PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 257 
2. NYCTIARDEA VIOLACEA (Linn.). 
‘¢* 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-fish and land-erabs, which it devoured with avidity. It 
died suddenly.” 
3. CHARADRIUS VIRGINICUS, Borkh. 
‘¢Golden plover. Shot on sea-beach.” 
4, ANOUS STOLIDUS (Linn.). 
“¢TPwa-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 duek- 
pond in the garden. I gave it fish cut into small pieces.” 
5. STRIX FLAMMEA var NIGRESCENS, Lawr. 
“Owl. It is, I think, different in plumage and certainly smaller than 
one I had some years ago. This bird was caught in the town of Roseau 
and brought to me. I kept it alive for several weeks, when it died sud- 
denly. It woke up usualiy just before dark and then partook of its 
meal of five or six small lizards ora 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 drop than anything else; ‘it then held the 
animal in its claw for a minute or so and regarded it intently, then with 
its sharp beak it divided the spinal column just behind the head. This 
occurred once and again, and it would thus appear that the owl is en- 
dued with the instinet 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 with 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. 
““¢ Bécass” Caught near to the mouth of Roseau River.” 
NEw York, June 15, 1880. 
THE EULACHION OR CANDLE-FISH OF THE NORTHWEST COAST. 
By JAMES G. SWAN. 
‘ 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. 
Robert Tomlinson, clerk to Kincoleth Mission, Nass River, British 
Columbia; from Mr. Charles F. Morrison, chief trader Hudson’s Bay 
Proc. Nat. Mus. 80 aN, Sept. 15, 1880. 
