THE MISSOURI RIVER JOURNALS 9/ 



mosquitoes were so numerous downstairs that I took my 

 bed under my arm and went to a room above, where I 

 slept well On going down this morning, I found two 

 other persons from Fort Pierre, and Mr. Culbertson very 

 busy reading and writing letters. Immediately after 

 breakfast young McKenzie and another man were de- 

 spatched on mules, with a letter for Mr. Kipp, and Owen 

 expects to overtake the boat in three or four days. An 

 Indian arrived with a stolen squaw, both Assiniboins; 

 and I am told such things are of frequent occurrence 

 among these sons of nature. Mr. Culbertson proposed 

 that we should take a ride to see the mowers, and Harris 

 and I joined him. We found the men at work, among 

 them one called Bernard Adams, of Charleston, S. C, 

 who knew the Bachmans quite well, and who had read 

 the whole of the "Biographies of Birds." Leaving the 

 men, we entered a ravine in search of plants, etc., and 

 having started an Owl, which I took for the barred one, I 

 left my horse and went in search of it, but could not 

 see it, and hearing a new note soon saw a bird not to be 

 mistaken, and killed it, when it proved, as I expected, to 

 be the Rock Wren ; then I shot another sitting by the 

 mouth of a hole. The bird did not fly off; Mr. Culbert- 

 son watched it closely, but when the hole was demolished 

 no bird was to be found. Harris saw a Shrike, but of 

 what species he could not tell, and he also found some 

 Rock Wrens in another ravine. We returned to the fort 

 and promised to visit the place this afternoon, which we 

 have done, and procured three more Wrens, and killed the 

 Owl, which proves to be precisely the resemblance of the 

 Northern specimen of the Great Horned Owl, which we 

 published under another name. The Rock Wren, which 

 might as well be called the Ground Wren, builds its nest 

 in holes, and now the young are well able to fly, and we 

 procured one in the act. In two instances we saw these 

 birds enter a hole here, and an investigation showed a 



VOL. II. — 7 



