216 
SUMMER RED-BIRD. 
succeeded in bringing it down; and found it to be a young bird 
of the same species with the one I had killed in the preceding 
May, but less advanced to its fixed colours; the wings entirely 
of a greenish yellow, and the rest of the plumage spotted in the 
most irregular manner, with red, yellow, brown, and greenish. 
This is the variegated Tanager, referred to in the synonymes 
prefixed to this article. Having, since that time, seen them in all 
their stages of colour, during their reidence here, I have the 
more satisfaction in assuring the reader that the whole four spe- 
cies mentioned by Dr. Latham are one and the same. The two 
figures in our plate represent the male and female in their com- 
plete plumage, and of their exact size. 
The food of these birds consists of various kinds of bugs, and 
large black beetles. In several instances 1 have found the sto- 
mach entirely filled with the broken remains of humble bees. 
During the season of whortle-berries they seem to subsist al- 
most entirely on these berries; but in the early part of the sea- 
son on insects of the above description. In Pennsylvania they 
are a rare species, having myself sometimes passed a whole sum- 
mer without seeing one of them; while in New Jersey, even 
within half a mile of the shore opposite the city of Philadelphia, 
they may generally be found during the season. 
The note of the male is a strong and sonorous whistle, resem- 
bling a loose trill or shake on the notes of a fife, frequently re- 
peated ; that of the female is rather a kind of chattering, approach- 
ing nearly to the rapid pronunciation of chicky-tucky-tucky 
chicky-tucky-tuck, when she sees any person approaching the 
neighbourhood of her nest. She is, however, rarely seen, and 
usually mute, and scarcely to be distinguished from the colour 
of the foliage at a distance; while the loquacity and brilliant red 
of the male make him very conspicuous; and when seen among 
the green leaves, particularly if the light falls strongly on his 
plumage, he has a most beautiful and elegant appearance. It is 
worthy of remark, that the females of almost all our splendid 
feathered birds are drest in plain and often obscure colours, as 
if Providence meant to favour their personal concealment, and 
