DISTRIBUTION OF CRIMSON-HEADED TANAGER 361 



may do so, in higher or northerly portions at least. The gen- 

 eral tide of the spring migration, however, brings the species 

 over our border, and distributes the individuals composing it 

 from the mountainous portions of New Mexico and Arizona to 

 latitude 49° north at least, if not a little farther in slightly ele- 

 vated districts near the Pacific coast. 



We had no news of this Tanager for a long while after Wilson 

 figured and described it from the "frail remains" that Lewis 

 and Clarke furnished him. In editing Wilson's work, Sir 

 William Jardine found it "impossible to decide the generic 

 station of this bird"; and thought it probable that British col- 

 lections possessed no example of the rare species. In fact, the 

 first additional specimens known to naturalists appear to have 

 been those brought in by Nuttall and Townsend ; while the 

 accounts which these naturalists gave are nearly the whole basis 

 of Audubon's article upon the subject. In later times, Drs. 

 Cooper and Suckley came to be our principal authorities on the 

 habits and distribution of the species ; their observations were 

 published in full in the twelfth volume of the Pacific Railroad 

 Eeports, or the "Natural History of Washington Territory", 

 and the first-named of these authors also gave a supplement- 

 ary notice in the "Ornithology of California". I extracted 

 the gist of these accounts for the "Birds of the Northwest", 

 having very little information of my own to offer, and would 

 refer to that publication for the details in question. 



The records just mentioned, to which that left by the late Mr. 

 J. K. Lord, from observations in the extreme Northwest, may be 

 added, represent nearly all the written history of the beautiful 

 bird — one conspicuous even among this brilliant family for the 

 striking color-contrasts which the rich yellow, intense crimson, 

 and jet-black afford — down to a most recent period. Within 

 the past few years, Mr. Allen, Mr. Ridgway, Mr. Heushaw, and 

 Mr. Trippe are among those who have contributed to the full 

 exposition of the economy of the species. The memoranda of 

 both the first and last-named of these gentlemen already enrich 

 the pages of the "Birds of the Northwest", through the per- 

 sonal attentions of these valued correspondents of mine. 



In Southern Colorado, Mr. Henshaw found the Louisiana 

 Tanager in small numbers among cottonwoods along the 

 streams, at an elevation of about 7,500 feet, and much more 

 abundantly among the pines, up to 9,000 and even 10,000 feet 

 above sea-level. He afterward observed that it was common in 



