Interior of British North America. 65 



p. 4) were taken by me to belong to C. riparia ; but as I find 

 there is another species (C. serripennis) which might be mistaken 

 for it, I must leave the matter doubtful. Whichever of these two 

 species it may be, it breeds in large numbers along the alluvial 

 banks of the Saskatchawan River, where the holes may be seen 

 frequently in horizontal lines, caused by the birds preferring to 

 bore in the softest of the lines of strata in the cliffs. They select 

 situations from 10 to 150 feet above the river; and the Cliff' 

 Swallow {Hirundo lunifrons) frequently constructs its mud-nests 

 in the same bank. No specimen is recorded in the ' Fauna 

 Bor.-Am. ;^ but Mr. Bernard Ross gives C. repam abundant as 

 far north as the Arctic Sea. 



43. Progne purpurea. 



No specimen is recorded in the ' Fauna Bor.-Am.,' although 

 the bird is noted ; so that on mine, from the Saskatchawan 

 (' Ibis/ vol. iv. p. 4), rests the undoubted occurrence of the Pur- 

 ple Martin to the west of Canada and north of the United States. 



Ampelis garrulus. 



The European Wax- wing was obtained by both Mr. Drummond 

 and Sir John Richardson, as recorded in the 'Fauna Bor.-Am.,' 

 in the Mackenzie River district ; and specimens and eggs have 

 since been collected in that locality by Mi*. Bernard Ross and Mr. 

 R. Kennicott. A specimen was shot in February, which stamps 

 it as a much more northern bird than the following species. 



Ampelis cedrorum. 



The ' Fauna Bor.-Am.' records a specimen of this species 

 killed on the south branch of the Saskatchawan. The " Wax- 

 wing " is also known to the inhabitants of Red River Settlement. 

 On the 25th of August, while travelling at the western base of 

 the Rocky Mountains, near the Kootonay River, in latitude 49", 

 I saw a number of Cedar Birds, of which I killed a couple : one 

 proved to be a male in the young plumage ; it was 6f in. long, 

 and 3| in. in the wing, which seems to prove its being A. cedro- 

 rum. Their stomachs were filled with a delicious berry, called 

 by the Cree Indians and half-breeds the " Sasketoon.'^ 



44. COLLYRIO borealis. 



It will be seen by the date of one of my specimens (' Ibis,' 



VOL. V. F 



