SCARLET TANAGER. 
193 
jetty black, and comes, over extensive countries, to sojourn 
for a time among us. While we consider him entitled to all 
the rights of hospitality, we may be permitted to examine a 
little into his character, and endeavour to discover, whether 
he has any thing else to recommend him, besides that of 
having a fine coat, and being a great traveller. 
On or about the first of May, this bird makes his appearance 
in Pennsylvania. He spreads over the United States, and is 
found even in Canada. He rarely approaches the habitations 
of man, unless, perhaps, to the orchard, where he sometimes 
builds ; or to the cherry trees, in search of fruit. The depth 
of the woods is his favourite abode. There, among the thick 
foliage of the tallest trees, his simple, and almost monotonous 
Rotes, chip, churr , repeated at short intervals, in a pensive 
tone, may be occasionally heard, which appear to proceed 
from a considerable distance, though the bird be immediately 
above you, — a faculty bestowed on him by the beneficent 
Author of Nature, no doubt for his protection, to compensate, 
in a degree, for the danger to which his glowing colour would 
often expose him. Besides this usual note, he has, at times, 
a more musical chant, something resembling in mellowness 
that of the Baltimore Oriole. His food consists of large 
winged insects, such as wasps, hornets, and humble bees, and 
also of fruit, particularly those of that species of Vaccinium 
usually called huckle-berries, which, in their season, form 
almost his whole fare. His nest is built, about the middle of 
May, on the horizontal branch of a tree, sometimes an apple 
tree, and is but slightly put together ; stalks of broken flax, 
and dry grass, so thinly woven together, that the light is easily 
as a summer visitant. They are all of very bright colours, and distinct mark- 
ings. They are distinguished from the true Tanagers, by their stout and 
rounded bill, slightly notched, bent at the tip, and having a jutting out blunt 
tooth about the middle of the upper mandible. They are placed by Desmarest 
among his Tangaras colluriens, or Shrike-like Tanagers ; and by Lesson 
among the Tangaras cardinals. The latter writer enumerates only three 
species belonging to his division. — Ed. 
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