Nuttall’s Dog-wood.
Cornus Nuttalli, Audubon.
This very beautiful tree, which was discovered by Mr Nuttall, on the Columbia River, attains a height of fifty feet or more, and is characterized by its smooth reddish-brown bark; large, ovate, acuminate leaves, and conspicuous flowers, with six obovate, acute, involucral bracteas, which are rose-coloured at the base, white towards the end, veined and reticulated with light purple. The berries are oblong, and of a bright carmine.
ROCK GROUS.
Tetrao rupestris, Gmel.
PLATE CCCLXVIII. Male and Female.
Whilst at Labrador, I was informed by Mr Jones, of whom I have made mention on several occasions, that a smaller species of Ptarmigan than that called the Willow Grous, Tetrao Saliceti, was abundant on all the hills around Bras d’Or, during the winter, when he and his son usually killed a great number, which they salted and otherwise preserved; and that in the beginning of summer they removed from the coast into the interior of the country, where they bred in open grounds, never, like the Willow Grous, retreating to the wooded parts. They seldom appear at Bras d’Or until the last of the Wild Geese have passed over, or before the cold has become intense, and the plains deeply covered with snow. While about his house, they repair to the most elevated hilltops, from which the violence of the winds has removed the snow. There they feed on the mosses and lichens attached to the rocks, as well as on the twigs and grasses scantily found in such places at that season. They keep in great packs, and when disturbed are apt to fly to a considerable distance, shifting from one hill to another often half a mile off.
Not having seen this species alive, and my drawing having been taken from specimens kindly presented to me by my friend Captain James Ross, R. N., I cannot do better than present you here with the observations of Dr Richardson, as recorded in the Fauna Boreali-Americana. “Hutchins reports that the Rock Grous is numerous at the two extremities of Hudson’s Bay, but does not appear at the middle settlements (York and Severn Factories), except in very severe seasons, when the Willow Grous are scarce, and Captain Sabine informs us that they abound on Melville Peninsula, Lat. 74° to 75°, in the summer. It arrived there in its snow-white dress, on the 12th of May 1820; at the end of that month the females began to assume their coloured plumage, which was complete by the first week in June, the change at the latter period being only in its commencement with the males. Some of the males were killed as late as the middle of June in their unaltered winter plumage. In this respect the species differs from the Willow Grous whose males first assume the summer colour. The Rock Grous is found also on Melville Peninsula and the Barren Grounds, seldom going farther south in winter than latitude 63° in the interior, but descending along the coast of Hudson’s Bay to latitude 58°, and in severe seasons still farther to the southward. It also occurs on the Rocky Mountains as far south as latitude 55°. It exists in Greenland, is common in Norway, is known in Sweden by the name of Sno Rissa, and is the species most frequent in the Museums of France and Italy under the name of Tetrao Lagopus. It is not a native of Scotland. The Rock Grous in its manners and mode of living resembles the Willow Grous, except that it does not retire so far into the woody country in winter. Contrary, however, to what Hearne says, it is frequent in open woods on the borders of lakes in that season, particularly in the 65th parallel of latitude, though perhaps the bulk of the species remains on the skirts of the Barren Grounds. It hatches in June. The ground colour of the egg is, according to Captain Sabine, a pale reddish-brown, and is irregularly spotted and blotched with darker brown.” Specimens in my possession, coloured as here described, average one inch and five-eighths in length, by an inch and an eighth in breadth.
Tetrao rupestris, Gmel. Syst. Nat. vol. i. p. 751.—Lath. Ind. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 640.
Tetrao (Lagopus) rupestris, Richards. and Swains. Fauna Bor.-Amer. vol. ii. p. 354.