230 
TANAGRA RUBRA. 
c 
With a few facts more I shall conclude the history® 
the scarlet tanager : When you approach the nest, t® , 
male keeps cautiously at a distance, as if fearful ® 
bein^ seen; while the female hovers around in 1"^ 
greatest agitation and distress. When the young I®*', 
the nest, the male parent takes a most active pari ’ 
feeding and attending them, and is then altoget*' 
indifferent of concealment. . , 
Passing through an orchard one morning, I 
one of these young birds, that had but lately left tl’ 
nest. I carried it with me about half a mile, to sh® 
it to my friend, Mr William Bertram ; and, having 
cured a cage, hung it up on one of the large pine tr®^ 
in the botanic garden, nithin a few feet of the 
an orchard oriole, which also contained young ; hop® '.j 
that the charity or tenderness of the orioles "'a", 
induce them to supply the cravings of the strao?®^ 
But charity with them, as with too many of the I*"®, 
race, began and ended at home. The poor orphan ® 
altogether neglected, notn ithstanding its plaintive ®’^^J 
and, as it refused to be fed by me, I was about to rel"j. 
it back to the place where I found it, when, ton ®'^ j 
the afternoon, a scarlet tanager, no doubt its own 
was seen liuttering round the cage, endeavouring j 
get in. Finding this impracticable, he flew oH’ 
soon returned with food in his bill; and continue'* _ 
feed it till after sunset, taking up his lodgings on ^ 
higher branches of the same tree. In the mornffr^ 
almost as soon as day broke, he was again seen 
actively engaged in the same affectionate manner 
notwithstanding the insolence of the orioles, contin".j 
his benevolent offices the whole day, roosting at n'r i 
as before. ()n the third or fourth day, he apP®*^,(,, 
extremely solicitous for the liberation of his 
using every expression of distressful anxiety, and e'^^f 
call and invitation that nature had put in his p®" *1^ 
him to come out. This was too much for the fe®l' 
of my venerable friend ; he procured a ladder, “ 
mounting to the spot n here the bird was susp®"® J 
opened the cage, took out the prisoner, and rest® 
