Plate XXXIII. 
PYRANGA RUBRA— Scarlet Tanager. 
The beautiful Scarlet Tanager arrives early in May, and departs late in September. The nest is 
built the latter part of the fifth or first of the sixth month. But one brood is raised by each pair 
during the season. 
LOCALITY : 
The nest of this species, although nowhere abundant, may be found at times in almost any wooded 
district, from the sparsely timbered river-bank to the hillside woods with almost impenetrable underbrush. 
I have most frequently found the nest in pretty open woods of oak, hickory, and elm trees, situated upon 
high and level tracts of land. Like most birds that nest in woods, they prefer the border of the forest 
to the interior. Sometimes they build near roads which pass through or alongside woodlands; and some- 
times they build in apple orchards, near farm-houses; but they rarely, if ever, enter towns, being 
naturally shy and suspicious. They nest indiscriminately in any of the larger forest trees. 
POSITION: 
The nest is always in a tree, and is between five and fifteen feet from the ground. The usual dis- 
tance is about ten feet. It is placed either upon a horizontal limb of two or three inches diameter, or 
at the bifurcation of a smaller branch, and is generally supported at different points of its periphery by 
little twigs or leaf stems. 
MATERIALS : 
The walls of the nest are loosely woven aW not very thick. The material of the foundation and 
superstructure usually consists of soft weed-stems or stems of some small trailing vine, such as the wild 
pea-vine, varying in length from three inches to a foot. The lining is made of pinkish tendrils, such as 
are used by the Cardinal Grosbeak and Yellow-breasted Chat, slender weed-stems, or light brownish, hair- 
like rootlets. Some nests are beautifully lined, others have only a little material at the bottom of the 
cavity. The external diameter varies from four inches to five or six inches, and is often an inch or so 
greater one way than another. The cavity is generally nearly circular, and varies from two and one-half 
to two and three-fourths inches. The depth of cavity varies from three-fourths to one inch and three- 
fourths; ordinarily it is about one inch. Dr. Brewer, in “North American Birds,” speaking of this nest, 
says: “They are usually very nearly flat, five or six inches in diameter and about two in height, with a 
depression of only about half an inch.” Every nest which I have collected has been one inch or more 
in depth of cavity, and I am led to believe that such very shallow structures as those mentioned by Dr. 
Brewer are rare. 
EGGS: 
The complement of eggs varies from two to five. I have never found over three in a set, and this 
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