THE MISSOURI RIVER JOURNALS 



51 



was a female Red-patched Woodpecker, ^ and a Lazuli 

 Finch. Dinner over, I went off with young McKenzie 

 after Hares ; found none, but started a Grizzly Bear from 

 her lair. Owen McKenzie followed the Bear and I con- 

 tinued after Hares; he saw no more of Bruin, and I 

 not a Hare, and we both returned to the fort after a 

 tramp of three hours. As I was walking over the prairie, 

 I found an Indian's skull (an Assiniboin) and put it in 

 my game pouch. Provost made a whistle to imitate the 

 noise made by the fawns at this season, which is used 

 to great advantage to decoy the female Deer; shortly 

 afterward Mr. Bonaventure returned, and a cart was sent 

 off at once to bring in a doe which he had killed below. 

 This species of Deer is much larger than the one we have 

 in Virginia, but perhaps no more so than those in Maine ; 

 and as yet we cannot tell whether it may, or may not, 

 prove a distinct species. We took all its measurements, 

 and Bell and Provost are now skinning it. Its gross 

 weight is 140 lbs., which I think is heavier than any doe 

 I have seen before. The animal is very poor and evi- 

 dently has fawns in the woods. The little new Lark that 

 I have named after Sprague has almost all the habits 

 of the Skylark of Europe. Whilst looking anxiously 

 after it, on the ground where we supposed it to be 

 singing, we discovered it was high over our heads, and 

 that sometimes it went too high for us to see it at all. 

 We have not yet been able to discover its nest. Bell 

 is of opinion that the Red-collared Ground Finch ^ has 

 its nest in the deserted holes of the Ground Squirrel, 



^ This is the same hybrid Woodpecker which has been already noted on 

 p, 14. — E. C. 



* That is, the Chestnut-collared Longspur, Calcarins ornatus, which Mr. 

 Bell was mistaken in supposing to breed in holes of the Ground Squirrels, 

 or Spermophiles, as it nests on the open ground, like Sprague's Lark, Mc- 

 Cown's Longspur, and most other small birds of the Western plains. But 

 the surmise regarding the nesting of Say's Flycatcher is correct. This is a 

 near relative of the common Pewit Flycatcher, S. phabe, and its nesting 

 places are similar. — E. C. 



