THE SWALLOWS. 527 



PYRANGA LUDOVICIANA. 

 Louisiana Tanager. 



DESCRiniON. 



Sp. Cii. Size and firm about that of tlie Scarlet Tanai^'er. Color. Adult male. Wings, tail and 

 middle of back, black. Wings with two bars of yellowish on tips of middle and greater coverts, and the 

 inner secondaries are marked with yellowish on outer web. Head, all around, scarlet, fading into the yellow 

 of the breast. Other parts, bright yellow. Iris, brown. Bill, yellowish brown. Feet, bluish. 



Adult female. Greenish above, with the back dusky, beneath, yellowish green tinged with olivaceous on 

 sides. Wings and tail, brown, the former marked with j-ellowish as in the male. Young male, similar to 

 the female, but with the colors beneath brighter. Sometimes the head is mottled with scarlet, and all stages 

 ■of plumage occur between this and the adult dress. 



OBSERVATIONS. 



This species may be distinguished in all stages of plumage from other North American Tanagers by the 

 bands on the wing. Occurs during the breeding season from the Eastern foothills of the Rocky Mountains 

 and upper Missouri region to the Pacific. Winters south of the United States. 



DIMENSIONS. 

 Length, 7.00; stretch, 12.00; wing, -3.75 ; tail, o.OO; bill, .60 ; tarsus. .75. 



NESTS AND EGGS. 

 Nksts, placed in trees, composed of a few twigs, lined with rootlets. Eggs, three or four in number, 

 •oval in form, bluish green in color, spotted and blotched with reddish brown and lilac. Dimensions, .G.5 by 

 ^Jo to .Go by .93. 



HABITS. 

 In general liahits and song the Louisiana Tanager does not appear to difl'er from the 

 Scarlet Tanager. It is a distinctly western species and the only claim that it has to a 

 place in our fauna is through a single specimen which was taken alive in Salem, Mass., 

 January 20th, 1S78. While it is singular that a single specimen should appear so far 

 from its breeding range, the mo.st singular thing of all is that it sliould linve appeared in 

 the dead of winter, when all of its fellows had migrated quite out of the United States. 



FAxMILY III. IIIRUNDINIDAE. THE SWALLOWS. 



V 



Wings, long and pointed. Feet, comparatively small and weak. Bill, small, short, flat and triangular; 

 but with a very wide gape, which extends back quite to the eyes. Coracoid bones, stout, much shorter in 

 length than the top of keel, and set on the sternum with the terminal ends projecting outward, forming a 

 considerable angle with the keel. F\n-cula, stout ; terminal expansion closely approximating the top of 

 the keel, being connected with it by a stout ligature. Primaries, nine. 



All the members of this family are birds of strong flight, being capable of I'emaining on the wing for a 

 considerable lengtli of time ; also of performing rai)id and graceful aerial evolutions. Their sterna are 

 constructed in such a manner as to insure strength for protracted exertion, as is exhibited in the angularly 

 placed coracoid bones, and in the terminal expansion of the furcula, which closely approximates the top of the 

 keel, a character (juite unique among the Oseines which I have examined, being found in but a single genus 

 besides the Hirundinidae, that of Corvus. See Fig. Gl, 1, where I have given' the sternum of a Barn 

 Swallow. The terminal expansion of the furcula, F, comes directly in contact with the tip of the keel, k, 

 which is projected forward to reach it. 



