^^ Expedition to the 



returned at dark, bringing a wild cat, an old turkey, and five 

 of her chickens. 



A bird was taken, closely resembling in point of colour- 

 ing, a species preserved in the Philadelphia museum under 

 the name of ruby • crowned fy -catcher, said to be from the 

 East Indies, but the bill differs in being much less dilated. 

 We can hardly think it a new species, yet in the more com- 

 mon books we do not find any distinct description of it. It 

 IS certainly allied to the Tyrannus griseus^ and sulphuratus of 

 Vieillot, but in addition to other essential characters, it is 

 distinguished from the former, by its yellow belly, and from 

 the latter, by the simplicity * of the wing and tail feathers, 

 and the absence of bands on the side of the head; the bill 

 IS also differently formed from either of those species, if 

 we may judge from Vieillot's figures.* 



21st. We left our encampment at five A. M. and 

 having descended six or eight miles along the river, we met 

 an Indian and squaw, who were, as they informed us, of 

 the tribe called Kaskaias, by the French, Bad-hearts. They 

 were on horseback, and the squaw led a third horse, of un- 

 common beauty. They were on their way from the Arkan- 

 sa below, to the mountains, near the sources of the Platte, 

 where their nation sometimes resides. They informed us 

 that the greater part of six nations of Indians were encamp- 

 ed about thirteen days' journey below us, on the Arkansa. 

 These were the Kaskaias, Shiennes, Arrapahoes, Kiawas, 



* Genus Tyrannus. 



T. verticalis, Say. Head above, pure, pale, plumbeous, the rerlex 

 with a bright orange spot; back pale plumbeous, very slightly tinged 

 with olivaceous; wings brown, tertials margined exteriorly with white; 

 inner webs of the primaries towards the base whitish, narrowed at their 

 tips, the first feather remarl^bly so; tail-coverts and tail deep brown- 

 black, exterior web of the la^al tail feather white, a dusky line before 

 the eye; cliin whitish; neck beneath, colour of the head; breast, belly, and 

 inferior tail-coverts, bright yellow; bill furnished with bristles above, and 

 each side at base; superior mandible perfectly rectiliu^ar above from the 

 base to near the tip, where it rather suddenly curves much downward. 



Total length 8 inches; bill from the anterior edge of the nostril to the 

 tip, 11-20 of an inch. 



