174 ScientifiG Proceedings, Royal Dublin Society. 



grounds along the edges of the prairie, but it is worthy of remark 

 that when fishing in one of the small lakes in the river bottom 

 upon the 21st April, I saw and watched for some time a pair of 

 these birds, which were evidently mated, though I was unable to 

 find a nest ; it is therefore possible that a few pairs may annually 

 remain to breed in suitable localities, where there is a permanent 

 supply of water. 



Vae. propinqua, Kidg. Western Robin. — Though the great 

 majority of the robins which winter in this section undoubtedly 

 Delong to the typical eastern form, I shot examples occasionally 

 which, from the absence of white on the tail and of black mark- 

 ings on the interscapular feathers, combined with the distinctly 

 lighter colouration below, seem to belong to the western form. 

 Indeed, when we consider that H. unalascce is represented exclu- 

 sively by the western variety, it is unaccountable that M. migra- 

 toria should be almost as exclusively represented by the eastern, 

 the food of the two species being the same, and each being of 

 equally migratory habits. 



MiMUS POLYGLOTTUS (Linn.) Mocking Bird.—TUB is an 

 abundant species at all seasons of the year, though individually 

 migratory, those which breed with us leaving for warmer lati- 

 tudes during September, while the main body of our winter 

 visitors do not arrive until a month later, the only difference, 

 however, being that our summer songsters are slightly, but 

 appreciably, smaller than their northern relatives, as indeed is to 

 be expected. During the winter they resort to the wooded 

 creeks and edges of the timber, where they find shelter from the 

 biting winds of the open prairie, the efiects of which they appear 

 to feel severely; but in the breeding season they frequent 

 detached clumps of trees, tall weeds, worm fences, and especially 

 the neighbourhood of houses far out on the prairie, making every 

 place resound incessantly, by night as well as by day, with their 

 joyous notes, and the evident pleasure which the bird feels in its 

 own song must be manifest to anyone who has watched it when at 

 liberty ; utteriy unable to remain at rest, in the exuberance of its 

 spirits it flutters its wings, makes frequent leaps, or short flights, 

 into the air, descending again with a semicircular course to the 

 spot from whence it rose, or flits with laboured wing-beats from 

 one perch to another, always selecting the highest available point, 



