On the Geology of the Island of Montreal. 210 



the river. The marl and shells just noticed occur at Gren- 

 ville, on the Ottawa, fifty-five miles west from Montreal. 



To return to the ridge : — As it leaves Montreal to the west, 

 its bowlders gradually disappear; and at St. Henry, we find 

 it to consist of beds of sand, resting upon clay. The flat be- 

 low it, east of St. Henry, on the road to Lachine, is composed 

 of coarse gravel from primitive rocks ; while the neighbour- 

 hood of the latter village is buried under foreign masses, to 

 the depth of thirty feet in some places. 



Description of a new species of Grosbeak, inhabiting the 

 Northwestern Territory of the United States. By William 

 Cooper. Read January 10, 1825. 



The genus Loccia being restricted by the most eminent 

 modern ornithologists to the Crossbills, the remaining species 

 of granivorous birds having a conical, straight, and pointed 

 bill, and which were arranged by Linnaeus and the authors 

 who have followed him as species of Loxia, are now all com- 

 prehended under the genus Fringilla. The number of spe- 

 cies thus brought together is consequently very great ; but 

 they present such a gradual passage from one character to 

 another, that it is found impracticable to separate them into 

 well defined and natural genera. In order to avoid, however, 

 the inconvenience which would result from so many species 

 being comprehended under one head, Temminck proposes to 

 subdivide them into three sections, characterised by the forms 

 of their bills, viz. laticones, brevicones, and longicones. This 

 simple arrangement appears preferable to the multitude of ar- 

 tificial genera which some nomenclators have attempted to 

 establish ; or it would perhaps be more convenient to consider 



