8 THE AUDUBON 98 Ua eis 
About A Robert Ridgway Sketch 
Of A Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, 
Dated 1858. 
by WILLIAM G. GEORGE 
Department of Zoology 
Southern Illinois University 
In reviewing the northeastward range expansion of the Scissor-taile 
Flycatcher (Muscivora forficata), Graber and Graber (1965) pointed to 
possibility of the species becoming a nester in Illinois as in Kansas (Lon 
1934) and Missouri Graber, 1962). But to date all scissor-tail records fro’ 
Jilinois, as well as from elsewhere east of the Mississippi River, refer ‘ 
migrants (Graber and Graber 1965; ADU Check list, 1957)...unless tk 
accompanying sketch by the famous ornithologist, Robert Ridgway, 
evidence of a historical exception. 
A weak and absurd argument can be made that it is just that: Ridgwa 
was an adroit bird artist even as a child (Harris, 1928). Born July 2, 185 
