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BOHEMIAN CHATTERER. 
BoMBYCILLA GARRULA, VIEILL. 
PLATE CCCLXIII. Mate anp FEMALE. 
TuE first intimations of the occurrence of this beautiful bird in North 
America, were made by Mr Drommonp and Dr Ricuarpson, by the 
former of whom it was found in 1826, near the sources of the Atha- 
basca, or Elk River, in the spring, and by the latter, in the same sea- 
son, at Great Bear Lake, in latitude 50°. Dr Ricuarpson states, in 
the Fauna Boreali- Americana, that ‘“‘ specimens procured at the former 
place, and transmitted to England, by the servants of the Hudson's 
Bay Company, were communicated, by Mr LeapseaTer.to the Prince 
of Mustenano, who had introduced the species into his great work on 
the Birds of the United States.” ‘In its autumn migration southwards,” 
he continues, “ 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 spe- 
cies, it is probably more generally diffused in New Caledonia and the 
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 al- 
pine 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 nests; 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, where it feeds on the fruit of the common juni- 
per, which abounds in those places.” In a note, he further states :— 
« T observed a large flock, consisting of at least three or four hundred 
individuals, on the banks of the Saskatchewan at Carlton House, early 
in May 1827. They alighted in a grove of poplars, settling all on one 
or two trees, and making a loud twittering noise. They stayed only 
