The Western Tanager 



the wheel at one time. Think of it! Never was a more distinguished 

 array of beauty at a single function — not in Montecito even. 



The historic flight of 1896, reported by Mr. W. Otto Emerson, 1 was, 

 perhaps, the most memorable on record. Practically the entire State was 

 invaded, and in certain fruit-growing sections the Tanager-wave assumed 

 the proportions of a scourge. In a single cherry orchard near Haywards 

 Mr. Emerson estimates that during the last two weeks of May not less 

 than 600 Tanagers were killed, and that the number might have been as 

 high as a thousand. At Pasadena Mr. H. A. Gaylord reported their maxi- 

 mum abundance as occurring 

 from May 6th to 16th, and adds: 

 "The damage done to cherries in 

 one orchard was so great that 

 the sale of the fruit which was 

 left did not balance the bills 

 paid out for poison and ammuni- 

 tion. The Tanagers lay all over 

 the orchard, and were, so to 

 speak, 'corded up' by hundreds 

 under the trees." One must 

 conclude that the travel of the 

 entire Tanager population of 

 western North America was 

 routed by way of California that 

 season. It is only fair to add 

 that the depredations commit- 

 ted by these birds in ordinary 

 seasons are quite negligible. 



While chiefly silent during 

 the migrations, the arrival of 

 the birds upon their chosen sum- 

 mer sites is betokened by the 

 frequent utterance of a pettish 

 pit'ic or pit'itic. The full-voiced 

 song grows with the season, but 

 at its best it is little more than 

 an etude in R. "It is remotely 

 comparable to that of the Robin, 

 but it is more stereotyped in 

 form, briefer, and uttered at 



— :: :- ~~ 



My Photo by the A uthor 



iRRAN. HAUNT OF THE^WESTERN TANAGER 



'Condor, Vol. V., May, 1903, pp. 64-66. 



434 



