DESCRIPTION AND TECHNICAL OBSERVATIONS.
Genus Toxostoma. Wagler, Isis, 1831, p. 528. Harpes. Gambel, Proc. Acad., Philada., II. p. 264. (1845.)
Bill long, much curved, somewhat depressed, blunt; ridges of both mandibles strongly defined; wings short, rounded; first quill short, fourth and fifth and sixth longest; tail long; legs robust; toes rather long; claws large, strong; plumage of the upper parts loose; feathers of the rump lengthened. A genus containing four or perhaps five species, all of which inhabit the western and southwestern countries of North America.
Toxostoma rediviva. (Gambel.) Harpes rediviva. Gamb., Proc. Acad. Philada., II. p. 264. (1845.)
Form. The largest of the genus; bill long, curved; wings short, rounded, first quill subspurious, fifth and sixth slightly longest and nearly equal; tail long, graduated; outer feathers about one inch shorther than those in the middle; tarsi strong; toes long; claws, especially of the hind toes, large, strong.
Dimensions. Total length, male, about 11½ inches; wing, 4; tail, 5¼; bill, 1¾; tarsus, 1½ inches.
Colors. Entire upper parts light brown, slightly tinged with rufous on the rump; quills brownish black, edged on their outer webs with lighter; tail brownish-black, with a reddish tinge, lighter on the under surface; an obscure ashy white superciliary line; auricular feathers dark brown, with central white lines; throat white; breast and sides light brown, tinged with ashy and fulvous; middle of the abdomen, flanks and under tail-coverts rufous, darker on the last; bill black; tarsi lighter; “irides hazel.” Sexes alike?
Hab. California. Spec. in Mus. Acad., Philadelphia, and Nat. Mus., Washington.
Obs. There are two other species of this genus, both of which the present bird somewhat resembles, but it can easily be distinguished on comparison by its larger size. From the published descriptions the different species cannot be distinguished so readily, on account of their similarity of form and general characters.
Dr. Gambel regarded this bird as identical with a species mentioned and figured by the distinguished, though unfortunate navigator, La Perouse, and published in “Voyage de La Peyrouse autour du Monde,” Atlas, pl. 37 (Paris, 1797), under the name of “Promerops de la California Septentrionale.” Under this impression, Dr. Gambel gave this bird its specific name, redivivus.
Whether it is the fact, however, that the figure in La Peyrouse represents the present bird, admits of some doubt. To us it is much more like Toxostoma curvirostris, a smaller species.
Plate 43
The Vermilion Flycatcher
Cardellina rubra (Swainson)
CARDELLINA RUBRA.—(Swainson.)
The Vermilion Flycatcher.
PLATE XLIII. Males.
Of this brilliant-plumaged little Flycatcher, we have, we regret to say, but little information. It has been known as a Mexican bird since 1827, when specimens were sent to Europe for the first time by Mr. William Bullock, a Fellow of the Linnæan Society of London, who was then resident in Mexico, but has as yet been obtained once only within the limits of the United States. It was received in a collection made in Texas, and containing many interesting species, by Mr. J. P. Giraud, an accomplished and active ornithologist of the city of New York, and was by him first introduced as entitled to a place in the ornithological fauna of this country. Since that period no one of the several American naturalists who have visited Texas, has had the good fortune to meet with it.
This bird was first described by Mr. Swainson, in the Philosophical Magazine, new series, I. p. 367, but little or nothing more is said of it than on the authority of Mr. Bullock, it is stated to be an inhabitant of the table lands, and that the specimens in his collection were obtained in the vicinity of Valladolid. Mr. Bullock himself, in his interesting book, “Six Months in Mexico,” does not allude to it.
Nor is there, in a more elaborate paper, in which this bird is described by the Baron de la Fresnaye, in Guerin’s Magazine of Zoology (as cited below), a much more explicit or satisfactory history. Its habits, it is stated, resemble those of the Tits (Genus Parus), and it has a feeble cry like the syllables pe-pe-pe. Mons. de la Fresnaye’s specimens were from Jalapa, and were killed in August.
This bird belongs to a group of Flycatchers of small size, of which various species inhabit the warmer parts of America, and are represented in the North only by the Redstart (Setophagha ruticilla), a common and well known bird of the United States. Nearly all the species are remarkable for the gay and showy colors of their plumage; but the bird now before us is certainly entitled to precedence on such foundation for pretensions. It is not equalled by any other species of its group, and is in fact one of the most beautiful of the smaller birds of North America.
Our figures, which represent adult males, are about two-thirds of the size of life, and were drawn from specimens obtained in Mexico, now in the collection of the Philadelphia Academy.