THE MISSOURI RIVER JOURNALS S l 7 



breakfast, which all enjoyed. No Wolves had disturbed 

 our slumbers, and we now started in search of quadru- 

 peds, birds, and adventures. We found several plants, 

 all new to me, and which are now in press. All the 

 ravines which we inspected were well covered by cedars of 

 the red variety, and whilst ascending several of the hills 

 we found them in many parts partially gliding down as if 

 by the sudden effects of very heavy rain. We saw two 

 very beautiful Avocets \_Recurvirostra americana] feed- 

 ing opposite our camp ; we saw also a Hawk nearly resem- 

 bling what is called Cooper's Hawk, but having a white 

 rump. Bell joined the hunters and saw some thousands 

 of Buffalo ; and finding a very large bull within some thirty 

 yards of them, they put in his body three large balls. 

 The poor beast went off, however, and is now, in all prob- 

 ability, dead. Many fossil remains have been found on 

 the hills about us, but we saw none. These hills are com- 

 posed of limestone rocks, covered with much shale. Har- 

 ris thinks this is a different formation from that of either 

 St. Louis or Belle Vue — but, alas ! we are not much of 

 geologists. We shot only one of Say's Flycatcher, and 

 the Finch we have called Emberiza pallida? but of which 

 I am by no means certain, for want of more exact descrip- 

 tions than those of a mere synopsis. Our boat made its 



1 Audubon probably refers to the brief description in his own Synopsis 

 of 1839, p. 103, a copy of which no doubt accompanied him up the Missouri. 

 He had described and figured what he supposed to be Emberiza pallida 

 in the Orn. Biogr. v., 1839, p. 66, pi. 398, fig. 2; B. Amer. iii., 1841, p. 71, pi. 

 161, from specimens taken in the Rocky Mts. by J. K. Townsend, June 15, 

 1834. But this bird was not the true pallida of Swainson, being that 

 afterwards called Spizella breweri by Cassin, Pr. Acad. Philad., 1856, p. 40, 

 The true pallida of Swainson is what Audubon described as Emberiza 

 shattuckii, B. Amer. vii., 1844, p. 347, pi. 493, naming it for Dr. Geo. C. 

 Shattuck, of Boston, one of his Labrador companions. He speaks of it 

 as "■ abundant throughout the country bordering the upper Missouri ; " 

 and all mention in the present Journal of the " Clay-colored Bunting," or 

 "Emberiza pallida?' refers to what Audubon later named Shattuck's 

 Bunting — not to what he gives as Emberiza pallida in the Orn. Biog. and 

 Synopsis of 1839; for the latter is Spizella breweri. — E. C. 



