NATURAL HISTORY. 



561 



a light flesh colour. It is not 

 known that this bird preys upon 

 living animals : we have seen him 

 feeding on the remains of the 

 whale and other fish thrown upon 

 the coast by the violence of the 

 waves. This bird was not seen 

 by any of the party until we had 

 descended Columbia river, below 

 the Great Falls, and he is believed 

 to be of the vulture genus, al- 

 though the bird lacks some of 

 the characteristics, particularly 

 the hair on the neck, and the 

 plumage on the legs. 



5. The robin is an inhabitant 

 of the Rocky mountains : the 

 beak is smooth, black, and con- 

 vex; the upper chap exceeds the 

 other in length, and a few small 

 black hairs garnish the sides of 

 its base : the eye is of a uniform 

 deep sea-green colour : the legs, 

 feet, and talons are wliite, of 

 which the front one is of tlie same 

 length as the leg, including the 

 talon ; these are slightly imbri- 

 cated, curved, and sharply point- 

 ed : the crown, from the beak 

 back to the neck, embracing more 

 than half the ciicmuference of the 

 neck, the back, and tail, are all 

 of a bluish dark brown; the two 

 outer feathers of the tail are 

 daslied witii white near their tips, 

 imperceptible when the tail is 

 folded : a fine black forms the 

 ground of their wings ; two 

 stripes of tlie san e colour pass 

 on either side of the liead, from 

 tlie base of tlic Ijeak to the 

 jimction, and embrace the eye 

 to its upper edge : a third strijie 

 of the same colour })asses from 

 the sides of the neck to the 

 tips of the wings, across the 

 crop, in the form of a gorget : 

 the throat, neck, brc;i.it, and 



Vol. LVIII. 



belly, are of a fine brick red, 

 tinged with yellow ; a narrow 

 stripe of this colour commences 

 just above the centre of each eye, 

 and extends backwards to the 

 neck till it conies in contact with 

 the black stripe before mention- 

 ed, to which it seems to answer 

 as a border : the feathers forming 

 the first and second ranges of the 

 coverts of the two joints of the 

 wing next to the body, are beau- 

 tifully tipped with this brick red, 

 as is also each large feather of 

 the wing, on the short side of its 

 plumage. This beautiful little 

 bird feeds on berries. The robin 

 is an iniiabitant exclusively of the 

 woody country ; we have never 

 heard its note, which the cold- 

 ness of the season may perhaps 

 account for. 



6. The crow and raven is ex- 

 actly the stiine in appearance and 

 note as that on the Atlantic, ex- 

 cejit that it is much smaller on 

 the Columbia. 



7. The hawks too of this coast 

 do not (liEFer from those of the 

 United States. We here see the 

 large brown hawk, the small or 

 spuriow hawk, and one of an in- 

 termediate size, called in the 

 United States, the hen hawk, 

 wliich has a long tail and bhie 

 wings, and is extremely fierce, 

 and rapid in its flight. The 

 hawks, crows, and ravens are 

 common to every part of this 

 country, tlieir nests being scat- 

 tered in their high cliffs, along 

 the whole course of the Columbia 

 and its south-eastern branches. 



8. The large blackbird is the 

 same with those of our country, 

 and are found every-where in this 

 country. 



0. Tlie large hooting o>\l we 

 2 O saw 



