( 385 
LOUISIANA TANAGER. 
Tan4aGra Lupoviciana, Wiis. 
PLATE CCCLIV. Mate. 
Witson was the first ornithologist who figured this handsome bird. 
From his time until the return of Dr TownsEenp from the Columbia 
River no specimen seems to have been procured. That gentleman for- 
warded several males in much finer condition than those brought by 
Lewis and Ciarke. Some of these I purchased, and, on his return 
to Philadelphia, I was presented with a female by my young friend 
Dr Trupeav, of Louisiana, a representation of which you will find 
in Plate CCCC. fig. 4. The only account of this species is by Tuomas 
Nottatt, who, however, was unacquainted with the female. 
“ We first observed this fine bird in a thick belt of wood near Lori- 
mier’s Fork of the Platte, on the 4th of June, at a considerable dis- 
tance to the east of the first chain of the Rocky Mountains (or Black 
Hills), so that the species in all probability continues some distance 
down the Platte. We have also seen them very abundant in the spring, 
in the forests of the Columbia, below Fort Vancouver. On the Platte 
they appeared shy and almost silent, not having there apparently com- 
menced breeding. About the middle of May we observed the males 
in small numbers scattered through the dark pine forests of the Colum- 
bia, restless, shy, and flitting when approached, but at length more 
| sedentary when mated. We frequently traced them out by their song, 
which is a loud, short, slow, but pleasing warble, not much unlike the . 
sohg of the Common Hobin, delivered from the tops of the lofty fir- 
trees. This music continues at short intervals throughout the whole 
forenoon, during which time our songster is busily engaged in quest of 
_ such coleopterous insects and larve as are to be found on the young 
branches of the trees he frequents, and which require an assiduous and 
long-continued search to gratify his wants. Of the female and nest 
we are still ignorant, though they are in all probability very similar to 
those of our other known species. We have not seen this bird as far 
south as Upper California, though it may exist in the thicker forests re- 
mote from the coast, which we had no opportunity of visiting.” 
VOL. IV. Bb 
