succeeded in bringing it down; and found it to be a young bird of the same species with the one I had killed in the preceding May, but less advanced to its fixed colours; the wings entirely of a greenish yellow, and the rest of the plumage spotted in the most irregular manner, with red, yellow, brown, and greenish. This is the variegated Tanager, referred to in the synonymes prefixed to this article. Having, since that time, seen them in all their stages of colour, during their reidence here, I have the more satisfaction in assuring the reader that the whole four species mentioned by Dr. Latham are one and the same. The two figures in our plate represent the male and female in their complete plumage, and of their exact size.

The food of these birds consists of various kinds of bugs, and large black beetles. In several instances I have found the stomach entirely filled with the broken remains of humble bees. During the season of whortle-berries they seem to subsist almost entirely on these berries, but in the early part of the season on insects of the above description. In Pennsylvania they are a rare species, having myself sometimes passed a whole summer without seeing one of them; while in New Jersey, even within half a mile of the shore opposite the city of Philadelphia, they may generally be found during the season.

The note of the male is a strong and sonorous whistle, resembling a loose trill or shake on the notes of a fife, frequently repeated; that of the female is rather a kind of chattering, approaching nearly to the rapid pronunciation of chicky-tucky-tuck, ehicky-tucky-tuck, when she sees any person approaching the neighbourhood of her nest. She is, however, rarely seen, and usually mute, and scarcely to be distinguished from the colour of the foliage at a distance; while the loquacity and brilliant red of the male make him very conspicuous; and when seen among the green leaves, particularly if the light falls strongly on his plumage, he has a most beautiful and elegant appearance. It is worthy of remark, that the females of almost all our splendid feathered birds are drest in plain and often obscure colours, as if Providence meant to favour their personal concealment, and

consequently that of their nest and young from the depredations of birds of prey; while among the latter, such as Eagles, Owls, Hawks, &c. which are under no such apprehension, the females are uniformly covered with richer coloured plumage than the males.

The Summer Red-bird delights in a flat sandy country covered with wood, and interspersed with pine trees, and is consequently more numerous towards the shores of the Atlantic than in the interior. In both Carolinas, and in Georgia and Florida, they are in great plenty. In Mexico some of them are probably resident, or at least winter there; as many other of our summer visitants are known to do. In the northern states they are very rare; and I do not know that they have been found either in Upper or Lower Canada. Du Pratz, in his History of Louisiana, has related some particulars of this bird, which have been repeated by almost every subsequent writer on the subject, viz. that "it inhabits the woods on the Mississippi, and collects against winter a vast magazine of maize, which it carefully conceals with dry leaves, leaving only a small hole for entrance; and is so jealous of it, as never to quit its neighbourhood except to drink." It is probable, though I cannot corroborate the fact, that individuals of this species may winter 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 Cardinalis), 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 grain of Indian corn in the stomach of the Summer Red-bird; though I have examined many individuals of both sexes. On the whole, I consider this account of Du Pratz's in much the same light with that of his country

VOL. II-E e

man 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 underwood, darting after winged insects, and continuing thus engaged till it was almost dusk.

Travels in Canada, vol. I, p. 239. Lond. 1761, 8vo.

LOUISIANA TANAGER.

[Plate XX.-Fig. 1.]

PEALE'S Museum, No. 6236.

THIS bird, and the two others that occupy the same plate, were discovered, 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 continent to the Pacific Ocean. They are entitled to a distinguished place in the pages of AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY, both as being, till now, altogether 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 much neatness as the state of the skins would permit. Of three of these, which were put into my hands for examination, the most perfect was selected for the drawing. Its size and markings were as follow. Length six inches and a half; back, tail, and wings black; the greater wing-coverts tipt with yellow, the next superior row wholly yellow; neck, rump, tail-coverts and whole lower parts greenish yellow; forepart of the head to and beyond the eyes, light scarlet; bill yellowish horn colour; edges of the upper mandible ragged, as in the rest of its tribe; legs light blue; tail slightly forked, and edged with dull whitish: the whole figure about the size, and much resembling in shape, the Scarlet Tanager (Plate 11, fig. 3.); but evidently a different species, from the black back, and yellow coverts. Some of the feathers on the upper 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 particularly subject to changes of colour, 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 confess when the preserved specimen of the present species was first shown me, I suspected it to have been passing through 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 species generally, or at what particular season these were shot, prevents 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.