Conspicuously Red of any Shade 
not contain this tropical-looking beauty— the redbird par excel- 
lence, the sweetest singer of the family. Is there a more beauti- 
ful sight in all nature than a grove of orange trees laden with 
fruit, starred with their delicious blossoms, and with flocks of 
redbirds disporting themselves among the dark, glossy leaves ? 
Pine and oak woods are also favorite resorts, especially at the 
north, where the bird nowadays forsakes the orchards to hide his 
beauty, if he can, unharmed by the rifle that only rarely is offered 
so shining a mark. He shows the scarlet tanager’s preference for 
tree-tops, where his musical voice, calling " Chicky-tncky-tuk,” 
alone betrays his presence in the woods. The Southern farmers 
declare that he is an infallible weather prophet, his “ wet, WET, 
WET,” being the certain indication of rain— another absurd saw, 
for the call-note is by no means confined to the rainy season. 
The yellowish-olive mate, whose quiet colors betray no nest 
secrets, collects twigs and grasses for the cradle to be saddled on 
the end of some horizontal branch, though in this work the male 
sometimes cautiously takes an insignificant part. After her three 
or four eggs are laid she sits upon them for nearly two weeks, 
being only rarely and stealthily visited by her mate with some 
choice grub, blossom, or berry in his beak. But how cheerfully 
his fife-like whistle rings out during the temporary exile ! Then 
his song is at its best. Later in the summer he has an aggravat- 
ing way of joining in the chorus of other birds’ songs, by which 
the pleasant individuality of his own voice is lost. 
A nest of these tanagers, observed not far from New York 
City, was commenced the last week of May on the extreme edge 
of a hickory limb in an open wood ; four eggs were laid on the 
fourth of June, and twelve days later the tiny fledglings, that all 
look like their mother in the early stages of their existence, burst 
from the greenish-white, speckled shells. In less than a month 
the young birds were able to fly quite well and collect their food. 
21 7 
