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ARCTIC BLUE BIRD. 



Sylvia arctics. 



PLATE CCCXCIII. Male and Female. 



This beautiful species, first introduced to the notice of ornitholo- 

 gists by Dr Richardson, who procured a single specimen at Fort 

 Franklin, in July 1825, is merely a summer visitor to the Fur Coun- 

 tries. Both the male and the female are represented in my plate. The 

 latter I believe has not hitherto been figured. Mr Nuttall's notice 

 respecting this interesting bird, so closely allied to Sylvia Sialis, is as 

 follows : 



" Sialia arctica. Ultramarine Blue-bird. About fifty or sixty 

 miles north-west of the usual crossing place of that branch of the Platte 

 called Larimie's Fork, in the early part of June, this species of Sialia 

 is not uncommon. The female utters a low plaint when her nest is 

 approached, the place for which is indifferently chosen in a hole in a 

 clay cliff, or in that of the trunk of a decayed cedar. At this time the 

 young were hatched. The nest is made of the usual material of dry 

 grass in very insignificant quantity. They are more shy than the com- 

 mon species, and have the same mode of feeding by watching on some 

 low bush or plant, and descending for an insect. We afterwards saw 

 a nest of this species on a cliff of the Sandy River, a branch of the 

 Colorado of the West, The female and male were both feeding their 

 brood. The former chirped and appeared uneasy at my approach, and 

 at intervals uttered a plaintive yeow. The male sings more quaintly 

 and monotonously than the common kind, but in the same general 

 tone and manner." 



To this Dr Townsend adds that it is found in the *' Forests on the 

 banks of the Platte River, in the vicinity of the Black Hills, and in 

 the same situations on the banks of the Columbia. This species," he 

 continues, " was observed in the winter at Fort Vancouver, associat- 

 ing with S. occidentalis. They confine themselves chiefly to the fences 

 in the neighbourhood of the Fort, occasionally flying to the groimd, 

 and scratching in the earth for minute insects, the fragments of which 

 were found in their stomachs. After procuring an insect, the male 



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