BOHEMIAN WAXVVING. 359 



bird has only lately been detected in America, having been 

 discovered in the spring of 1826, near the sources of the 

 Athabasca, or Elk River, by Mr. Drummond, and by my- 

 self the same season, at Great Bear Lake, in latitude 65°. 

 In its autumn migration southwards, this bird must cross the 

 territory of the United States, if it does not actually winter 

 within it ; but I have not heard of its having been hitherto 

 seen in America to the southward of the fifty-fifth parallel of 

 latitude. The mountainous nature of the country skirting 

 the Northern pacific Ocean being congenial to the habits of 

 this species, it is probably more generally diffused in New 

 Caledonia and the Russian American territories, than to the 

 eastward of the Rocky Mountain chain. It appears in flocks 

 at Great Bear Lake about the 24th of May, when the spring 

 thaw has exposed the berries of the alpine arbutus, marsh 

 vaccinium, &c. that have been frozen and covered during 

 winter. It stays only for a few days ; and none of the In- 

 dians of that quarter, with whom I conversed, had seen its 

 nest ; but I have reason to believe that it retires in the 

 breeding season to the rugged and secluded mountain-lime- 

 stone districts, in the sixty-seventh and sixty-eighth parallels, 

 when it feeds on the fruit of the common juniper, which 

 abounds in these places." In a note, Dr. Richardson adds, 

 " I observed a large flock, consisting of at least three or four 

 hundred individuals, on the banks of the Saskatchewan, at 

 Carlton House, early in May 1827. They alighted in a 

 grove of poplars, settling all on one or two trees, and making 

 a loud twittering noise. They stayed only about an hour in 

 the morning, and were too shy to allow me to approach with- 

 in gunshot." 



Such are the accounts and opinions of observers and natu- 

 ralists who have written most recently on this bird. Of its 

 habits in this country, it may be briefly stated that it has 

 once appeared as early in the season as August. In that 



