PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 257 



2. JiTYCTIAEDEA VIOLACEA (Linil.). 



" ' Crabier montagne.' Caught in a dark ravine in the mountains near 

 Roseau and brought to me alive. I kept it for more than a week, feed- 

 ing it on cray-flsh and land-crabs, which it devoured with avidity. It 

 died suddenly." ^ 



3. Charadrius virginicus, Borkh. 



" Golden plover. Shot on sea-beach." 



4. Angus stolidus (Linn.). 



" ' Twa-oo.' Brought to me alive when very young and I kept it alive 

 for nearly a year, when it was choked by a careless child. It became 

 very tame. It used to fly on to the roof of my house and bathe in a duck- 

 l)oud in the garden. I gave it fish cut into small pieces." 



5. Strix flammea var nigrescens, Lawr. 



''Owl. It is, I think, different in i^lumage and certjynly smaller than 

 one I had some years ago. This bird was caught in the town of Eoseau 

 and brought to me. I kept it ahve for several weeks, when it died sud- 

 denly. It woke up usually just before dark and then partook of its 

 meal of five or six small lizards or a mouse. On introducing a live lizard 

 into its cage it darted down upon it with great quickness ; it seemed to 

 be more of a spring and a droj) than anything else ; it then held the 

 animal in its claw for a minute or so and regarded it intently, then with 

 its sharj) beak it divided the spinal column just behind the head. This 

 occurred once and again, and it would thus ai)pear that the owl is en- 

 dued with the instiuct of the easiest and surest way of killing its prey. 

 The lizard when dead was seized by the head, and by a series of jerks 

 or turnings up of the head the owl actually threw it down its throat. If 

 the lizard was rather large the owl would rest for a while Avith the tail 

 of the reptile hanging out of its mouth." 



I think this specimen is a male; the larger one spoken of was prob- 

 ably a female. 



6. Tringa minutilla, Vieill. 



" ' Becass.' Caught near to the mouth of Eoseau Eiver." 

 New York, June 15, 1880. 



THE EUIiACHOlV OR CANDIiE-FISH OF THE NORTHWEST COAST. 



By JAMES G. S\1^AW. 



This paper I have prepared from my own notes made during a cruise 

 on the United States revenue- steamer Oliver Wolcott to Alaska, during 

 the summer of 1873, as special commissioner to procure articles of Indian 

 manufacture for the National Museum, to be exhibited at the Centennial 

 celebration at Philadelphia, and from information derived from Mr. 

 Eobert Tomlinson, clerk to Kincoleth Mission, Nass Eiver, British 

 Columbia; from Mr. Charles F. Morrison, chief trader Hudson's Bay 



Proc. Nat. Mus. 80 17 Sept. 15, 1 8 80. 



