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208 LOUISIANA TANAGER. 
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under the command o Captain George Merriwether Lewis, and Lieu- 
tenant, now General, William Clark, in their memorable expedition 
across the Continent to the Pacific Ocean. They are entitled to a 
distinguished place in the pages of American OrnrTHoLOey, both as 
being, till now, altogether unknown to naturalists, and as natives of 
what 78, or at least will be, and that at no distant period, part of the . 
western territory of the United States. 
The frail remains of the bird now under consideration, as well as of 
the other two, have been set up by Mr. Peale, in his museum, with as 
much neatness as the state of the skins would permit. Of three of 
these, which were put into my hands for examination, the most perfect 
was selected for the drawing. Its size and markings were as fol- 
lows :— Length, six inches and a half; back, tail, and wings, black 
the greater wing-coverts, tipped with yellow; the next superior Tow 
wholly yellow; neck, rump, tail-coverts, and whole lower parts, 
greenish yellow; forepart of the head, to and beyond the eyes, light 
scarlet; bill, yellowish horn color; edges of the upper mandible, 
ragged, as in the rest of its tribe ; legs, light blue ; tail, slightly forked, 
and edged with dull whitish: the whole figure about the size, and 
much resembling. in shape, the Scarlet Tanager, (Figs. 45 and 46 3) 
but evidently a different species, from the black back and yellow 
coverts. Some of the feathers on the upper part of the back were also 
skirted with yellow. A skin of what I supposed to be the female, or a 
young bird, differed in having the wings and back brownish, and in 
being rather less. , 
The family, or genus, to; which this bird belongs, is particularly 
subject to changes of color, both progressively, during the first and ' 
second seasons, and also periodically, afterwards... Some of those that 
inhabit Pennsylvania, change from an ‘olive green to a greenish 
yellow, and, lastly, to a brilliant scarlet; and, T confess, when the 
‘preserved specimen of the present species. was first shown me, I sus- 
pected it to have been passing through a similar change at the time it 
was taken. But, having examined two more skins of the same species 
and finding them all marked very nearly alike, which is seldom the 
case with those birds that change while moulting, I began to think 
that this might be its most permanent, or, at least, its summer or 
winter dress. é 
The little information I have been able to procure of the species 
generally, or at what particular season these were shot, prevents me 
from being able to determine this matter to my wish. 
I can only learn that they inhabit the extensive plains or prairies of 
the Missouri, between the Osage and Mandan nations, building their 
nests in low bushes, and often among the grass. With us, the Tana- 
gers usually build on the branches of a hickory, or white-oak sapling. 
These birds delight in various kinds of berries, with which those rich 
prairies are said to abou 1d. 
