XIV INTRODUCTION. 



As the specimens obtained on Sir John Franklin's two Expeditions 

 furnish almost the whole of our authentic information of the Orni- 

 thology of the interior of the Fur-countries, it remains that I should 

 add to the preceding brief notice of the sources of our knowledge of 

 the feathered tribes that frequent the coast line of Arctic America 

 a few remarks on the circumstances under which the collections were 

 made. The reader will thus be better enabled to form some opinion 

 on the proportion which the species described in this work bear to 

 the whole that frequent the Fur-countries. 



In the first place, I have to state that, in neither Expedition, did 

 Ornithology occupy much of our attention. The want of means of 

 transport for bulky packages in the overland marches, and the difficulty 

 of preserving from injury recent specimens of birds, on the numerous 

 carrying places which occur on the canoe route, induced us to devote 

 the whole of our spare time during the journey to Botany and Mine- 

 ralogy. As the entire summer of each year was spent in travelling, 

 we did not reach our -winter quarters until after almost all the migra- 

 tory birds had retired to the southward. Nothing could, therefore, 

 be done beyond securing examples of the few resident birds, until 

 the following spring, when the interval of a month or six weeks, which 

 occurred between the first melting of the snow and the commence- 

 ment of the summer journey, was devoted almost exclusively to 

 collecting birds. Many of the specimens were shot by the other officers, 

 but they were all prepared by Mr. Drummond or myself. 



The collection made on the first Expedition was formed in the several 

 springs of 1820, 21, and 22, on the Saskatchewan, at Fort Enterprise, 

 and on Great Slave Lake respectively ; and in the autumn of 1 822, at 

 York Factory (lat. 57°), Hudson's Bay. We arrived at the latter place 

 on the 1 4th of July ; and betwixt that date and our departure for 

 England, in the beginning of September, we had an opportunity of 



consulting the museums under their charge, and the desire they have constantly manifested of fur- 

 thering my researches by every means in their power. I am, likewise, under many obligations for 

 similar kindnesses to the Governor, Deputy-Governor, and Committee of the Hudson's Bay Com- 

 pany, and to Mr. Smith, their Secretary ; and also to William Yarrell, Esq., and Mr. Leadbeater, 

 for the liberal access they have given me to their collections. 



