Sp. Char. Bill shorter than the head. Second quill longest; first and third a little shorter. Tail moderately forked. Male. Whole head and body continuous, pure, intense scarlet, the feathers white beneath the surface, and grayish at the roots. Wings and tail, with the scapulars, uniform intense black; the middle-coverts sometimes partly red, forming an interrupted band. Lining of wing white. A blackish tinge along sides of the rump, concealed by wings. Bill pea-green; iris brown; tarsi and toes dull blue. Female. Olive-green above, yellowish beneath. Wing and tail feathers brown, edged with olivaceous. Length, 7.40; wing, 4.00; tail, 3.00.
Hab. Eastern Province North America, north to Winnepeg (west to El Paso? Heermann). In winter, south to Ecuador (Rio Napo, Scl.). Bogota (Scl.) Cuba (Scl. & Gundl.); Jamaica (Scl. & Gosse); Panama (Lawr.); Costa Rica (Lawr.); Vera Cruz (winter, Sumichrast).
Pyranga ludoviciana.
At least three years seem to be required for the assumption of the perfect plumage of the male. In the first year the young male is like the female, but has black wings and tail; in the fall red feathers begin to make their appearance, and the following spring the red predominates in patches.
Habits. The Scarlet Tanager is one of the most conspicuous and brilliant of all our summer visitants. Elegant in its attire, retiring and modest in manners, sweet in song, and useful in its destruction of hurtful insects, it well merits a cordial welcome. This Tanager is distributed over a wide extent of territory, from Texas to Maine, and from South Carolina to the northern shores of Lake Huron, in all which
localities it breeds. A few are found once in a while as far east as Calais, in the spring, and they are rather occasional than common in Eastern Massachusetts, but are more plentiful in the western part of the State, becoming quite common about Springfield, arriving May 15, and remaining about four months, breeding in high open woods and old orchards. In South Carolina it is abundant as a migrant, though a few remain and breed in the higher lands. Mr. Audubon states, also, that a few breed in the higher portions of Louisiana, and Dr. Heermann found them breeding at El Paso, in New Mexico. They are far more abundant, however, in the States of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, and throughout the Mississippi Valley, arriving early in May, and leaving in October. Though occasionally found in the more sparsely settled portions of the country, in orchards and retired gardens, they are, as a rule, inhabitants of the edges of forests.
Their more common notes are simple and brief, resembling, according to Wilson, the sounds chip-charr. Mr. Ridgway represents them by chip-a-ra´-ree. This song it repeats at brief intervals and in a pensive tone, and with a singular faculty of causing it to seem to come from a greater than the real distance. Besides this it also has a more varied and musical chant resembling the mellow notes of the Baltimore Oriole. The female also utters similar notes when her nest is approached, and in their mating-season, as they move together through the branches, they both utter a low whispering warble in a tone of great sweetness and tenderness. As a whole, this bird may be regarded as a musical performer of very respectable merits.
The food of this species is chiefly gleaned among the upper branches, and consists of various coleopterous and other insects and their larvæ. Later in the season they consume various kinds of wild berries.
When their nest is approached, the male bird usually keeps at a cautious distance, as if fearful of being seen, but his much less gaudy mate hovers about the intruder in the greatest distress. Wilson relates quite a touching instance of the devotion of the parent of this species to its young. Having taken a young bird from the nest, and carried it to his friend, Mr. Bartram, it was placed in a cage, and suspended near a nest containing young Orioles, in hopes the parents of the latter would feed it, which they did not do. Its cries, however, attracted its own parent, who assiduously attended it and supplied it with food for several days, became more and more solicitous for its liberation, and constantly uttered cries of entreaty to its offspring to come out of its prison. At last this was more than Mr. Bartram could endure, and he mounted to the cage, took out the prisoner, and restored it to its parent, who accompanied it in its flight to the woods with notes of great exultation.