28 



LOUISIANA TANAGER. 



black back, and yellow coverts. Some of the feathers on the up- 

 per 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 particu- 

 larly 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 I con- 

 fess when the preserved specimen of the present species was first 

 shewn me, I suspected it to have been passing thro 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. 



The little information I have been able to procure of the spe- 

 cies generally, or at what particular season these were shot, pre- 

 vents 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 Tanagers 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 abound. 



