Audubon and his Journals Volume I Part 24

[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_.

The bird here noted may have been either this species, or the _Aquila chrysaetus_.--E. C.

[224] See Episode "A Labrador Squatter."

[225] Or Labrador Duck, _Camptolaemus labradorius_. This is a notable record, considering that the species became extinct about 1875.--E. C.

[226] This is the White-winged Coot or Scoter just mentioned above, _[OE]demia deglandi_.--E. C.

[227] Brown or Northern Phalarope.

[228] The Curlew which occurs in almost incredible numbers in Labrador is the Eskimo, _Numenius borealis_; the one with the bill about four inches long, also found in that country, but less commonly, is the Hudsonian, _N. hudsonicus_. See Coues, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., Philada., 1861, p. 236.--E. C.

[229] Pomarine Jager, or Gull-hunter, now called _Stercorarius pomarinus_.--E. C.

[230] A small village on the coast of Labrador, lat.i.tude 51; _not_ the Bras D'Or of Cape Breton Island.

[231] _Empetrum nigrum._

[232] The Purple or Rock Sandpiper, _Tringa (Arquatella) maritima_.--E. C.

[233] Not _Ereunetes pusillus_, but the Least Sandpiper, _Tringa (Actodromas) minutilla_, which appears as _Tringa pusilla_ in Audubon's works.--E. C.

[234] This is the bird figured by Audubon as _Falco labradora_ on folio pl. 196, 8vo pl. 19, but which he afterward considered to be the same as his _F. islandicus_. It is now held, however, to represent a dark variety of Gyrfalcon, known as _F. gyrfalco obsoletus_, confined to Labrador and thence southward in winter to New England and New York.--E. C.

[235] Sheep laurel.

[236] See Episode, "A Ball in Newfoundland."

[237] Dr. George Parkman, of Boston, who was murdered by Professor J.

W. Webster in Boston, November 23, 1849.

[238] See Episode, "The Bay of Fundy."

THE MISSOURI RIVER JOURNALS

1843

INTRODUCTION

This journey, which occupied within a few days of eight months,--from March 11, 1843, to November 6 of the same year,--was undertaken in the interest of the "Quadrupeds of North America," in which the three Audubons and Dr. Bachman were then deeply engaged. The journey has been only briefly touched upon in former publications, and the entire record from August 16 until the return home was lost in the back of an old secretary from the time of Audubon's return in November, 1843, until August, 1896, when two of his granddaughters found it. Mrs.

Audubon states in her narrative that no record of this part of the trip was known to exist, and none of the family now living had ever seen it until the date mentioned.

Not only is the diary most valuable from the point of view of the naturalist, but also from that of the historian interested in the frontier life of those days.

M. R. A.

As the only account of the journey from New York to St. Louis which can now be found is contained in a letter to my uncle Mr. James Hall, dated St. Louis, March 29, 1843, the following extract is given:--