(_Piranga erythromelas_) Tanager family
_Called also_: BLACK-WINGED REDBIRD; FIREBIRD; CANADA TANAGER;
POCKET-BIRD
(Illustration facing p. 199)
_Length_--7 to 7.5 inches. About one-fourth smaller than the
robin.
_Male_--_In spring plumage_: Brilliant scarlet, with black
wings and tail. Under wing coverts grayish white. _In autumn_:
Similar to female.
_Female_--Olive-green above; wings and tail dark, lightly
margined with olive. Underneath greenish yellow.
_Range_--North America to northern Canada boundaries, and
southward in winter to South America.
_Migrations_--May. October. Summer resident.
The gorgeous coloring of the scarlet tanager has been its snare and
destruction. The densest evergreens could not altogether hide this
blazing target for the sportsman's gun, too often fired at the
instigation of city milliners. "Fine feathers make fine birds"--and
cruel, silly women, the adage might be adapted for latter-day use.
This rarely beautiful tanager, thanks to them, is now only an
infrequent flash of beauty in our country roads.
Instinct leads it to be chary of its charms; and whereas it used to be
one of the commonest of bird neighbors, it is now shy and solitary. An
ideal resort for it is a grove of oak or swamp maple near a stream or
pond where it can bathe. Evergreen trees, too, are favorites, possibly
because the bird knows how exquisitely its bright scarlet coat is set
off by their dark background.
High in the tree-tops he perches, all unsuspected by the visitor
passing through the woods below, until a burst of rich, sweet melody
directs the opera-glasses suddenly upward. There we detect him
carolling loud and cheerfully, like a robin. He is an apparition of
beauty--a veritable bird of paradise, as, indeed, he is sometimes
called. Because of their similar coloring, the tanager and cardinal
are sometimes confounded, but an instant's comparison of the two birds
shows nothing in common except red feathers, and even those of quite
different shades. The inconspicuous olive-green and yellow of the
female tanager's plumage is another striking instance of Nature's
unequal distribution of gifts; but if our bright-colored birds have
become shockingly few under existing conditions, would any at all
remain were the females prominent, like the males, as they brood upon
the nest? Both tanagers construct a rather disorderly-looking nest of
fibres and sticks, through which daylight can be seen where it rests
securely upon the horizontal branch of some oak or pine tree; but as
soon as three or four bluish-green eggs have been laid in the cradle,
off goes the father, wearing his tell-tale coat, to a distant tree.
There he sings his sweetest carol to the patient, brooding mate,
returning to her side only long enough to feed her with the insects
and berries that form their food.
Happily for the young birds' fate, they are clothed at first in
motley, dull colors, with here and there only a bright touch of
scarlet, yellow, and olive to prove their claim to the parent whose
gorgeous plumage must be their admiration. But after the moulting
season it would be a wise tanager that knew its own father.
His scarlet feathers are now replaced by an autumn coat of olive
and yellow not unlike his mate's.