Birds. 3507 



date, but it was in the early part of 1850. They were feeding on haws 

 at the back of Lady Barker's house ; several specimens of Borabycilla 

 garrula were obtained in the same district (within a few miles), but 

 the two species were not observed in company. I saw the birds after 

 they were stuffed, at the house of Mr. H. * * * 



" I am, dear Sir, 



" Yours most truly, 



" Thomas H. Allis." 

 "Fred. Bond, Esq., 



" Kingsbury." 



I hear from Mr. Bond that Mr. Heaviside, shortly after Mr. Allis 

 saw the birds, sold them to a gentleman whose name I have been un- 

 able to learn, and I have no further information to give on the subject, 

 as Mr. Heaviside has not replied to a. letter which I wrote to him, 

 making additional inquiries respecting the fate of the specimens; pos- 

 sibly he is unacquainted with the purchaser of them. In the absence 

 therefore of these desirable particulars, I proceed to quote from the 

 accounts of this bird given by American naturalists; and of these, that 

 afforded by Mr. Nuttall in his ' Manual of Ornithology' appears to be 

 the most compendious, as it has the advantage of being the most re- 

 cent, and of having profited by those of others. It may be as well at 

 first to remark that Wilson seems to have been altogether on bad terms 

 with this bird, as he accuses it in violent language with the crimes of 

 being mute, gluttonous, and devoid of parental affection : Audubon, 

 in its defence, admits the first charge, such as it is, extenuates the se- 

 cond by urging the temptation it is exposed to by the abundance of 

 the succulent berries and fruits of the American forests and orchards, 

 and also by enlarging feelingly on the goodly dish itself affords after 

 fattening on such food, and, on the authority of a correspondent, to- 

 tally and successfully denies the third. 



The evidence that I have collected, in a condensed form amounts 

 to this : — That southward of the fortieth parallel of latitude, which 

 passes, among others, through the States of New Jersey, Pennsylva- 

 nia, Ohio and Missouri, and south of the valley of the river Platte, the 

 cedar birds are resident during the whole year; north of this boun- 

 dary they appear only as summer visitants, extending their range over 

 the whole continent east of the Rocky Mountains, as far as the south 

 branch of the Saskatchawan, the Winnipique, and the northern shores 

 of Lakes Superior and Huron, although never penetrating into Labra- 

 dor or Newfoundland. The southern limits of their summer range 



