The New Student's Reference Work/Tanager

Tanager (tăn′ȧ-jẽr), the name for members of a large family of birds mainly confined to tropical America. There are about 350 species. Two forms abound in the eastern and southern United States. The scarlet tanager is our most brilliantly colored bird, and is familiar to most people who live within its range. It is a little more than seven inches long; the male, during the breeding period, is bright red with black wings and tail; the female is clear olive-green above and greenish yellow below. After the nesting-period the male becomes colored like the female. They inhabit both high and low woods and usually nest in oaks. Our other tanager is the summer redbird, a more southern species, which ranges north to New Jersey and southern Illinois. The male is bright rose-red throughout, with the wings a little dusky. The female is dull olive above and yellow below.