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The Type Locality of Vireo belli

1910; Oxford University Press; Volume: 27; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/4071323

1938-4254

Wells W. Cooke,

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GeneralNotes.ce near Orland, a few miles southwest of Chicago, came across about two hundred Calcarius pictus.Among them were ten or a dozen Calcarius ornatus, a bird of the western plains, heretofore not recorded from Illinois.The birds were not very shy, allowing a near approach, and were positively identified by Mr. Abbott, who is well acquainted with the species in the field, having previously taken specimens in Dakota and Montana.-HenryK. Coaur, Highland Park, Ill.The Type Locality of Vireo belli Audubon described Vireo belli without giving any type locality.The type specimen is now in the United States National Museum, and is labeled '' Fort Union (?) Mr. Audubon."This specimen is quoted without the question mark in Baird's ' Birds of North America,' 1858, p. 337; in Baird's 'Review of North American Birds,' 1866, p. 358, as '"'Fort Union, Dec. 1843"; while in Baird, Brewer and Ridgway's 'North American Birds,' I, 1874, p. 389, the type locality is given as '' Missouri River," and the statement is made in the text that this species was first procured ''in what is now known as Dakota Territory."The latest manual, Ridgway's 'Birds of North and Middle America,' IIT, 1904, p. 204, gives the type locality as '' Fort Union, Dakota, type in Coll.U. 8. Nat.Mus."There seems to be no foundation in fact, in any of these statements, for giving Fort Union as the type locality.Vireo belli was described by Audubon in his ' Birds of America,' octavo edition, 1844, p. 333, and he says, '"'On the same day that Harris' Finch was procured, Mr. J.G. Bell.... shot one of the species which I am now about to describe.""On page 331 of the same volume, under Fringilla harrisii, the statement is made that the " first specimen seen was procured May 4, 1843, a short distance below the Black Snake Hills."Therefore, according to this statement, the type of Vireo belli was secured May 4, 1843.From the journal of Audubon, it is known that at this date he was a few miles below St. Joseph, Mo., and under this date he speaks of securing '"'a new Finch" (Audubon and his Journals, by Maria R. Audubon, I, 1897, p. 470), but he says nothing of any new Vireo.Two days later, however, he says: 'Bell also shot a small Vireo, which is in all probability a new species (to me at least)."This is the Vireo belli, and at this date the party was at St. Joseph, Mo.There is thus a discrepancy of two days between the date given in Audubon's journal and that mentioned in the original description of Vireo belli.Audubon's journal mentions that another specimen of the Harris Finch was shot on May 6, and it is evidently this specimen that Audubon remembered when he wrote that Harris's Finch and Bell's Vireo were taken the same day.The type of Vireo belli was therefore taken May 6, 1843