144 



WREN- TAN AGER— FINCHES— SPARROW- KITE. 



Morelet's Finch. Little Seed-eater. (Spcrmophila morelettii.) 



F'g. 4- 



The range of this pretty little bird is from Mexico to Texas. It 

 is a rare species, and is admitted to our fauna by its being occa- 

 sionally met with on the Rio Grande. It was first described by 

 Prince Bonaparte, from a specimen in the Paris Museum, taken 

 near the Lake of Peten, in Guatemala, by M. Morelet. 



Cactus Wren. Brown-headed Creeper Wren. 



brunneicapillus.') 



Fig. 5- 



( Ca?npylorhynchus 



This species is considered the largest of the family, and is found 

 to be common along the line of the Rio Grande, and the south- 

 western borders of the United States, especially in places where 

 the country presents a broken surface and a confused mass of vol- 

 canic rocks, covered with thorny bushes and cacti. It is a lively 

 bird, and occasionally utters a few trill ringing notes. Its food 

 consists of berries and insects. According to Dr. Heerman, the 

 nest is composed of grasses and lined with feathers, was in the 

 shape of a long purse, enormous for the size of the bird, and laid 

 flat between the forks or on the brandies of a cactus. The entrance 

 was a covered passage, varying from six to ten inches in length. 

 The eggs, six in number, are described as being of a salmon 

 coJor, very pale, and often so thickly speckled with ash and 

 darker salmon colored spots as to give quite a rich cast to the whole 

 surface of the egg. 



Hepatic Tanager. Liver-colored Tanager. (Pyranga hepatica.) 



Fig. 6. 



This beautiful Tanager is met with in the Southern Rocky 

 Mountains of the United States, and in the mountainous regions of 

 Mexico. Dr. Woodhouse obtained the first specimen in the San 

 Francisco mountains of Arizona. It was a full grown female, and 

 is the only one known to have been discovered in the United States. 



White-throated Swift. Rock Swift. (Panyptila saxatilis.) 

 Fig. 7. 



Dr. Kennedy first discovered this species on Bill Williams' Fork, 

 New Mexico, in 1864. He speaks of it as a very curious and in- 

 teresting bird, found by him onty among the canons of that stream, 

 and not observed elsewhere during their journey. Large flocks 

 could be seen at any time in the vicinity of those canons, flying 

 and circling around very high, and far beyond the reach of shot. 

 Toward the close of the day, when the sun had sunk behind the 

 hills, they occasionally descended lower. He only met with them 

 where the walls of the canons were very high, and consisted almost 

 of perpendicular masses of rock. At times they were seen to 

 sweep low down, and then to ascend nearly perpendicularly very 

 near the stones, as if examining them, in order to select a place for 

 their nests. The construction of these had obviously not then 

 commenced. Mr. Mollhausen was of the opinion that these birds 

 build in the holes and crevices of the cliffs. According to Mr. 

 Ridgway it is a very noisy species, having a vigorous chatter, re- 

 minding one somewhat of the notes of young Baltimore Orioles 

 when being fed by their parents. 



Cassins Purple Finch. (Carpodacus casst'm.) 

 Fig. %.W 



Rocky Mountains and valley of the Colorado to the Sierra Ne- 

 vada is the habitat of this species. It is similar in its habits to 

 the Purple Finch, represented on Plate XLVIIL, fig. 10, and de- 

 scribed on page 69. 



Mountain Song Sparrow. (MeZcspiza v.-elcdia, var. fallax.) 

 Fig. 9. 



This species is the Rocky Mountain variety of Sor>g Sparrows, 

 distributed from the Atlantic to the Pacific. In habits and song it 

 is similar to the species represented on Pate IV., figs. 4 and 5, and 

 described on page 4. 



Canon Finch. Canon Bunting. Brown Towhee. Canon Towhee, (Pi- 



pilo fuscus, var. mesoleucu^^) 



Fig. 10. 



This little species is met with in the valley of the upper Rio 

 Grande. It was first discovered by Dr. Kennedy, naturalist tc 

 the Pacific Railroad expedition, on the 35th parallel. He met whA 

 it at Bill Williams' Fork, in Arizona, in 1854. * ts habits are sir». 

 ilar to those of Pipilo aberti. 



Abert's Towhee. Abert's Finch. (Pipilo aberti.) 



Fig. 11. 



This is one of the most plainly colored, as well as perhaps th( 

 largest of our North American Finches. Dr. Cooper assigns the 

 base of the Rocky Mountains, in New Mexico, and the valleys of 

 the Gila and Colorado rivers, as the habitat of this' species, and, 

 according to Dr. Coues, it is one of the most abundant and charac- 

 teristic birds of those two valleys, and also that it ranges north- 

 ward to within a few miles of Fort Whipple, but is not found in the 

 adjacent mountains. Like the Canon Bunting, it lives mostly on 

 the ground. The nest is usually built in thorny shrubs, and is 

 composed of coarse twigs, green herbs, interwoven with strips of 

 bark, grass, and leaves, and lined with horse-hair^when it can be 

 obtained. 



L 



PLATE XCVIII. 



Swallow-tailed Kite. (Nuucterus furcatus.) 

 Fig. 1. 



This beautiful species is common in the South Atlantic and Gulf 

 States, and occasionally extends its migrations to the interior of the 

 State of Wisconsin. Regarding its habits, Dr. Coues says : 



" Marked among its kind by no ordinary beauty of form and 

 brilliancy of color, the Kite courses through the air with a grace 

 and buoyancy it would be vain to rival. By a stroke of the thin- 

 bladed wings and a lashing of the cleft tail, its flight is swayed to 

 this or that side in a moment, or instantly arrested. Now it swoops 

 with incredible swiftness, seizes without a pause, and bears its 

 struggling captive aloft, feeding from its talons as it flies ; now it 

 mounts in airy circles till it is a speck in the blue ether and disap- 

 pears. All its actions, in wantonness or in severity of the chase, 



