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.
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