SCARLET TANAGER. ^3 



for a time among us. While we consider him entitled to all 

 the rights of hospitality, we may be permitted to examine a 

 little into his character, and endeavour to discover whether 

 he has anything else to recommend him, besides that of having 

 a fine coat, and being a great traveller. 



On or about the 1st of May, this bird makes his appearance 

 in Pennsjdvania. He spreads over the United States, and is 

 found even in Canada. He rarely approaches the habitations 

 of man, unless, perhaps, to the orchard, where he sometimes 

 builds ; or to the cherry trees, in search of fruit. The depth 

 of the woods is his favourite abode. There, among the thick 

 foliage of the tallest trees, his simple and almost monotonous 

 notes, chip, churr, repeated at short intervals, in a pensive 

 tone, may be occasionally heard, which appear to proceed 

 from a considerable distance, though the bird be immediately 

 above you, — a faculty bestowed on him by the beneficent 

 Author of Nature, no doubt for his protection, to compensate, 

 in a degree, for the danger to which his glowing colour would 

 often expose him. Besides this usual note, he has, at times, 

 a more musical chant, something resembling in mellowness 

 that of the Baltimore oriole. His food consists of large 

 winged insects, such as wasps, hornets, and humble bees, 

 and also of fruit, particularly those of that species of Vacci- 

 nium usually called huckleberries, which, in their season, 

 form almost his whole fare. His nest is built, about the 

 middle of May, on the horizontal branch of a tree, sometimes 

 an apple tree, and is but slightly put together; stalks of broken 

 flax, and dry grass, so thinly woven together, that the light is 

 easily perceivable through it, form the repository of his young. 

 The eggs are three, of a dull blue, spotted with brown or 

 purple. They rarely raise more than one brood in a season, 

 and leave us for the south about the last week in August. 



Among all the birds that inhabit our woods, there is none 



that strikes the eye of a stranger, or even a native, with so 



much brilliancy as this. Seen among the green leaves, with 



the light falling strongly on his plumage, he really appears 

 vol. 1. n 



