LOUISIANA TANAGER. 231 



In a female the intestine is 7i inches long. 



The contents of the stomach in both were remains of insects and seeds. 



The digestive organs of this bird, and probably of all the Tanagers of the 

 same group, are thus not essentially different from those of the Passerine 

 tribe, including Finches, Buntings, &c. The oesophagus has a more elon- 

 gated dilatation than in most of the species of that tribe, of which, however, 

 the Corn Bunting of Europe is very similar in this respect. 



LOUISIANA TANAGER. 



+Pyranga Ltjdoviciana, Wils. 



PLATE OCX.— Male and Female. 



Wilson was the first ornithologist who figured this handsome bird. From 

 his time until the return of Mr. Townsend from the Columbia river no 

 specimen seems to have been procured. That gentleman forwarded several 

 males in much finer condition than those brought by Lewis and Clarke. 

 Some of these I purchased, and, on his return to Philadelphia, I was pre- 

 sented with a female by my young friend Dr. Trudeau. The account of 

 this species is by Thomas Nuttall, who, however, was unacquainted with 

 the female. 



"We first observed this fine bird in a thick belt of wood near Lorimer's 

 Fork of the Platte, on the 4th of June, at a considerable distance 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 commenced breeding. About the 

 middle of May we observed the males in small numbers scattered through 

 the dark pine forests of the Columbia, 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 song of the Common Robin, delivered from the 

 tops of the lofty fir-trees. This music continues at short intervals through- 



