Volume I Part 24 (1/2)

[205] Petrels, most probably _Cymoch.o.r.ea leucorrhoa_.--E. C.

[206] Now _L. delawarensis_, also called Ring-billed Gull.--E. C.

[207] Double-crested Cormorant.

[208] The Catchfly.

[209] Pigeon Hawk.

[210] White-crowned Sparrow.

[211] Brown t.i.tlark.

[212] Black-poll Warbler.

[213] Savannah Finch.

[214] Double-crested Cormorant.

[215] Hudson's Bay t.i.tmouse.

[216] The Ruffed Grouse, _Bonasa umbellus_.--E. C.

[217] Common Gull. This record raises an interesting question, which can hardly be settled satisfactorily. _Larus ca.n.u.s_, the common Gull of Europe, is given by various authors in Audubon's time, besides himself, as a bird of the Atlantic coast of North America, from Labrador southward. But it is not known as such to ornithologists of the present day. The American Ornithologists' Union catalogues _L.

ca.n.u.s_ as merely a straggler in North America, with the query, ”accidental in Labrador?” In his Notes on the Ornithology of Labrador, in Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila. 1861, p. 246, Dr. Coues gives _L.

delawarensis_, the Ring-billed Gull, three specimens of which he procured at Henley Harbor, Aug. 21, 1860. These were birds of the year, and one of them, afterward sent to England, was identified by Mr. Howard Saunders as _L. ca.n.u.s_ (P.Z.S. 1877, p. 178; Cat. B. Brit.

Mus., xxv. 1896, p. 281). This would seem to bear out Audubon's Journal; but the ”Common American Gull” of his published works is the one he calls _L. zonorhynchus_ (_i. e._, _L. delawarensis_), and on p.

155 of the Birds of Am., 8vo ed., he gives the very incident here narrated in his Journal, as pertaining to the latter species. The probabilities are that, notwithstanding Dr. Coues' finding of the supposed _L. ca.n.u.s_ in Labrador, the whole Audubonian record really belongs to _L. delawarensis_.--E. C.

[218] This appears to be an error, reflected in all of Audubon's published works. The Cayenne Tern of Audubon, as described and figured by him, is _Sterna regia_, which has never been known to occur in Labrador. Audubon never knew the Caspian Tern, _S. tschegrava_, and it is believed that this is the species which he saw in Labrador, and mistook for the Cayenne Tern--as he might easily do. See Coues, Birds of the Northwest, 1874, p. 669, where the case is noted.--E. C.

[219] Or Willow Ptarmigan, _Lagopus albus_--the same that Audubon has already spoken of procuring and drawing; but this is the first mention he makes which enables us to judge which of two species occurring in Labrador he had. The other is the Rock Grouse, or Ptarmigan, _L.

rupestris_.--E. C.

[220] This is the bird which Audubon afterward identified with _Tyrannula richardsonii_ of Swainson, Fn., Bor.-Am., ii., 1831, p.

146, pl. 46, lower fig., and published under the name of the Short-legged Pewee or Pewit Fly-catcher, _Muscicapa phoebe_, in Orn.

Biogr., v. p. 299, pl. 434; B. Am., 8vo ed., i. p. 219, pl. 61. The species is now well known as the Western Wood Pewee, _Contopus richardsoni_; but it has never since Audubon's time been authenticated as a bird of Labrador. Audubon was of course perfectly familiar with the common Wood Pewee, _Contopus virens_, and with the Pewit Flycatcher, _Sayornis phoebe_. We can hardly imagine him mistaken regarding the ident.i.ty of either of these familiar birds; yet there is something about this Labrador record of supposed _C. richardsonii_ which has never been satisfactorily explained.--E. C.

[221] _Harelda hiemalis_, the Old Squaw or Long-Tailed Duck.--E. C.

[222] _Histrionicus histrionicus_, the Harlequin Duck.--E. C.

[223] The Was.h.i.+ngton Eagle, or ”Bird of Was.h.i.+ngton,” of Audubon's works, is based upon the young Bald Eagle, _Haliaetus leucocephaluis_.