_Muscicapa rubra_, LINN. Syst. Nat. I, 1766, 326. _Tanagra æstiva_,
GMELIN, I, 1788, 889.—WILSON, I, 1810, 95, pl. vi, f. 3.—AUD. Orn.
Biog. I, 1831, 232; V, 1839, 518, pl. xliv. _Pyranga æstiva_,
VIEILL. Nouv. Dict. XXVIII, 1819, 291.—BON. List, 1838.—IB.
Conspectus, 1850.—AUD. Syn. 1839, 136.—IB. Birds Am. III, 1841,
222, pl. ccviii.—SCLATER, Pr. Zoöl. Soc. 1855, 156.—IB. 1856,
123.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 301.—HEERMANN, P. R. R. X, p.
17.—RIDGWAY, Pr. A. N. S. 1869, 130.—MAYNARD, Birds E. Mass. 1870,
109. _Phœnisoma æstiva_, SW. Birds, II, 1837, 284. _Phœnisoma
æstiva_, CABANIS, Mus. Hein. 1851, 25. _? Loxia virginica_,
GMELIN, I, 1788, 849. (Male changing.) _? Tanagra
mississippiensis_, GMELIN, I, 1788, 889. _Pyranga
mississippiensis_, MAX. Cab. Jour. VI, 1858, 272. _Tanagra
variegata_, LATH. Ind. Orn. I, 1790, 422. (Male changing.)
_Tangare du Mississippi_, BUFFON, Ois. V, 63, pl. enl. 741.
SP. CHAR. Bill nearly as long as the head, without any median tooth.
Tail nearly even, or slightly rounded. _Male._ Vermilion-red; a little
darker above, and brightest on the head. Quills brown, the outer webs
like the back. Shafts only of the tail-feathers brown. Bill light
horn-color, more yellowish at the edges. _Female._ Olive above, yellow
beneath, with a tinge of reddish. Length, 7.20; wing, 3.75; tail,
3.00; culmen, .70, tarsus, .68.
HAB. Eastern Province United States, north to about 40°, though
occasionally straying as far as Nova Scotia; west to borders of the
plains. In winter, south through the whole of Middle America (except
the Pacific coast) as far as Ecuador and Peru. Cuba; Jamaica.
In the accompanying cut we give outline of the bill of the two
varieties of _Pyranga æstiva_ as compared with a near ally, _P.
saira_, of South America. (13,190, _P. æstiva_; 34,344, _P. æstiva_
var. _Cooperi_; 50,994, _P. saira_.)
[Line drawings: 13190
34344
50994]
This species is one of wide distribution; its habitat in the United
States including the “Eastern Province,” north to Nova Scotia, and
west toward the Rocky Mountains, along the streams watering the
plains, through Texas, into Eastern Mexico, Central America, and the
northern part of South America, as well as some of the West India
islands.
In the different regions of its habitat the species undergoes
considerable variations as regards shades of color and proportions.
Specimens from Texas and Eastern Mexico exhibit a decided tendency to
longer bills and more slender forms than those of the Eastern United
States; the tails longer, and colors rather purer. In Central America
and New Granada the species acquires the greatest perfection in the
intensity and purity of the red tints, all specimens being in this
respect noticeably different from those of any other region.[107]
Specimens in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution, from Peru
(39,849 ♂, 39,849 ♂, and 39,850 ♀, head-waters Huallaga River), are
undistinguishable from those killed in the eastern United States.
The young male exhibits a variegated plumage, the red appearing in
patches upon the other colors of the female; in its changing plumage,
the red generally predominates on the head, and often individuals may
be seen with none anywhere else. In this condition there appears to be
a great resemblance to the _P. erythrocephala_ (see synoptical table),
judging from the description, but which appears to be considerably
smaller, and perhaps has the red of the head more continuous and
sharply defined.
The young male in first summer resembles the female, but has the
yellow tints deeper, the lower tail-coverts approaching orange.
HABITS. The Summer Redbird is found chiefly in the Southern States, as
far north as Southern New Jersey and Illinois. Mr. Audubon speaks of
their occurring in Massachusetts, but Mr. Lawrence has never known of
their having been found farther north than the Magnolia Swamps near
Atlantic City, N. J. One or two recent instances of the capture of
these birds in Massachusetts, as also in New Brunswick and Nova
Scotia, have occurred, but these must be regarded as purely accidental.
This species is said by Mr. Salvin to enjoy an almost universal range
throughout Guatemala. It occurred in December at the mouth of the Rio
Dulce, in the pine ridges near Quisigua, and along the whole road from
Isabel to Guatemala, a distance of eighty leagues.
Mr. C. W. Wyatt met with these birds also, in all varieties of
plumage, throughout Colombia, South America, at Herradura, Cocuta
Valley, and Canta. Mr. Boucard obtained them at Plaza Vicente, Mexico.
Dr. Woodhouse observed this species throughout the Indian Territory,
Texas, and New Mexico, where it seemed solitary in its habits,
frequenting the thick scrubby timber. It has been known to breed at
various points in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Louisiana, and
Texas. To the northward it breeds more or less abundantly, as far as
Washington, D. C., on the east, and Southern Illinois and Kansas on
the west, being much more common in the Mississippi Valley than in the
States on the Atlantic in the same parallel of latitude.
Mr. Dresser found it quite common about San Antonio, Texas, during the
summer season, arriving there about the middle of April, which is just
about the period at which the three specimens were taken near Boston.
It is comparatively rare in Pennsylvania, though abundant in the
southern counties of New Jersey, and in Delaware, Eastern Maryland,
and Virginia. It is also abundant in the Carolinas, in Georgia,
Florida, and the Gulf States.
Wilson, in describing the nest and eggs of this species, has evidently
confounded them and some of their habits with those of the Blue
Grosbeak. Their eggs are not light-blue, nor are the nests, so far as
I know, as described by him. Audubon and Nuttall copy substantially
his errors.
The food of this species during the spring and early summer is chiefly
various kinds of large coleopterous insects, bees, wasps, and others.
Later in the season, when whortleberries are ripe, they feed chiefly
on these and other small fruit. In taking its food it rarely alights
on the ground, but prefers to capture its insects while on the wing.
The usual note of this bird, which Mr. Audubon pronounces unmusical,
resembles the sounds “_chicky-chucky-chuck_.” The same writer states
that during the spring this bird sings pleasantly for nearly half an
hour in succession, that its song resembles that of the Red-eyed
Vireo, and that its notes are sweeter and more varied and nearly equal
to those of the Orchard Oriole.
The late Dr. Gerhardt of Varnell’s Station, in Northern Georgia,
informed me that these birds are quite common in that section of
country. The nest is usually built on one of the lower limbs of a
post-oak, or in a pine sapling, at a height of from six to twenty
feet. They are usually constructed toward the extremity of the limb,
and so far from the trunk as to be very difficult of access. They are
generally built from the middle to the end of May. The eggs are four
in number.
In Southern Illinois, according to Mr. Ridgway, the Summer Redbird
arrives about the 20th of April, staying until the last of September.
It is more abundant than the Scarlet Tanager, and much less retiring
in its habits, frequenting the open groves instead of the deeper woods
and the forests of the bottom-lands, being especially attached to the
parks and groves within the towns. From its similarity in appearance,
manners, and notes to the Scarlet Tanager, it is seldom distinguished
by the common people from that bird, and those who notice the
difference in color between the two generally consider this the
younger stage of plumage of the black-winged species. Its song is said
to be somewhat after the style of the Robin, but in a firmer tone and
more continued. It differs from the song of the _P. rubra_ in being
more vigorous, and delivered in a manner less faltering. Its ordinary
note of anxiety when the nest is approached is a peculiar
_pa-chip´it-tūt-tūt-tūt_, very different from the weaker _chip´-al,
rā-rēē_ of the _P. rubra_. The nest is placed on a low horizontal or
drooping branch, near its extremity, the tree being generally an oak,
or sometimes a hickory, and situated near the roadside or at the edge
of a grove. In its construction it is described as very thin, though
by no means frail, permitting the eggs to be seen through the
interstices from below. Mr. Ridgway never found more than three eggs
in one nest.
A nest of this species (Smith. Coll., 589) from Prairie Mer Rouge,
Louisiana, has a diameter of four inches and a height of two. Like all
the nests of this family, the cavity is very shallow, its deepest
depression being hardly half an inch. So far from corresponding with
the descriptions generally given of it, this nest is well and even
strongly put together, although a portion of the base and some of the
external parts are somewhat openly interwoven, as if for ventilation.
These materials are fragments of plants, catkins, leaves, stems, and
grasses. These seem to constitute a distinct part of the nest, and are
of unequal thicknesses in different parts of the structure. Within
this external frame is a much more artistic and elaborately interwoven
basket, composed entirely of fine, slender, and dry grasses,
homogeneous in character, and evidently gathered just at the time its
seed was ripening. It is of a bright straw-yellow, and forms the whole
internal portion of the nest.
The eggs vary somewhat in size and shape, from an oblong to a rounded
oval. Their length is from .80 of an inch to an inch, and their
breadth averages .68. Their color is a bright light shade of
emerald-green, spotted, marbled, dotted, and blotched with various
shades of lilac, brownish-purple, and dark-brown. These are generally
well diffused equally over the entire egg.
[Illustration: PLATE XX.
1. Pyranga cooperi, _Ridgw._ ♂ N. Mex., 34344.
2. “ “ “ ♀.
3. “ ludoviciana, _Wils._ ♂ Neb., 38388.
4. “ “ “ ♀.
5. “ æstiva, _Gm._ ♂ Ga., 13190.
6. Pyranga æstiva, _Gm._ ♀.
7. “ rubra, _Linn._ ♂ Iowa, 34177.
8. “ “ “ ♀.
9. “ hepatica, _Swains._ ♂ Mex., 22414.
10. “ “ “ ♀.]
Pyranga æstiva, var. cooperi, RIDGWAY.
_Pyranga cooperi_, RIDGWAY, Pr. Ac. Nat. Sc. Philad. June, 1869,
p. 130, fig. .—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 142.
SP. CHAR. Length, 8.60 (fresh specimen); extent, 13.50; wing, 4.24;
tail, 3.68; culmen, .84; tarsus, .80. _Male._ Generally rich pure
vermilion, similar to that of _æstiva_, but lighter, brighter than in
eastern examples, and less rosaceous than in Central American
specimens. Upper surface scarcely darker than lower, the head above
being hardly different from the throat, and abruptly lighter than the
back, which, with the wings and tail, is of a much lighter dusky-red
than in _æstiva_; exposed tips of primaries pure slaty-umber,
primaries faintly margined terminally with paler (in the type, this
character is not apparent, owing to the feathers being somewhat worn;
in other specimens, however, it is quite a noticeable feature,
although possibly not to be entirely relied on). _Female._ Above
orange-olivaceous, beneath more light yellowish, purest medially;
crissum richer yellow than other lower parts, being in some
individuals (young males?) intense Indian-yellow, with the inner webs
of the tail-feathers margined with the same; quite distinct line of
orange-yellow over the lores.
HAB. Upper Rio Grande and Colorado region of Southern Middle Province;
south, in winter, along Pacific coast of Mexico as far as Colima.
This bird, quite different from Eastern _æstiva_, is, however,
probably only a representative form of the same species in the
Colorado and Upper Rio Grande region, migrating south in winter,
through Western Mexico to Colima, as specimens from Texas and Middle
Mexico appear to be quite intermediate, at least in form.
HABITS. This is a new form, whose claim to distinctness was first made
known by Mr. Ridgway, in 1869. In appearance, it most resembles the
_P. æstiva_, but is larger. It has been found in the Middle Province
of the United States, from Fort Mohave at the north, to Colima and
Mazatlan in Mexico.
Dr. Cooper found this bird quite common near Fort Mohave, after April
25, in the Colorado Valley, latitude 35°. They chiefly frequented the
tall cottonwood, feeding on insects, and occasionally flew down to the
_Larrea_ bushes after a kind of bee found on them. He states also that
they have a call-note sounding like the words _ke-dik_, which, in the
language of the Mojave Indians, signifies “come here.” They sing in a
loud, clear tone, and in a style much like that of the Robin, but with
a power of ventriloquism which makes the sound appear much more
distant than it really is. The only specimens of this species known to
have been obtained in the United States were taken at Los Pinos, New
Mexico, by Dr. Coues, and at Fort Mohave by Dr. Cooper. Other
specimens have been procured from Western Mexico.