30 



BIRDS OF ILLINOIS. 



K. Species formerly occurring but jjossibly now to be found in 

 the State. 



1. Pica hudsoniea. 4. Lagopus lagopus. 



2. Campephilus principalis. 5. Ajaja ajaja. 



3. Conurus carolinensis. 



Position -with regard to Faunal Provinces or Districts. 



Illinois lies far within the Eastern, or Atlantic, Province, and were 

 it not for the prairies its fauna would probably not possess the 

 slightest tincturing of western forms. The State is also wholly em- 

 braced within the "Carolinian Fauna" of Mr. Allen;* but the southern 

 portion possesses so many of the elements characterizing the "Louisi- 

 anian Fauna" (or "Austroriparian Province" of Professor Copet), that 

 it should probably be referred to the latter district and has, in fact, 

 been so referred by Mr. Allen, Professor Cope and other writers. 

 With regard to so-called geographical variation Illinois likewise 

 belongs strictly to the Eastern or Atlantic Province, none of the 

 resident or summer-resident species showing any tendency toward 

 the representative forms which belong to the Western Province, 

 except very rarely, or sporadically, and apparently not more fre- 

 quently than along the Atlantic coast itself. The writer has been 

 able to obtain but a single example of Pipilo erythrophthalmits 

 showing white spots on wing-coverts or scapulars, and this ex- 

 ample has these markings less distinct than have two specimens 

 obtained at Washington, D. C. He has been able to secure but 

 one specimen of Sphyrapicus varius showing an indication of a 

 red nuchal bar, and in this case also the feature is less developed 

 than in one from the District of Columbia. Among more than one 

 hundred Flickers shot in Wabash and Richland counties, only one 

 showed the slightest variation toward the western type (C. mexi- 

 canus), in a very slight tinge of red at the end of the black mous- 

 tache, much less, indeed, than in some specimens from Pennsylva- 

 nia, the District of Columbia, and Florida.* The same observation may 

 be made with respect to other species, with scarcely an exception, the 

 only one, in fact, being the case of Geothlypis trichas, the Illinois 

 form of which seems to be the western race, G. trichas occidentalis, 

 Brewst., which, however, apparently replaces the true G. trichas every- 

 where west of the Alleghanies. 







*See Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Cambridge, Mass., Vol. II,. No 

 3. pp. 393-395. 



t See Bulletin of the United States National Museum, No. 1, 1875, pp. 67-71. 



*The specimen in question is, however, almost exactly matched by one from Mar 'J} 

 Co., California, (coast, north of San Francisco). 



