Evening star., 1947-11-24
This and That
BIZ Charles E. Trace1DeU
CHEVY CHASE Md,

CHEVY CHASE Md
Dear Sir:
This is my first letter to This and That,
although have been Chevy Chase resident
for more than eight years and an ardent
Tracewen fan. - .-. . .,,.
THE occasion of this eutburst is the visit to
our feeding station of a startling new bird. This
is the third day that we have seen him: he
comes early and his visits continue until dusk.
HE is about the size of well-fed cardinal,
but more streamlined. Almost all of him is
bright green. Wings and possibly his back
mottled green and dark gray. Yellow face and
most of his head and a distinctly parrot type
bill. Tail longish. narrow and pointed. Under
side of wings in flight show yelowish.
Hes a very friendly fellow-went on eating
and only showed alert interest when I ap-
preached within 10 feet of him and talked
to him.
"He mostly resembles the Carolina paroquet
as described and illustrated on our field guide
but our bird books say the paroquet is 1912
inches or size of mourning dove, and this
fellow looks real small beside blue jay, even
small beside a startling who disputes posses
sion of the feeder with him. Fact is, this
speckled youth Of startling thinks he's super
intendent of both of our feeders and lately has
been so busy trying to keep other birds away
from them that 1 think he must go home
hungry himself nights.
please comment on this new visitor of ours
and help us and probably other Chevy Chase
fans to identify Izzy Kelly-thats what we
call hin-with mis- green frock coat, etc.
Thanks for many hours of pleasure since
you taught me to appreciate birds and things
yours very truly, L. F. B.
~
This bird is probab bly, a small scarlet tanager.
This remarkable creature makes many color
changes in his plumage during the first three
years of his life.
Every fall, before going to Brazil he puts on
different dress, so that often 1t is difficult to
identify him.
About inches long, the male tanager in his
most famous summer dress is red-and what
a red-with black wings and tail but in winter
the red is replaced with yellowish- green and
yellow.
The female coloring is yellow-green above,
yellow below, with wings and tail sort of
brown-gray.
The adult male, in its first real spring and
summer, is uniform scarlet, or flame colored,
quite different from the cardinals red.
Once this difference has been noted actually,
there is never any chance of any observer con-
fusng the two. The tanager red has what is
commonly called an electric quality In some
sections of the country it is called the frebird,
not bad name. There is dazzle to this red
which the redbird lacks.
one DOCK says. Inc MINIATURE uldleS are
variously intermediate in plumage between
the plumage of the adult female and that of
the adult male, the relative proportion of red
and yellow varying according to age, several
years being required for attainment of the
full plumage Adult females not infrequently
show touches of red, sometimes considerable
amount of this color, but such females may
be distinguished from immature males by
the duller color of the red"
Tanagers are fine birds, eating long list
of inimical insects, along with some seeds,
berries and small fruits, mostly Of the wild
types.
The nest of this bird is placed on horizon
tai limb, usually low, but sometimes as high
as so feet; it is made of rootlets, with some
small bits of bark.
Eggs range from to S, most of them heavily
blotched with chestnut on a green-blue back
ground, but sometimes the eggs are almost
clear.
The scarlet tanager in this vicinity is almost
always seen momentarily in trees, seldom on
the ground.
The flash of its color among leaves is one
of the finest of all local bird sights.
The birds call slightly resembles that OF the
cardinal, and It's song that of the robin, SO 1t
may be realized that here we have a real bird,
- hacf