by Mr. Drummond, and by myself the same season at Great Bear Lake, in
latitude 65°. Specimens, procured at the former place, and transmitted to
England by the servants of the Hudson's Bay Company, were communicated,
by Mr. Leadbeater, to the Prince of Musignano, who has introduced the species
into his great work on the birds of the United States. In its autumn migration
southwards this bird must cross the territory of the United States, if it does not
actually winter within it; but I have not heard of its having been hitherto seen
in America to the southward of the fifty-fifth parallel of latitude. The mountainous
nature of the country skirting the Northern Paoific Ocean being congenial
to the habits of this species, it is probably more generally diffused in
New Caledonia and the Russian American territories, than to the eastward of
the Rocky Mountain chain. It appears in flocks at Great Bear Lake* about
the 24th of May, when the spring thaw has exposed the berries of the alpine
arbutus, marsh vaccinium, &c., that have been frozen and covered during winter.
It stays only for a few days, and none of the Indians of that quarter with whom
I conversed had seen its nests; but I have reason to believe that it retires in
the breeding season to the rugged and secluded mountain-limestone districts,
in the sixty-seventh and sixty-èighth parallels, when it feeds on the fruit of the
ommon juniper, which abounds in these places.
DESCRIPTION
Of a male, killed at Great Sear Lake on the 24th May, 1826.
Colour.—The plumage very delicate, the barbs long, slender, and detached, but lying
smoothly so as to form a dense covering. The colour is pure bluish-grey on the tail
coverts and posterior part of the back, but elsewhere, both on the ventral and cforsaZ aspects
and on the crest, it is yellowish-grey, deepening on the head and neck into a pleasing brownish-
grey. Front and under tail coverts bright reddish-orange :f chin and a band on each side
of the head deep velvet-black. Primary coverts and quill feathers brownish-black, with a
conspicuous band on the tips of the former : the first primary and the tertiaries unspotted ;
the remaining quills with each a linear spot on the tip of its outer web, which is of a pale
king’s-yellow on four or five of the primaries, and white on the rest and on the secondaries.
Six or seven of the secondaries, and occasionally the longest tertiary, have their shafts terminating
in a curious, small, oblong, flat, cartilaginous ^process, of a bright carmine-red
* 1 observed a large flock, consisting of at least three or four hundred individuals, on the hanks of the Saskatchewan,
at Carlton House, early in May, 1827. They alighted in a grove of poplars, settling all on one or two trees, and making
a loud twittering noise. They stayed only about an hour in the morning, and . within gunshot. were too s;hy to allow me to approach
f The exact colour meant is buff, mixed with tile-red and chestnut-brown, and answering nearly to the helvolus of a n tlin k .. . . . . . '
colour, and having the appearance and lustre of sealing-wax. Tail coloured like the quills,
tipped ^yith a band of king’s-yellow half an inch ■.wide. Bill and legs black. Irides darkled.
Form:, &ct.—Bill typical.. The first and second primaries are subequal and longest, The
tail is nearly, even, and the coverts reach nearly to the end. Tarsi remarkably short, feathered
below the knee. Lateral toes unequal.
A female,, killed at the same time, differs in having the marks on the tips of the primaries
untinged with yellow; the cartilaginous prolongations fewer; a narrower yellow tip to the tail,
and a smaller and less intense black mark on the chin.
D im en sio n s
IOnfc hth;.e Lminalee.. . TInhceh f.e mLianlee.. , _ '’*V IOnfc thh,e Lmianlee.. TInhceh f.e mLianlee.. Length total - .• ;. - .■ 8* 0 ; 8 6 ■ Length of middle toe . ■ . - (U 9 0 8 ’
„ of. .tail . v >- i. 2; . 6 ; - ; 2; . 6 • „ of middle n$il . • • o q 1 i ,, of wirig . . • i 7è 4 3 , •„ *. of inner toe . 0 0
„ ' -of bill oh its ridge- . 0 6 0 ' i f " of inner mail ' » '' . 0 2 0 „ of bill to rictus . 0 •10i 0 10 „ of hind toe j 0 4 0 . 4 „ of tarsus . • . • 0 10 0 9 ,, of hind nail . . 3 H 0
[62.-] : 2. B o m b y c il l a A m e r ic a n a . The, Cedar-bird.
Ge n u s , Bombycilla. B r isso n .
Bombycilla Carolinensis. B r i s s ., ii., p . 33 7, 1- I d em , 8vo., i., p . 2 5 1 .
Chatterer of Carolina. E dwards, pi. 242.
Cedar-bird ( Ampelis Americana'). W il so n , i., p. 107, pi. 7, f. 1.
Bombycilla Carolinensis. B o n a p . Syn., p . 5 9 , sp . 6 8 .
Recollect. Cana dia n Voyagers.
This species was considered by Linnaeus, Latham, and others, to be a mere-
variety of the preceding one, from which, however, it is perfectly distinct. It is a
more southern bird, not having, been observed hitherto, I believe, to the northward
of the fifty-fourth parallel of latitude. It inhabits the United States the
whole year, being more common in the northern and middle. States in summer,
and frequenting the southern States in the winter season. Wilson informs ns
that it forms compact flocks, containing from twenty to fifty individuals, which
usually alight on the same tree. It feeds on berries of all kinds, and is very fond
of the fruit of the sour-gum and red-cedar. The young are fed at first on insects
and their larv®, but, as they advance in growth, on berries of various kinds.
The female, if disturbed, darts from the nest in silence to a considerable distance ;
no notes of wailing or lamentation are heard from either parent; and the season