BOHEMIAN WAXWING. 
153 
when they are disturbed and as they take to wing. 1 hey are 
also very sociable and affectionate to their whole fraternity, 
and sit in rows often on the same branch, when not employed 
in collecting their food, which is said to consist of juicy fruits 
of various kinds, particularly grapes ; they will also eat juniper 
and laurel berries, as well as apples, currants, and figs, and are 
often seen to drink. 
Dr. Richardson informs us that this bird appears in flocks at 
Great Bear Lake about the 24th of May, when they feed on 
the berries of the alpine arbutus, marsh vaccinium, and other 
kinds exposed again to the surface after the spring thaw. 
Another flock of three or four hundred individuals was seen on 
the banks of the Saskatchewan, at Carlton House, early in the 
same month. In their usual manner they all settled together 
on one or two trees, and remained together about the same 
place for an hour in the morning, making a loud twittering 
noise, and were too shy to be approached within gunshot. 
Their stay at most did not exceed a few days, and none of the 
Indians knew of their nests ; though the doctor had reason to 
believe that they retired in the breeding season to the broken 
and desolate mountain-limestone districts in the 67th or 68th 
parallels, where they find means to feed on the fruit of the 
common juniper, so abundant in that quarter. Neither Mr. 
Townsend nor myself observed this bird either in the Columbia 
River district or on the Rocky Mountains. 
The Bohemian is still a rover of uncertain and irregular habits, 
occasionally in winter appearing along the northern border of the 
United States and through the settled portions of Canada in large 
flocks, but sometimes absent for several seasons. Colonel Goss 
found a nest in Labrador, and several have been taken in the 
Northwest. 
