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Piranga rubra. The Summer Tanager has been taken on Long Island, 
as recorded in ‘The Auk’, during the past seventeen years as follows : — 
At Sag Harbor, Apr. 7 ; at Bridgehampton, May 1 ; at Merrick, May 14 ; 
(Dutcher, Auk, III, 1886, p. 442) ; at Manor in April; at Promised Land 
in April (Dutcher, Auk, V, 1888, p. 18), and at Long Island City, May 15, 
(Hendrickson, Auk, I, 1884, p. 290). I here record an additional specimen, 
which was picked up on the beach at Ditch Plain, April 8, 1901. Capt. 
Scott of the Montauk Point Light secured it from the finder and sent it 
to me. The stomach was empty except for a little discolored sand. It 
is remarkable that of the seven specimens, five were from stations at the 
eastern end of the Island, where migration is normally a week later for 
land-bird migrants than the western end. The eastern extremity, how- 
ever, stretches well to sea and is more advantageously situated as a haven 
for birds driven out over the ocean by storms and seeking land. 
The occurrence of this bird on Long Island, instead of a normal exten- 
sion of the vernal migratory movement, seems to be more the result of 
weather conditions. They are isolated survivors of coast storms. 
On sending the specimen above recorded, Capt. Scott writes me : 11 It 
was found on the shore at Ditch Plain on the 8th inst., chilled with cold, 
after this last south storm.” 
The early dates on which the birds have been recorded lead one more 
readily to conceive that a cause other than a normal migratory movement 
is responsible for their presence. Of the seven instances, four were 
recorded in April ; two as early as the 7th and 8th respectively. In Chap- 
man’s ‘Birds of Eastern North America’ (1895), p. 317, we find that the 
Summer Tanager arrives in Florida early in April, and that at Washing- 
ton, D. C., the first recorded date of arrival is April 28. In ‘The Auk’, 
Vol. XVII, 1900, p. 297 (Allison) it is stated that the first recorded date 
at which this bird has been seen by the writer in spring at New Orleans, 
La., is April 2. The specimens of the Summer Tanager which have 
reached Long Island early in April are birds which must have been driven 
off the coast at points far to the south of the point of arrival ; not impos- 
sibly while crossing the Gulf, between the West Indian Islands and the 
Mainland. Auk, XIX, April., 1902, p. MJ-I*/** 
Piranga rubra — Another Long Island, N. Y., Record. — It will be of 
interest in connection with the record of this species made by Dr. Braislin 
(antea, p. 147), to note another. 
Mv correspondent, Mr. Selah B. Strong of Setauket, L. I., wrote to me 
April 11, 1901, as follows : “This morning I saw a, to me, new bird. It 
was about three quarters the size of a robin. Head, and nearly his entire 
body, between cardinal and scarlet with a shade of grayish brown on 
wings.” I at once sent Mr. Strong a specimen of the Summer Tanager 
for comparison and he wrote that there was no doubt of the identity of the 
bird. 
On April 22 Mr. Strong wrote as follows : “The Tanager is becoming 
very tame and I see him constantly; during yesterday’s storm he was 
swinging on the vines on the front of the house, and when I went out of 
the door he flew from under the steps ; again he was on the ground in 
front of my study window and did not mind our watching him. At pres- 
ent he is flitting among the trees in the orchard.” 
A subsequent letter from Mr. Strong stated that although the bird 
remained over ten days on his premises it finally disappeared. — William 
Dutcher, New York City. Auk, XIX, July, 1902, 
f-. 
L AX 
L,ls\ 
Rare Birds for Easterg^Long Island, New York. — Two Summer 
Tanagers (Piranga etyihvomelas) were seen, and one taken on the 9th 
of April, 1902. The specimen taken was somewhat emaciated, but the 
plumage was in fine condition. The early date seems to carry out the 
theory of Dr. Braislin, “that these birds were driven off shore far to the 
south by storms.” 
Auk, XIX, Oct., 1902, vy. ^ t>£~ 3, 
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