so bril- 

 liant in color, every feather being wholly red, or at least tinged with red, 

 the male cooperi is not easily seen in its spring setting of complementary 

 greens. Besides, the bird is very deliberate in movement, adding, perhaps, 

 to the natural languor of the Southland a consciousness that hawks and 

 others are wont to penalize pernicious activity. Be that as it may, the 

 male makes a virtue of indiligence, and is gratefully content to be just 

 beautiful. The female, however, in spite of the fact that nature has done 

 her utmost for her in the way of dull yellows and melting olive-greens, is 

 unwilling to take any chances, and so she slips away adroitly upon the 

 faintest suspicion of approach. 



The case of the young male, who is "bechwixt and bechune," is a 

 challenge to attention. Beginning life with the modest garb of his mother, 

 he spends two or three years in the laborious acquisition, by bits and 

 patches, of the proper masculine vermilion. As a consequence, for sev- 

 eral seasons he looks like a flying crazy-quilt; and one wonders how he 

 manages to survive the merciless "ragging" of the ladies. 



The Cooper Tanager has a full, rounded song of familiar Tanagrine 

 quality, although it lacks something of the acid sharpness and burred r's 

 which characterize P. ludoviciana. It may be not inaptly compared with 

 the vocal effort of the Black-headed Grosbeak, or, on occasion, to the dis- 

 connected phrasing of the Red-eyed Vireo. These Tanagers make fre- 

 quent use, also, of a mildly sturdy call-note, chick itew, or kit it it tew. This 



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