Illustrations of the Birds of California, Texas, Oregon, British and Russian America

by John Cassin

DESCRIPTION AND TECHNICAL OBSERVATIONS.

Genus Cardinalis. Bonaparte, Comp. List., p. 35. (1838.)

Bill short, very thick at base; culmen advancing on the forehead; wing moderate; fourth and fifth quills longest and nearly equal; tail long, slightly rounded; tarsi rather long; middle toe long, others moderate; general form robust; tail long; and head above with elongated crest-like feathers on all known species. A genus containing five or six species of handsome birds, peculiar to America.

Cardinalis sinuatus. Bonaparte, Proc. Zool. Soc., London, p. 111. (1837.)

Form. About the size or rather larger than Cardinalis virginianus of North America; not strictly exhibiting the characters of this genus; bill short; lower mandible much thicker than the upper; gonys ascending abruptly; upper mandible curved; wings short; third, fourth and fifth quills nearly equal and longest; tail long; tarsi moderate; head with a conspicuous crest of lengthened erectile feathers.

Dimensions. Total length of skin, about 8 inches; wing, 3¾; tail, 4¼ inches.

Colors. Male.—Plumage encircling the base of the bill; longer feathers of the crest, wide medial longitudinal band on the under parts, tibiæ, and under coverts of the wings, fine crimson; entire upper parts light cinerous, which is the color also of the sides and flanks; quills ashy brown, both webs edged with crimson; tail above and below dark crimson, tinged with brown; abdomen and under tail coverts pale rosy white, the feathers of the latter crimson at their bases; plumage of the breast edged and tipped with pale ashy; bill and tarsi pale yellowish.

Female. Under wing coverts, edges of quills, crest, and tail, pale crimson, the last shaded with brown; entire plumage above cinerous, below yellowish-cinerous; no crimson on the forehead or on the throat or other under parts.

Hab. Texas, Mexico. Spec. in Mus. Acad., Philada., and Nat. Mus., Washington city.

Obs. This beautiful species, though in general form and appearance presenting the characters of Cardinalis, is quite different in the form of the bill, and has been placed by the distinguished and accomplished naturalist who first described it (the Prince of Canino) in a subdivision which he names Pyrrhuloxia (Conspectus Avium, p. 500).

It appears to be restricted to Mexico and the southern part of Texas, though its northern range may yet be ascertained to extend farther than at present known. It does not resemble any other species sufficiently to lead to confusion.

Plate 34
The American Stone Chat
Saxicola œnanthoides (Vigors)

SAXICOLA ŒNANTHOIDES.—Vigors.
The American Stone Chat.
PLATE XXXIV.—Adult.

The Stone Chats and Wheat Ears, which are the English names of birds of the genus Saxicola, are abundant in the old world, though the greater number of the species appear to be restricted to Africa. The few that are natives of Europe are numerous throughout the greater part of that continent. They are birds of plain but agreeable colors, and inhabit fields and other open grounds or plains covered with shrub-like vegetation, running with facility, and making their nests on the ground, or in holes beneath the surface. These are curiously constructed by some species of this group, and very carefully concealed, though frequently in situations much exposed. There are nearly forty species of this group of birds composing the present and a nearly allied genus.

Though there are so many species of these genera, the bird now before us is the only one that appears to be peculiar to the continent of America. One other, the Saxicola œnanthe, a common European bird, is, however, a visitor to this continent. We have seen undoubted specimens from Greenland, and occasionally it strays so far southwardly as New York, in the vicinity of which city a few specimens have been captured, one of which is in the collection of our friend, Mr. George N. Lawrence.

The present bird was originally described in the Zoology of the Voyage of the Blossom, from specimens obtained on the western coast of North America; but apparently the naturalists attached to the party which performed that voyage, had no opportunities of acquiring any information respecting its history or the district that it inhabits. Nor have others been more successful; no American naturalist or traveller having noticed it again in Western America, notwithstanding the researches which have been carried on in that portion of this continent.

The only specimen that we have ever seen of this bird is in the collection of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, to which it was presented by our intimate and valued friend, Thomas M. Brewer, M. D., of the city of Boston, one of the most eminent of American ornithologists, and now particularly devoted to the investigation of the nidification and oology of the birds of this country, the results of which we hope soon to see published. Dr. Brewer obtained the specimen alluded to in Nova Scotia, but could procure no account of it beyond the fact that it was considered as of unusual occurrence in that province.

This bird is very closely allied to the Wheat Ear of Europe (S. œnanthe), and is in all probability of very similar habits. In the absence of positive information we can only suppose it to be an inhabitant of the countries north of the limits of the United States, in which there is a vast extent of territory well adapted to the habits of birds of this group. It is also probably not an abundant species, or it would have been noticed more frequently during its winter migration. But of the ornithology of all the northern portion of the United States from the ninetieth degree of longitude to the Pacific Ocean, or west of the Mississippi river, too little is known to justify any conclusions. Many species of Northern and Western America, of which little or nothing was previously known, have within a few years been demonstrated to be abundant, and such may hereafter prove to be the case with the bird which is the subject of our present article.

The figure in our plate is about two-thirds of the size of life.

The plant represented is Abronia umbellata, a native of western North America.