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SCARLET TANAGER, OR BLACK-WINGED RED-BIRD. 



"-Pyranga rubra, Linn. 



PLATE CCIX.— Male and Female. 



You have now before you a representation of one of the most richly 

 coloured of our birds, and one whose history is in some degree peculiar. 

 The Scarlet Tanager enters the United States from Mexico, through the 

 Texas, in the beginning of April. On several of the islands in the Gulf of 

 Mexico, I found it exceedingly abundant, and restrained in a great measure 

 from proceeding eastward by the weather, which was unseasonably cold. 

 Many were procured in their full dress, and a few in the garb of the females. 

 These plain-coloured individuals turned out to be males, which in so far 

 confirmed my former observations respecting this and several other species, 

 in which the males precede the females by about a fortnight in their spring 

 migrations. It was at the same period that I observed the wonderful rapidity 

 in the change of the plumage from its winter aspect to its summer colouring 

 in the Red-breasted Snipe, Scolopax Noveboracensis; and I became con- 

 vinced that nearly the same phenomenon took place in the Tanagers. In 

 them, in fact, the older individuals, being stronger, had attained their full 

 colouring, while the younger were later in changing. As we advanced, I 

 procured many specimens partially coloured, and when the males had mostly 

 passed, the females made their appearance; manifesting similar gradations in 

 the changes of their colours. I knew that many of the males of this species 

 reach our Middle Districts in a spotted dress, and soon after acquire their 

 full colours; and I am disposed to think that in the autumnal months, the 

 young males of the year become of a much purer tint than that of the young 

 or old females. The latter themselves improve materially in this respect as 

 they advance in age, and I have some nearly twice as richly coloured as 

 birds only a year old. The same observations apply to our Summer Red- 

 bird, Tanagra sestiva, of which I have females, procured by my valued 

 friend Edward Harris, Esq., exhibiting tints nearly as bright as those of 

 their mates obtained at the same time, when they had nests. In the Scarlet 

 Tanager it is remarkable, moreover, that some males acquire a beautiful trans- 

 verse band of glowing red on the smaller wing-coverts; and I have several 

 specimens in this state, presented to me by Mr. Harris and Dr. Trudeau. 



The Scarlet Tanager proceeds as far northward as Lake Huron, where it 



