270 ORIGINAL ARTICLES. 



Should you have any particular destination in view, do witli tliem as 

 you think fit. 



I enclose to your address an amended list of the mammals, birds, 

 and eggs collected in this district up to the present date. This, 

 however, excludes more than 300 specimens from various posts, 

 which I have not yet had time to arrange ; and among which some 

 additional species will doubtless be found. At present, the list 

 contains about 50 sjjecies of mammals and 190 of birds. A 

 considerable portion of the names has been corrected by Professor 

 Baird, and the remainder I am responsible for ; and I do not think 

 there are many errors, as I am now becoming tolerably au fait at 

 identifications. If you think the list would be of interest, as 

 showing the progress of Zoological investigation in the Arctic 

 regions, might I ask you to forward it, after perusal, to some scien- 

 tific journal. You will find, on reading, that the Coli/mbf^s Adamsii 

 is of frequent occmrence on Great Slave Lake ; and I have received 

 about a dozen specimens fii'om the Big-Island. Two specimens of 

 the Somateria V. nigra ha\e also been procm^ed on the same sheet 

 of water, which is the richest field for rare birds of any place in the 

 district. My o-mi Fort Simpson collection you will recognise by a 

 (II) placed after the species obtained here; and from the number 

 thus marked you can form an idea of my labours. The number of 

 specimens collected by myself is about 1000. I procured one nest of 

 the Nyctale Micliardaonii containing three eggs, but I expect four "nnll 

 prove to be the complete number. The bird had built in a Avood- 

 pecker's deserted hole. Two nests of the Surnia ulula were procured 

 for me, one at Lapierre's House and one at Salt Eiver. They were 

 built some height up pine trees, and contained each four eggs. 

 One set is for the British Museum, for which Institution I am 

 forming a general collection. I am surprised that a specimen of the 

 Sialia arctica has not come in yet. 



Ton will see that the advance in Oology is considerable. Could a 

 full series of the eggs of all birds be obtained, I think that they would 

 lead to the most easy and natmal classification for the Aves. The 

 conformation and position of the nests is so much influenced by the 

 natural features of the locality in which they nest, that, though of 

 secondary value, they could not be much depended upon. IVom 

 overlooking this fact, the great ornithologist, Andubon, has in some 

 instances doubted the correctness of other writers' identification of 

 eggs, because the construction of the nests did not absolutely agree 

 with those which fell under his own observation. 



A post has been established this year among the Eskimos. It is 

 built on the Anderson or Inconnue River, a stream rising at some 

 distance eastward of Foi"t Good Hope and falling into Liverpool 

 Bay. I am not very sanguine of the sxiccess of the speculation, in 

 a commercial point of view. 



I hope to obtain leave of absence next year. I have now been 

 fifteen years in this district, and think I deserve a holiday. Tlie 



