BOHEMIAN CHATTERER. 463 
about one hour in the morning, and were too shy to allow me to ap- 
proach within gunshot.” 
I am informed by Dr Townsenp, who has spent about four years 
in the Columbia River district and on the Rocky Mountains, that he 
did not observe there a single bird of this species. In the autumn of 
1832, whilst rambling near Boston, my sons saw a pair, which they pur- 
sued more than an hour, but without success. The most southern lo- 
eality in which I have known it to be procured, is the neighbourhood 
of Philadelphia, where, as well as on Long Island, several were shot 
in 1830 and 1832. The specimens from which I made the figures of 
the male and female represented in the plate, were given to me by my 
friend THomas M‘Cuutocu of Pictou, in Nova Scotia, who procured 
several others in the winter of 1834. The following account of the af- 
fection displayed by one towards its companion, with which he has also 
favoured me, will be found highly interesting. 
** During the winter of 1834, many species of the northern birds 
were more than usually abundant in the province of Nova Scotia, being 
driven, no doubt, from their customary places of resort by the cold 
which was very intense at the commencement of the season. Large 
flocks of the Loava Hnuocleator appeared in every part of the country, 
while the Fringilla Linaria, of which we had not seen a single spéci- 
men for upwards of two years, could be shot at almost any hour of the 
day, in the streets of Pictou; and we were often told of birds being 
seen, which from the description we could not recognise as belonging 
to any species with which we were already acquainted. The first day 
of the year having proved uncommonly mild, I went out, accompanied 
by my father, with the expectation of obtaining something new for our 
collection of birds. We had scarcely left our own door when we ob- 
served a small flock alight in a thicket of evergreens a short distance 
from where we stood. Thinking they were Pine Grosbeaks, we directed 
the man who was with us to push on and obtain a shot. He did so, 
and we just arrived in time to pick up a pair of birds which he had 
killed. One glance was sufficient to shew us that they were not what 
we had supposed, but a species we had never previously seen or heard 
of as visiting that portion of the Continent. You, my dear Sir, have 
often enjoyed such moments, and therefore can easily conceive the in- 
tense delight with which we surveyed our prize, and how anxiously we 
watched the progress of the remainder, as they flew to an adjoining 
