BMl «f •haaterOc.S.C, L.M. Loom- 
is. - A«fe*risk marks those urv^aiua 
*48. Pyranga sestiva. Summer Redbird; “ Redbird.’ — 
Summer; abundant. Although a woodland bird, the Summer Tanager 
is by no means strictly confined to the timber, but, on the contrary, is 
found in the groves and shade-trees of the town, and around the planters 
houses in the open country, and is everywhere an incessant songster. Dur- 
ing spring the woods are filled, at all hours of the day, with the fervid 
melody of this tireless vocalist. [*] 
[* A nest of the Summer Redbird, containing three eggs (its usual comple- 
ment), has been sent to me by Mr. Loomis, with its female parent. It was 
found on a public thoroughfare, in the edge of a grove, and built in a small 
black-jack oak, near the extremity of an inclining limb, five feet from the 
trunk and eight and one half above the ground. It is saddled on the limb, 
partially resting on the smaller branchlets, and is nearly homogeneous in struc- 
ture, being a beautifully interwoven fabric of stems of grasses, the larger ones 
making the external framework, the finer ones enclosing the deep cup-like cavity, 
which is wider below than at the rim. The height of the nest is about 2 inches , 
the depth of the cavity, being 1.90, shows how thin is the floor. The external 
diameter of the cavity at the rim is 2.80, and half an inch below, 3 inches ; that 
of the whole nest varies from 5 to 5.75 inches. The eggs measure .89 X.71 ; 
.92X.70 ; .90X.66. Their ground-color is a light shade of emerald green, marked 
with various shades of brown, more or less tinged with lilac, purple, and slate. 
These are well scattered over the egg, though larger and more numerous about 
the larger end. — T. M. B.] 
B*U. N.O.C. 4, Oct., 1*70. p.913 
s ' 
d r 
-> 4 
VIC 
) 
jA 
ri; 
i ;Tw- Eggs in Sat- O.S.Brimley 
I Summer Tanager. Set three to four, my ^ 
^observations fail to determine anything further 
I s ? o far. 
13 , Oct.1890. p.140 
SJ©s Eggs in O.S.Brimley 
Summer Tanager. Standard set most prob- 
ably three in this locality. 
Qa XVSi Jsiis 1821* P ' S 
Nesting of the Summer Tanager at 
Raleigh, N. C. 
The Summer Tanager (Pirantja rubra ) is by 
no means uncommon at Raleigh during the 
summer months, inhabiting both mixed 
woods and pines, being perhaps more common 
in the latter. 
About the middle of May the Tanager looks 
out for a nest site, usually selecting one of the 
long lower limbs of an oak or pine, and on 
this limb, toward the end away from the trunk, 
the nest is placed. Sometimes, however, the 
Tanager prefers to place her nest in the very top 
of a small pine sapling instead of towards the 
end of a long limb. In botli cases a compar- 
atively open place in the woods seems to be 
preferred to a more retired one, the nest being 
often in a tree close to a road or over a foot path . 
The height of the nest varies from six to 
thirty feet, usually about fifteen. 
The nest is composed of weed stems exter- 
nally, and is lined with fine, yellow cured grass 
stems; the lining forming a strong contrast in 
color to the bulk of the nest. The nest is 
rather flat and shallow, but firm and compact, 
and the form of the sitting bird shows 
very prominently when on the nest. The eggs 
are three or four in this locality, the date for 
fresh sets being June 1st and later, and, as is 
j usually the case, when one nest is taken the 
bird builds a fresh nest and lays another set. 
C. S. Brimley. 
Raleigh, X. 0. 
O.&O, 15. Nov, 1890, p,l<34 
vz 
