seems to be the common number ; but there is good authority for the statement that as many as five are 
sometimes laid. 
The ground-color of the shell varies from a light bluish-green to almost white. The marks consist 
of blotches, spots, and speckles of reddish-brown, in various combinations and shades. Some eggs are 
marked chiefly on the basal half; others are marked pretty evenly over the Avhole shell, excepting a 
slight wreath of more or less confluent blotches about the crown, which is present in nearly every spec- 
imen. They measure, in long-diameter, from .88 to TOO — average about .92; in short-diameter, from .63 
to .68— average about .65. 
DIFFERENTIAL POINTS : 
See Pyranga (estiva. 
REMARKS : 
Plate XXXIII represents a nest of the Scarlet Tauager taken May 27, 1881, from the branch of an 
elm tree which overhung a country road. It is composed entirely of soft vine-stems, except the lining, 
which is made of very clean, fine rootlets. The diameter of the cavity is two and five-eighths, the depth 
one and one-half inches. The illustration gives a better idea of the arrangement of the materials of con- 
struction than can be conveyed by a description. The eggs figured represent, the average and extremes 
in size, shape, color, and markings commonly observed. 
During the fall of 1880, I noticed one day, as I was driving, a nest which seemed to be a Tanager’s, 
on an elm limb that projected across the road. In May, 1881, I went to the place to see if the same 
tree would again be occupied. To mv surprise, I found a new nest, with the bird sitting upon it, on the 
very limb which had contained the nest the previous year. With some difficulty, I drove the bird from 
her eggs by throwing clods at the limb. She perched upon a neighboring branch and began to peer 
about, stretching her slender neck to its utmost limit. To make sure that she was not a P. (estiva, I 
shot her. I then procured the nest, which is drawn on Plate XXXIII, and two eggs far advanced in 
incubation. The male was not seen, but I was told by a gentleman that he had just seen a Tanager 
feeding in a hedge about half a mile away. This, I suppose, was her mate. 
118 
