508 DISTRIBUTION OP THE BLUE-HEADED QEEENLET 



observed, his account of the nest does not agree with the known 

 facts in the case, nor has the species been since ascertained to 

 breed in Louisiana. Such state of the case tends to throw 

 doubt on other portions of Audubon's narrative, in which the 

 actions of the birds are described minutely ; especially as what 

 is said might apply as well to other species as to the present. 

 We learn, however, from Audubon, what is undoubtedly true, 

 that he found the bird both in Texas and Nova Scotia, and 

 that Dr. Bachman bad seen it in South Carolina, where " a 

 sweet and loud song of half a dozen notes" had been heard. 

 The same account includes, furthermore, the statements that 

 specimens had been procured by Townsend on the Columbia 

 Eiver, and a considerable notice by Nuttall of its nesting in the 

 same region. What is now known of the distribution of tlie 

 species confirms these observations, so far at least as the 

 locality is concerned. 



We were thus put in possession of an outline of the geograph- 

 ical distribution of the species, — Texas to Nova Scotia and 

 Georgia to Oregon, — remaining to be filled in by subsequent 

 observers. The earliest of these was Dr. Gambel, who, in 1847, 

 in the papers above cited, speaks of the abundance of the 

 birds in thickets in California during the latter part of the 

 summer. Within a few years thereafter, the bird came to be 

 quite generally known from various localities in the United 

 States unnecessary to specify. In 1855, it was recorded by 

 Gundlach from Cuba, and in the following year by Sclater 

 from Mexico. Xantns and Heermann each shortly afterward 

 confirmed Gambel's California record, as Cooper and Suckley 

 did the earlier indications which Audubon had given for the 

 extreme northwest of the United States; while, just on the 

 heels of these important notices, came Messrs. Sclater and 

 Salvin's announcement from Guatemala. Mcllwraith in 1866 

 placed Canada among the localities in which the bird had 

 been actually observed. We thus had advices from practically 

 all of the United States, excepting only the Southern Eocky 

 Mountain region, Valley of the Colorado, and of course the 

 Great Plains ; and from Nova Scotia, Canada, Cuba, Mexico, 

 and Guatemala. It only remained to cover the Southern 

 Eocky Mountain region, as was not done until the observa- 

 tions of Eidgway in Utah and Nevada and of Henshaw 

 in Arizona completed the picture. These were not made until 

 very recently ; I had never seen the bird in Arizona, where it 



