176 Scientific Proceedings, Royal Dublin Society. 



breed with us, retiring for that purpose to the densest thickets 

 of the river bottom ; indeed I shot one specimen early in August, 

 1880, which was too soon for the migratory birds, since they do 

 not appear until the end of the following month, and which, 

 from its anxiety and fearlessness had, I feel sure, young in the 

 neighbourhood. In June, 1879, I saw a Harporhynchus near 

 Eichland, which was very much darker in colour than ordinary 

 examples, and may have belonged to one of the other species. 



SiALiA siALis (Linn.) Blue-bird. — Though commonly distri- 

 buted throughout the wooded parts of our district, this blue-bird 

 is essentially a migrant, those which breed with us passing 

 southward during September, while the northern-bred examples 

 do not begin to arrive in any numbers until about the end of 

 October, and so marked is this interval that during the latter 

 month it is almost an impossibility to get a specimen. They are 

 quite as numerous in summer as in winter, affecting the more 

 open parts of the timber, the edges and outlying copses, and off- 

 shoots of the wooded creeks, and mesquite flats, especially pre- 

 ferring places which abound in old decayed trees, and half-rotten 

 stumps, in the knot-holes and woodpecker borings of which they 

 find excellent sites for their nests, which are loose and untidy 

 structures, composed of grass and feathers, laid with no cohesion 

 upon the rotten wood, and generally supporting— for it cannot 

 be said to contain — five eggs. In winter they are even more 

 woodland in their proclivities, and are rarely seen far from the 

 shelter of thick foliage. Though I have examined specimens 

 during every month of the year, I never succeeded in finding any 

 vegetable remains in the stomachs^bees, ants, grasshoppers, 

 beetles and ticks being the ordinary class of food. 



SiALiA ARCTiCA, Swains. Rocky Mountain Blue-bird. — This is 

 the most conspicuous bird upon the prairie during the short time 

 of its stay in our district, as well from its abundance as from its 

 restless vivacity, and the exquisite beauty of its colouration. 

 Arriving during December, they are scarce and sparsely distri- 

 buted until the end of the month, when they suddenly appear in 

 numbers, swarming upon the detached trees and along the fences 

 of the prairie farms, the latter being the favourite and most 

 coveted situation. From this date until the middle of March, 

 when they all disappear with the same suddenness that marked 



