76 
BOMBYCILLA GARRULA. 
sexual attraction. Not only do the male and female 
caress and feed each other, but the same proofs of 
mutual kindness have been observed between individuals 
of the same sex. This amiable disposition, so agreeable 
for others, often becomes a serious disadvantage to its 
possessor. It always supposes more sensibility than 
energy, more confidence than penetration, more sim- 
plicity than prudence, and precipitates these, as well 
as nobler victims, into the snares prepared for them 
by more artful and selfish beings. Hence they are 
stigmatized as stupid, and, as they keep generally close 
together, many are easily killed at once by a single 
discharge of a gun. They always alight on trees, 
hopping awkwardly on the ground. Their flight is very 
rapid : when taking wing, they utter a note resembling 
the syllables zi, zi , ri, but are generally silent, notwith- 
standing the name that has been given them. They 
are, however, said to have a sweet and agreeable song 
in the time of breeding, though at others it is a mere 
whistle. The place of breeding, as we have intimated, 
is not known with any certainty, though they are said 
to build in high northern latitudes, preferring moun- 
tainous districts, and laying in the clefts of rocks, which, 
however, judging from analogy, we cannot believe. 
What can be the cause of their leaving their unknown 
abodes, of their wide migrations, and extraordinary 
irruptions, it is very difficult to determine. That they 
are not compelled to them by cold is well proved. Are 
they to be ascribed to necessity from excessive 
multiplication, as is the case with the small quadrupeds 
called lemmings, and even with man himself in a savage 
state, or in over populous countries ? or shall we suppose 
that they are forced by local penury to seek elsewhere 
the food they cannot be supplied with at home ? Much 
light may be thrown on the subject by carefully observing 
their habits and migrations in America. 
The Bohemian chatterer being so well known, we 
shall here only give a description of our best American 
specimen, which is a female shot on the 20th March, 
1825, on the Athabasca river, near the Rocky Mountains. 
The sexes hardly differ in plumage. 
