6 
THE CONDOR 
Vol. XVIII 
bank [El Dorado, 12 miles northeast of Helena] the prickly pears are so 
abundant that we could scarcely find room to lye. I saw a black woodpecker 
(or crow) today about the size of the lark woodpecker [Flicker] as black as 
a crow. I endeavored to get a shoot at it but could not it was a distinct spe- 
cies of woodpecker; it has a long tail and flys a good deel like the jay bird.”* 
No specimen of either was secured until about May 27, 1806, on the homeward 
journey, and in the diary of this and the following day detailed descriptions 
are given. The specimens were taken on the Upper Kooskooski near the base 
of the Bitter-root Mountains, in Idaho, and were now clearly recognized as a 
crow and a woodpecker, respectively. 
The Sage Grouse is mentioned in many places, and a sketch of it was 
made. The first reference is as follows: August 12, 1805, near Dillon, Montana, 
“we also saw several of the heath cock with a long pointed tail and an uni- 
form dark brown colour but could not kill one of them, they are much larger 
than the common dunghill fowls and in their [h]abits and manner of flying 
resemble the growse or prairie hen.”t On August 20, Capt. Clarke says, “I 
killed a Pheasent at the Indian Camp larger than a dungal [dunghill] fowl 
with f[l]eshy protubrances about the head like a turkey.”! This completes 
the contributions of Lewis and Clarke to American ornithology. 
Pike ’s expedition to the Rocky Mountains in 1806 was no better equipped 
with naturalists than was that of Lewis and Clarke, and added nothing to our 
knowledge of western ornithology. It is mentioned in this connection only 
because of its possibilities in this line, for Alex. Wilson, endorsed by William 
Bartram, the veteran Philadelphia naturalist, made an earnest plea to Presi- 
dent Jefferson to be allowed to accompany the party. He received no reply 
whatever to his letter, and, in as much as he had already had a cordial ex- 
change of letters with Jefferson on ornithological matters, it seems probable 
that his application never reached the President’s eye. 
The organization of Major Long’s party for another expedition to the 
Rockies in 1819 showed an appreciation of the scientific possibilities of such 
expeditions and two able Philadelphia naturalists were selected to accompany 
it, Thomas Say, one of the founders of the Philadelphia Academy who was 
then 32 years of age, and Titian Peale, youngest son of the founder of the 
famous Philadelphia Museum, who had just turned 19. 
This expedition did not propose to pass beyond the Rocky Mountains, and 
strictly speaking has no bearing upon the ornithology of the coast; but since 
it brought to light no less than twelve characteristic coast birds, even though 
they were secured on the eastern edge of their range, it seems to have a place 
in this connection. The new birds were the Dusky Grouse, Band-tailed Pigeon, 
Arkansas Flycatcher, Arkansas Goldfinch, Lark Sparrow, Lazuli Bunting, 
Cliff Swallow, Orange-crowned Warbler, Rock Wren, Say’s Flycatcher, Yel- 
low-headed Blackbird, House Finch, and Burrowing Owl. 
Long’s expedition followed the regular highway to the frontier, the Ohio 
River, down which Lewis and Clarke had gone in 1803 to join their men ; down 
which in 1808 went Audubon and his bride to establish himself in business in 
Kentucky; and down which in 1810 Alexander Wilson had guided his little 
row boat “The Ornithologist” on his trip to New Orleans. They left Pitts- 
burg on May 5, 1819, reaching St. Louis June 9, and Council Bluffs (near the 
♦Thwait’s Original Journal of the Lewis and Clarke Expedition, vol. II, p. 252, 1904. 
tdo. vol. II, pp. 335 and 386. 
