BOHEMIAN WAXWINO. 391 



northern parts of Asia. M. Nilsson, an ornithologist of 

 Sweden, and the author of a Fauna of Scandinavia, says, 

 these birds pass the summer" in the arctic regions ; they are 

 seen on their passage in Scania in November, and return in 

 the spring. The remarks of Dr. Richardson are as follows : 

 " This elegant 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 myself 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 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 Indians 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-limestone 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 Carltou 

 House, early in May 1827. They alighted in a grove of 

 poplars, settling all on one or two trees, and making a loud 



