SCARLET TANAGER, 
227 
tree, sometimes an apple tree, and is out slightly put 
together ; stalks of broken flax, and dry grass, so thinly 
wove together, that the light is easily perceivable through 
it, form the repository of his young. The eggs are 
three, of a dull blue, spotted with brown or purple. 
They rarely raise more than one brood in a season, and 
leave us for the south about the last week in August. 
Among all the birds that inhabit our woods, there is 
none that strikes the eye of a stranger, or even a native, 
with so much brilliancy as this. Seen among the green 
leaves, with the light tailing strongly on his plumage, 
he really appears beautiful. It he has little of melody 
in his notes to charm us, he has nothing in them to 
disgust. His manners are modest, easy, and inoffensive. 
He commits no depredations on the property of the 
husbandman, but rather benefits him by the daily 
destruction, in spring, of many noxious insects ; and, 
when winter approaches, he is no plundering dependant, 
but seeks, in a distant country, for that sustenance 
which the severity of the season denies to his industry 
in this. He is a striking ornament to our rural scenery, 
and none of the meanest of our rural songsters. Such 
being the true traits of his character, we shall always 
with pleasure welcome this beautiful, inoffensive stranger 
to our orchards, groves, and forests. 
The male of this species, when arrived at his full size 
and colours, is six inches and a half in length, and ten 
and a half broad. The whole plumage is of a most 
brilliant scarlet, except the wings and tail, which are of 
a deep black ; the latter, handsomely forked, sometimes 
minutely tipped with white, and the interior edges of 
the w ing feathers nearly white ; the bill is strong, con- 
siderably inflated, like those of his tribe, the edge of the 
upper mandible, somewhat irregular, as if toothed, and 
the whole of a dirty gamboge, or yellowish horn colour ; 
this, however, like that of most other birds, varies 
according to the season. About the 1st of August he 
begins to moult; the young feathers coming out, of a 
greenish yellow colour, until he appears nearly all 
dappled with spots of scarlet and greenish yellow. In 
this state of plumage he leaves us. How long it is 
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