1 94 SCARLET TANAGER. 



beautiful. If he has little of melody in his notes to charm us, 

 he has nothing in them to disgust. His manners are modest, 

 easy, and inoffensive. He commits no depredations on the 

 property of the husbandman, but rather benefits him by the 

 daily destruction, in spring, of many noxious insects ; and 

 when winter approaches, he is no plundering dependant, but 

 seeks, in a distant country, for that sustenance which the 

 severity of the season denies to his industry in this. He is 

 a striking ornament to our rural scenery, and none of the 

 meanest of our rural songsters. Such being the true traits 

 of his character, we shall alwaj\s with pleasure welcome this 

 beautiful, inoffensive stranger to our orchards, groves, and 

 forests. 



The male of this species, when arrived at his full size and 

 colours, is six inches and a half in length, and ten and a half 

 broad. The whole plumage is of a most brilliant scarlet, 

 except the wings and tail, which are of a deep black ; the 

 latter, handsomely forked, sometimes minutely tipped with 

 white, and the interior edges of the wing-feathers nearly 

 white ; the bill is strong, considerably inflated, like those of 

 his tribe ; the edge of the upper mandible, somewhat irregular, 

 as if toothed, and the whole of a dirty gamboge, or yellowish 

 horn colour; this, however, like that of most other birds, varies 

 according to the season. About the 1st of August he begins 

 to moult; the young feathers coming out, of a greenish yellow 

 colour, until he appears nearly all dappled with spots of scarlet 

 and greenish yellow. In this state of plumage he leaves us. 

 How long it is before he recovers his scarlet dress, or whether 

 he continues of this greenish colour all winter, I am unable to 

 say. The iris of the eye is of a cream colour ; the legs and 

 feet, light blue. The female (now, I believe, for the first time 

 figured) is green above and yellow below; the wings and tail, 

 brownish black, edged with green. The young birds, during 

 their residence here the first season, continue nearly of the 

 same colour with the female. In this circumstance we again 

 recognise the wise provision of the Deity, in thus clothing the 



