_Tanagra ludoviciana_, WILSON, Am. Orn. III, 1811, 27, pl. xx, f.
1.—BON. Obs. 1826, 95.—AUD. Orn. Biog. IV, 1838, 385; V, 1839, 90,
pl. cccliv, cccc. _Tanagra_ (_Pyranga_) _ludoviciana_, BONAP. Syn.
1828, 105.—NUTTALL, Man. I, 1832, 471. _Pyranga ludoviciana_,
RICH. List, 1837.—BONAP. List, 1838.—AUD. Syn. 1839, 137.—IB.
Birds Am. III, 1841, 211, pl. ccx.—SCLATER, Pr. Zoöl. Soc. 1856,
125.—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 145. _Pyranga erythropis_,
VIEILLOT, Nouv. Dict. XXVIII, 1819, 291. (“_Tanagra columbiana_,
JARD. ed. Wilson, I, 317,” according to Sclater, but I cannot find
such name.)
SP. CHAR. Bill shorter than the head. Tail slightly forked; first
three quills nearly equal. _Male._ Yellow; the middle of the back, the
wings, and the tail black. Head and neck all round strongly tinged
with red; least so on the sides. A band of yellow across the middle
coverts, and of yellowish-white across the greater ones; the tertials
more or less edged with whitish. _Female._ Olive-green above,
yellowish beneath; the feathers of the interscapular region dusky,
margined with olive. The wings and tail rather dark brown, the former
with the same marks as the male. Length, 7.25; wing, 3.60; tail, 2.85.
HAB. Western portions of United States, from the Missouri Plains to
the Pacific; north to Fort Liard, south to Cape St. Lucas. Oaxaca
(SCL.); Guatemala (SCL.); Orizaba (SCL.); Vera Cruz (winter,
SUMICHRAST).
HABITS. This bird is one of the many instances in which Wilson has
been unfortunate in bestowing upon his new species a geographical name
not appropriate at the present time. We have no evidence that this
bird, called the Louisiana Tanager, is ever found within the modern
limits of that State, although it occurs from the Great Plains to the
Pacific, and from Fort Liard, in the northern Rocky Mountains, to
Mexico.
It was first met with by Lewis and Clark’s party, on the Upper
Missouri, a region then known as Louisiana Territory. They were said
to inhabit the extensive plains in what was then called Missouri
Territory, building their nests in low bushes, and even among the
grass, and delighting in the various kinds of berries with which those
fertile prairies were said to abound.
Mr. Nuttall, who met with these birds in his Western excursions,
describes them as continually flitting over those vast downs,
occasionally alighting on the stems of some tall weed, or the bushes
bordering the streams. Their habits are very terrestrial, and from
this he infers that they derive their food from the insects they find
near the ground, as well as from the seeds of the herbage in which
they chiefly dwell. He found them a common and numerous species,
remaining in the country west of the Mississippi until the approach of
October. In his first observations of them he states that though he
had seen many of these birds, yet he had no recollection of hearing
them utter any modulated or musical sounds. They appeared to him shy,
flitting, and almost silent.
He first observed these birds in a thick belt of wood near Laramie’s
Fork of the Platte, at a considerable distance east of the Black
Hills. He afterwards found them very abundant, in the spring, in the
forests of the Columbia, below Fort Vancouver. In these latter
observations he modified his views as to their song, and states that
he could frequently trace them by their notes, which are a loud,
short, and slow, but pleasing warble, not very unlike that of the
common Robin, delivered from the tops of lofty fir-trees. Their music
continues, at short intervals, during the forenoon, and while they are
busily engaged in searching for larvæ and coleopterous insects, on the
small branches of the trees.
Dr. Suckley found this Tanager quite abundant at certain seasons in
the vicinity of Fort Steilacoom. In one year a very limited number
were seen; in another they were very abundant. From frequent
opportunities to examine and to study their habits, he was inclined to
discredit the statement of Nuttall that they descend to low bushes,
the reverse being the rule. He found it very difficult to meet with
any sufficiently low down in the trees for him to kill them with fine
shot. Their favorite abode, in the localities where he observed them,
was among the upper branches of the tall _Abies douglassii_. They
prefer the edge of the forests, rarely retiring to the depths. In
early summer, at Fort Steilacoom, they could be seen during the middle
of the day, sunning themselves in the firs, or darting from one of
those trees to another, or to some of the neighboring white oaks on
the prairie. Later in the season they were to be seen flying very
actively about in quest of insect food for their young. On the 10th of
July he saw one carrying a worm in its mouth, showing that its young
were then hatched out. During the breeding-season they are much less
shy, the males frequently sitting on some low limb, rendering the
neighborhood joyous with their delightful melody.
Their stomachs were found filled with insects, chiefly coleoptera;
among these were many fragments of the large green _Buprestis_, found
on the Douglass fir-trees.
Dr. Cooper adds to this account, that this bird arrives at Puget Sound
about May 15, and becomes a common summer resident in Washington
Territory, especially near the river-banks and among the prairies, on
which are found deciduous trees. He compares its song to that of its
black-winged relative (_P. rubra_), being of a few notes only,
whistled in the manner of the Robin, and sounding as if the bird were
quite distant, when in reality it is very near. He met with these
birds east of the Rocky Mountains and up to the 49th parallel.
In California the same observer noticed their arrival near San Diego,
in small parties, about the 24th of April. The males come in advance
of their mates, and are more bold and conspicuous, the females being
rarely seen. He saw none of them in the Coast Range toward Santa Cruz,
or at Santa Barbara, in summer. He also found them in September, 1860,
in the higher Rocky Mountains, near the sources of the Columbia, in
latitude 47°. In the fall the young and the old associate in families,
all in the same dull-greenish plumage, feeding on the berries of the
elder, and other shrubs, without the timidity they manifest in spring.
Mr. J. K. Lord states that he did not once meet with this species west
of the Cascade Mountains. He found them on the Spokan Plains and at
Colville, where they arrive in June. Male birds were the first to be
seen. On their arrival they perch on the tops of the highest
pine-trees, and continually utter a low piercing chirp. They soon
after pair, and disappear in the forest. Where they breed, Mr. Lord
was not able to discover, though he sought high and low for their
nests. As he never succeeded in finding them, he conjectured that they
must breed on the tops of the loftiest pine-trees. They all leave in
September, but do not assemble in flocks.
These Tanagers breed at least as far to the south as Arizona, Dr.
Coues having found them a summer resident near Fort Whipple, though
rare. They arrive there in the middle of April, and leave late in
September.
Mr. Salvin states that this Tanager was found between the volcanoes of
Agua and Fuego, at an elevation of about five thousand feet. Specimens
were also received from the Vera Paz.
Specimens of this species were taken near Oaxaca, Mexico, by Mr.
Boucard, where they are winter residents.
Mr. Ridgway writes that he first met with these Tanagers in July,
among the pines of the Sierra Nevada. There its sweet song first
attracted his attention, it being almost exactly similar to that of
its eastern relative (_P. rubra_). Afterwards he continually met with
it in wooded portions, whether among the willows and cotton wood of
the river-valleys, or the cedars and piñons of the mountains. In May,
1868, among the willows and buffalo-berry thickets of the Truckee
Valley, near Pyramid Lake, it was very abundant, in company with
Grosbeaks and Orioles, feeding upon the buds of the grease-wood
(_Obione_), and later in the summer among the cedars and nut-pines of
East Humboldt Mountains, where the peculiar notes of the young
arrested his attention, resembling the complaining notes of the
Bluebird, but louder and more distinct. In September he noticed them
feeding, among the thickets bordering the streams, upon the pulpy
fruit of the thorn-apple (_Cratægus_) that grew plentifully in the
thickets. To the eastward it was continually met with, in all wooded
portions, as far as they explored.
In manners, it is very similar to the _P. rubra_. The songs of both
birds are very nearly alike, being equally fine, but that of this
species is more silvery in tone, and uttered more falteringly. Its
usual note of _plit-it_ is quite different from the _chip-a-ra´-ree_
of the _P. rubra_.
He met with their nest and eggs at Parley’s Park, Utah, June 9, 1869.
The nest was on the extreme end of a horizontal branch of a pine, in a
grove, flat, and with only a very slight depression, having a diameter
of four and a half inches, with a height of only an inch. It was
composed externally of only a few twigs and dry wiry stems, and lined
almost entirely with fine vegetable rootlets.
The eggs, usually three in number, measure .95 by .66 of an inch. In
form they are a rounded-oval. Their ground-color is a light
bluish-green, sparingly speckled, chiefly at the larger end, with
marking of umber, intermingled with a few dots of lilac.
Pyranga hepatica, SWAINSON.
_Pyranga hepatica_, SWAINSON, Phil. Mag. I, 1827, 124.—SCLATER, Pr.
Zoöl. Soc. 1856, 124.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 302, pl.
xxxi.—KENNERLY, 131.—RIDGWAY, Pr. A. N. S. 1869, 132.—COOPER, Orn.
Cal. 1, 1870, 144. _Phœicosoma hepatica_, CAB. Mus. Hein. 1851,
25. _Pyranga azaræ_, WOODHOUSE, Sitgreave’s Expl. Zuñi, 1853, 82
(not of other authors).
SP. CHAR. “Length, 8.00”; wing, 4.12; tail, 3.36; culmen, .68; tarsus,
.84. Second quill longest, first intermediate between fourth and
fifth. Bill somewhat shorter than that of _æstiva_, but broader and
higher at the base, becoming compressed toward the end; a distinct
prominent tooth on commissure; its color plumbeous-black, paler, or
more _bluish_ plumbeous on lower mandible. _Male._ Head above
brownish-red, purer anteriorly; rest of upper parts and sides
brownish-ashy, tinged with reddish; edges of primaries, upper
tail-coverts and tail, more reddish. Beneath, medially, fine light
scarlet, most intense on the throat, growing gradually paler
posteriorly. Lores and orbital region grayish-white; eyelids pale-red;
ear-coverts ashy-red.
_Female._ Above ashy-greenish-olivaceous, brightest on forehead; edges
of wing-feathers, upper tail-coverts, and tail more ashy on the back;
beneath nearly uniform olivaceous-yellow, purer medially; lores ashy;
a superciliary stripe of olivaceous-yellow. _Young male_ similar to
the female, but forehead and crown olivaceous-orange, brightest
anteriorly; superciliary stripe bright orange, whole throat, abdomen,
and breast medially rich yellow, most intense, and tinged with
orange-chrome on throat.
HAB. Mountain regions of Mexico and southern Rocky Mountains of United
States. Oaxaca (Oct., SCLATER); Xalapa (SCL.); Guatemala (SCLATER);
Vera Cruz (not to alpine regions, SUMICHRAST).
This species differs from all the others in the great restriction of
the red; this being confined principally to the head above, and median
lower surface, the lateral and upper parts being quite different
reddish-ashy. The _shade_ of red is also peculiar among the North
American species, being very fine and light, of a red-lead cast, and
most intense anteriorly.
HABITS. A single female specimen in full plumage of this beautiful
bird was obtained by Dr. Woodhouse in the San Francisco Mountains of
New Mexico. It was an adult female, and so far is the only one known
to have been found within the limits of the United States. It is not
rare in the highlands of Mexico, whence it probably extends into the
mountainous portions of the United States.
Specimens have also been procured from Guatemala, and Mr. Boucard met
with it at Choapam, a mountainous district in the State of Oaxaca,
Mexico.
Nothing is known of its habits.
Pyranga æstiva, var. æstiva VIEILL.