BOHEMIAN WAXWING. 153 



when they are disturbed and as they take to wing. They are 

 also very sociable and affectionate to their whole fraternity, 

 and sit in rows often on the same branch, when not employed 

 in collecting their food, which is said to consist of juicy fruits 

 of various kinds, particularly grapes ; they will also eat juniper 

 and laurel berries, as well as apples, currants, and figs, and are 

 often seen to drink. 



Dr. Richardson informs us that this bird appears in flocks at 

 Great Bear Lake about the 24th of May, when they feed on 

 the berries of the alpine arbutus, marsh vaccinium, and other 

 kinds exposed again to the surface after the spring thaw. 

 xAnother flock of three or four "hundred individuals was seen on 

 the banks of the Saskatchewan, at Carlton House, early in the 

 same month. In their usual manner they all settled together 

 on one or two trees, and remained together about the same 

 place for an hour in the morning, making a loud twittering 

 noise, and were too shy to be approached within gunshot. 

 Their stay at most did not exceed a few days, and none of the 

 Indians knew of their nests ; though the doctor had reason to 

 beheve that they retired in the breeding season to the broken 

 and desolate mountain-limestone districts in the 67th or 68th 

 parallels, where they find means to feed on the fruit of the 

 common juniper, so abundant in that quarter. Neither Mr. 

 Townsend nor myself observed this bird either in the Columbia 

 River district or on the Rocky Mountains. 



The Bohemian is still a rover of uncertain and irregular habits, 

 occasionally in winter appearing along the northern border of the 

 United States and through the settled portions of Canada in large 

 flocks, but sometimes absent for several seasons. The statement 

 has been made that there is no record of its occurrence in New 

 England within'the past fifteen years. Colonel Goss found a nest 

 in Labrador, and several have been taken in the Northwest. 



