27 



LOUISIANA TANAGER. 

 TAJVAGRA LUDOVICIANA. 

 [Plate XX.— Fig. 1.] 



Peale's Museum^ JVo. 6236. 



THIS bird, and the two others that occupy the same plate^ 

 were discovered, in the remote regions of Louisiana, by an explor- 

 ing party mider the command of Captain George Merriwether 

 Lewis, and Lieutenant, 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 Ameri- 

 can Ornithology, both as being, till now, altogether unknown 

 to Naturalists, and as natives of what is, or at least will be, and 

 that at no distant period, part of the western territory of the Uni - 

 ted 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 follow. Length six inches and a half; back, tail, and 

 wings black ; the greater wing-coverts tipt with yellow, the next 

 superior row 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 the Scarlet Ta- 

 nager (Plate 11. fig. 3.); but evidently a different species, from the 



