LOUISIANA TANAGER. 
99 
near the Mississippi ; but that in a climate so moderate, and where such 
an exuberance of fruits, seeds, and berries are to be found, even during 
winter, this or any other bird should take so much pains in hoarding a 
vast quantity of Indian corn, and attach itself so closely to it, is rather 
apocryphal. The same writer, vol. ii. p. 24, relates similar particulars 
of the Cardinal Grosbeak (Loxia Cardinal!*), which, though it winters 
in Pennsylvania, where the climate is much more severe, and where the 
length and rigors of that season would require a far larger magazine, 
and be a three-fold greater stimulus to hoarding, yet has no such habit 
here. Besides I have never found a single crain of Indian corn in the 
stomach of the Summer Red-bird ; though I have examined many indi- 
viduals of both sexes. On the whole, I consider this account of Du 
Pratz's in much the same light with that of his countryman Charlevoix, 
who gravely informs us, that the Owls of Canada lay up a store of live 
mice for winter, the legs of which they first break, to prevent them 
from running away, and then feed them carefully, and fatten them, till 
wanted for use.* 
Its manners, though neither its bill nor tongue, partake very much 
of those of the Flycatcher ; for I have frequently observed both male 
and female, a little before sunset, in parts of the forest clear of under- 
wood, darting after winged insects, and continuing thus engaged till it- 
was almost dusk. 
Species III. TAN AGRA LUDOVICIANA. 
LOUISIANA TANAGER. 
[Plate XX. Fig. i.] 
Tins bird, and the two others that occupy the same plate, were dis- 
covered in the remote regions of Louisiana, by an exploring party under 
the command of Captain George Merriwether Lewis, and Lieutenant, 
now General, William Clark, in their memorable expedition across the 
contine it to the Pacific Ocean. They are entitled to a distinguished place 
in the pages of American Ornithology, both as being till now, alto- 
gether 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 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 
* Travels in Canada, Vol. I, p. 239. Lond. 1761, Svo. 
