530 LAND BIRDS 



rears its brood. By November it comes down to the 

 lowlands, driven probably by lack of food supplies fully 

 as much as by the cold weather. 



607. LOUISIANA TANAGER, OR WESTERN 

 TANAGER. — Piranga ludoviciana. 



Family : The Tanagers. 



Length: 6.75-7.75. 



Adult Male : Head and neck red, brightest on crown ; back, scapulars, 

 wings, and tail black; the wings with two broad yellow bands; rump, 

 upper tail-eoverts, and under parts bright yellow. Winter plumage 

 like female. 



Adult Female : Upper parts olive-green ; back and scapulars grayish ; 

 wing-bars dull light yellow ; under parts pale grayish yellow, becom- 

 ing bright yellow under tail-coverts. 



young : Similar to adult female, but paler beneath ; upper and lower 

 parts indistinctly streaked with dusky. 



Geographical Distribution : Western United States ; straggles eastward 

 in migration to the Atlantic States. 



California Breeding Range : Chiefly in Transition zone along the entire 

 length of the Sierra Nevada. 



Breeding Season : April to July. 



Nest: Thin, saucer-shaped structure; made of bark strips and grass 

 stems ; lined with rootlets and horsehair ; usually placed on the 

 horizontal limb of a tree, preferably an evergreen, about 15 to 30 feet 

 from the ground. 



Eggs ; 3 to 5 ; light bluish green, lightly speckled with browns and 

 purples, chiefly at the larger end. Size 0.95 X 0.65. 



When Louisiana stretched across the continent from 

 the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean and north to 

 British America, the most beautiful bird within its bor- 

 ders became known as the Louisiana Tanager. This ap- 

 pellation has long since ceased to be appropriate, for the 

 bird is only a rare migrant in the State whose name it 

 bears, and its centre of abundance is in the Rocky Moun- 



