166 
BLACK-THROATED WAXWING. 
the common juniper, which abounds in those places.” In a note, he further 
states : — “ I observed a large flock, consisting of at least three or four hundred 
individuals, on the banks of the Saskatchewan at Carlton House, early In 
May, 1827. They alighted in a grove of poplars, settling all on one or two 
trees, and making a loud twittering noise. They stayed only about one hour 
in the morning, and were too shy to allow me to approach within gunshot.” 
I am. informed by Mr. Townsend, who has spent about four years in the 
Columbia river district and on the Rocky Mountains, that he did not observe 
there a single bird of this species. In the autumn of 1832, whilst rambling- 
near Boston, my sons saw a pair, which they pursued more than an hour, 
but without success. The most southern locality in which I have known it 
co be procured, is the neighbourhood of Philadelphia, where, as well as on 
Long Island, several were shot in 1830 and 1832. The specimens from 
vvhich 1 made the figures of the male and female represented in the plate, 
were given to me by my friend Thomas M'Cueloch of Pictou, in Nova 
Scotia, who procured several others in the winter of 1834. The following 
account of the affection displayed by one towards its companion, with 
which he has also favoured me, will be found highly interesting. 
“ During the winter of 1834, many species of the northern birds were 
more than usually abundant in the province of Nova Scotia, being driven, 
no doubt, from their customary places of resort by the cold, which was very 
intense at the commencement of the season. Large flocks of the Loxia 
Enuckator appeared in every part of the country, while the Fringi'la 
Lin aria, of which we had not seen a single specimen for upwards of two 
years, could be shot at almost any hour of the day, in the streets of Pictou ; 
and we were often told of birds being seen, which from the description we 
could not recognise as belonging to any species with which we were already 
acquainted. The first day of the year having proved uncommonly mild, I 
went out, accompanied by my father, with the expectation of obtaining 
something new for our collection of birds. IVe had scarcely left our own 
door when we observed a small flock alight in a thicket of evergreens a short 
distance from where we stood. Thinking they were Pine Grosbeaks, we 
directed the man who was with us to push on and obtain a shot. He did so, 
and we just arrived in time to pick up a pair of birds which he had killed. 
One glance was sufficient to show us that they were not what we had sup- 
posed, but a species we had never previously seen or heard of as visiting 
that portion of the Continent. You, my dear sir, have often enjoyed such 
moments, and therefore can easily conceive the intense delight with which 
we surveyed our prize, and how anxiously we watched the progress of the 
remainder, as they flew to an adjoining thicket, where one immediately 
disappeared, while the other took its station on the top of a spruce, from 
