142 Mr. Dovaras on some Species 
Flesh white, excellent. Pair in April: nest formed of 
small twigs, leaves, and grass, on the declivities of the 
sub-alpine hills, in coppices of Corylus and Betula, very 
generally selecting the vicinity of mountain rills or springs. 
Eggs 13 to 19, nearly the size of a common fowl’s, with 
large and small red sjiecks. 
Period of incubation three weeks. Food, buds of Pinus, 
catkins of Betula, Alnus, and Corylus, berries of Fragaria and 
Vaccinium. The voice is a continuation of distinct hollow 
sounds, Hoo—hoo hoo, like the cooing of a dove. Flight swift, 
steady, and particularly graceful, making but little buzzing or 
clapping noise. On being started from the dark shadowy 
pine-trees, their usual roosting-place, they descend, or, more 
properly, allow themselves to fall within a few feet of the 
ground before they commence flying,—a circumstance which 
often leads the sportsman to think he has secured his bird, 
until the object of his attention leaves him, darting and float- 
ing through the forest. This trait appears to be peculiar to this 
species. No bird is more readily destroyed; they will sit 
. with apparent tranquillity on the rocks or pine branches after 
several shots have been fired. 
_ In spring they are seen in great numbers basking in the sun 
on the southern declivities of the low hills, and in winter in the 
neighbourhood of springs, lakes, or large streams, in flocks of 
sixty or eighty. They are easily captured by small snares formed 
of sinews of the deer tribe. Very abundant on the sub-alpine 
regions of the Rocky Mountains in latitude 52° N. longitude 
115° W. Still more numerous in the mountainous districts of — 
the river Columbia in latitude 48° N., longitude 118° W. 
Rare on the mountains of the north-west coast. I captured 
several in April 1825, and in the winters of 1826-7 several more ; 
the 
> TR —— 
