134 
THE CABINET OF NATURAL HISTORY, 
ance in Pennsylvania. 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 be- 
stowed 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 mor e musical 
chant, something resembling in mellowness that of the Bal- 
timore 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 Vaccinium usually 
called huckle-berries, 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 wove 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 strike 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 beautiful. If he has little of melody 
in his notes to charm us, he has nothing in them to dis- 
gust. His manners are modest, easy, and inoffensive. 
He commits no depredations on the property of the hus- 
bandman; but rather benefits him by the daily destruction 
in spring of many noxious insects; and when winter ap- 
proaches 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 cha- 
racter, we shall always with pleasure welcome this beau- 
tiful, 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 
tipt with white, and the interior edges of the wing fea- 
thers 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 first 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 yel- 
low. In this state of plumage he leaves us. How long it 
is before he recovers his scarlet dress, or whether he con- 
tinues 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 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 provi- 
sion of the Deity, in thus clothing the female and the in- 
experienced young, in a garb so favourable to concealment 
among the foliage; as the weakness of the one, and the 
frequent visits of the other to her nest, would greatly en- 
danger the safety of all. That the young males do not 
receive their red plumage until the early part of the suc- 
ceeding spring, I think highly probable, from the circum- 
stance of frequently finding their red feathers, at that sea- 
son, intermixed with green ones, and the wings also 
broadly edged with green. These facts render it also 
probable that the old males regularly change their colour, 
and have a summer and winter dress; but this, farther ob- 
servations must determine. 
There is in the Brazils a bird of the same genus with 
this, and very much resembling it, so much so as to have 
been frequently confounded with it by European writers. 
It is the Tcmagra Brazilia of Turton; and though so like, 
is a yet very distinct species from the present, as I have 
myself had the opportunity of ascertaining, by examining 
two very perfect specimens from Brazil, now in the pos- 
session of Mr. Peale, and comparing them with this. The 
principal differences are these: the plumage of the Brazi- 
lian is almost black at bottom, a very deep scarlet at the 
surface, and of an orange tint between; ours is ash coloured 
at bottom, white in the middle, and bright scarlet at top. 
The tail of ours is forked , that of the other cuneiform, or 
rounded. The bill of our species is more inflated, and of 
a greenish yellow colour — the others is black above, and 
whitish below towards the base. The whole plumage of 
the southern species is of a coarser, stiffer quality, particu- 
larly on the head. The wings and tail, in both, are black. 
In the account which Buffon gives of the Scarlet Tana- 
