172 



DISAPPEARANCE OF THE DICK CISSEL — SMITH. 



the specimens from the District that found their way to tlie Smith- 

 soiiiau Institution : 



Of these thirteen specimens, only the first four are now in the museum 

 collection, all the others having prol)ably been exchanged many years 

 ago. The only other specimen extant, so far as known, is a female in 

 the possession of the writer, taken by Dr. T. C. Smith in 1861. 



It will thus be seen that no specimens of this species have been ob- 

 tained for nearly thirty years. During the first half of that period the 

 bird was still a regular sojourner with us, Mr. Ridgway having found 

 it not uncommon on Columbia Heights about 1872 or 1873, and in 1874 

 he observed a njale on the Virginia side of the Potomac River above 

 the Aqueduct Bridge. He has seen none since that time and believes, 

 as the result of his observations, that the species does not now breed 

 within 40 miles of Washington. 



The most recent and, in fact, the only other record of the bird's oc- 

 currence was in May, 1887, when Mr. H. W. Henshaw saw a male in a 

 field beyond Soldiers' Home, a locality which the species formerly fre- 

 quented. 



Mr. Ridgway's intimate knowledge of the habits of the dick cissel in 

 the Mississippi Valley leads him to state that its occurrence in abun- 

 dance in 1800 is almost as much of a mystery as its absence in 1890, in- 

 somuch as it is a bird of the prairies and extensive natural meadows, 

 such as clover fields — topographical conditions not existing in the vicin- 

 ity of Washington. 



