LOUISIANA TANAGER. 9y 



near the Mississippi ; but that in a climate so moderate, and where such 

 an exuberance of fruits, seeds, and berries are to be found, even during 

 winter, this or any other bird should take so much pains in hoarding a 

 vast quantity of Indian corn, and attach itself so closely to it, is rather 

 apocryphal. The same writer, vol. ii. p. 24, relates similar particulars 

 of the Cardinal Grosbeak [Loxia CardinaUs), which, though it winters 

 in Pennsylvania, where the climate is much more severe, and where the 

 length and rigors of that season would require a far larger magazine, 

 and be a three-fold greater stimulus to hoarding, yet has no such habit 

 here. Besides I have never found a single grain of Indian corn in the 

 stomach of the Summer Red-bird ; though I have examined many indi- 

 viduals of both sexes. On the whole, I consider this account of Du 

 Pratz's in much the same light with that of his countryman Charlevoix, 

 who gravely informs us, that the Owls of Canada lay up a store of live 

 mice for winter, the legs of which they first break, to prevent them 

 from running away, and then feed them carefully, and fatten them, till 

 wanted for use.* 



Its manners, though neither its bill nor tongue, partake very much 

 of those of the Flycatcher ; for I have frequently observed both male 

 and female, a little before sunset, in parts of the forest clear of under- 

 wood, darting after winged insects, and continuing thus engaged till it 

 was almost dusk. 



Species III. TANAGRA LUDOVICIANA. 



LOUISIANA TANAGER. 



[Plate XX. Fig. 1.] 



This bird, and the two others that occupy the same plate, were dis- 

 covered in the remote regions of Louisiana, by an exploring party under 

 the command of Captain George Merriwether Lewis, and Lieutenant, 

 now General, William Clark, in their memorable expedition across the 

 continent to the Pacific Ocean. They are entitled to a distinguished place 

 in the pages of American Ornithology, both -as being till now, alto- 

 gether unknown to naturalists, and as natives of what is, or at least 

 will be, and that at no distant period, part of the western territory of 

 the United States. 



The frail remains of the bird now under consideration, as well as of 

 the other two, have been set up by Mr. Peale, in his Museum, with as 



* Travels in Canada, Vol. I, p. 239. Lond. 1761, 8vo. 



