360 DISTRIBUTION OF CRIMSON-HEADED TANAGER 



"the extensive plains or prairies of the Missouri, between the 

 Osage and the Mandan nations", and were given a "distin- 

 guished place" in his work, ''both as being, until now, alto- 

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

 least icill be, and that at no distant period, part of the western 

 territory of the United States". Wilson seems to have handled 

 three specimens of the Tanager, one of which has gone on record 

 as "Peale's Museum, No. 6236". With the mutations of poli- 

 tics, and the shifting of political boundaries, the name of the 

 Louisiana Tauager, like that of some other animals called ludo- 

 viciana, has become inappropriate; but in maps of the period, 

 the letters "Louisiana" stretched clear across the present 

 northern boundary of the United States into British America. 



Wilson had no information to the point, respecting the habits 

 of this Tanager, nor does the locality in which Lewis and Clarke 

 discovered it appear to be known with precision. It was prob- 

 ably farther west than Wilson indicated ; for the bird is not 

 known to extend eastward beyond the extreme foot-hills of the 

 Rocky Mountains, being a woodland inhabitant to which the 

 prairie stretches offer a barrier not likely to be surpassed. 

 While connected with Lieutenant (now General) G. K. Warren's 

 Exploration, Dr. F. Y. Hay den took the bird in the Black Hills 

 of Dakota and at Laramie Peak ; these points representing its 

 easternmost extension, for all that we know to the contrary. 

 Westward it stretches to the Pacific, at least in all suitable 

 localities ; but its attachment to mountainous tracts is wit- 

 nessed in its apparent absence from large areas within the gen- 

 eral limits of its distribution. It has not been ascertained to 

 penetrate much, if any, beyond the northern borders of the 

 United States ; but in the other direction it extends through 

 Mexico, in suitable tracts of country, and into Central America, 

 where Mr. Salvin has found it at elevations of some five 

 thousand feet. 



It is migratory, like all the other Tanagers of this country, 

 and withdraws altogether from our territory in the autumn, 

 probably during the latter part of September and early in the 

 following month, to reenter the United States in the month of 

 April. Its summer home or breeding range is coextensive with 

 the whole of our country, as far as latitude alone is concerned, 

 and its winter resorts include a considerable portion of Mexico, 

 as well as of regions farther south. I do not know whether or 

 not any of the birds nestle in Mexico, but presume that some 



