It is not common in the Arctic regions. Specimens of the bird were obtained on Anderson River, in 1862, by Mr. MacFarlane, but he was not able to find the nest. At Fort Yukon, July 4, Mr. Kennicott met with the nest of this species. The nest, which contained but one egg, was about eighteen feet from the ground, and was built on a side branch of a small spruce that was growing at the outer edge of a clump of thick spruces, on low ground. The nest was large, the base being made of small, dry spruce twigs. Internally it was constructed of fine grass and moose-hair, and lined thickly with large feathers. The female was shot, as she rose from her nest, by Mr. Kennicott’s hunter, who had concealed himself near the spot for that purpose. Mr. Kennicott had seen the nest and both parents near it before it was taken, and had thoroughly satisfied himself as to its complete identification.
Ross speaks of them as not rare throughout the district in which they winter, but yet not numerous. He adds that at Great Bear Lake they are very plentiful, and that they are reported to nest there. Mr. Dall states that they were quite common at Nulato, where they did not arrive before June 10, or later. He obtained a number of skins from the Indians, taken in his absence. He adds that it breeds, and its eggs have been obtained at Fort Yukon.
Except in a few instances, where Dr. Cooper noticed this species, in September, at Fort Laramie, and also when he obtained an individual on the Colorado, none of these birds have been seen west of the Rocky Mountains. The bird obtained by Dr. Cooper was, in his opinion, a straggler from some neighboring mountain. It made its appearance January 10, after a period of stormy weather, and was shot while feeding on the berries of the mistletoe.
This bird was first noticed in America, in the spring of 1826, near the sources of the Athabasca River, by Mr. Drummond, and in the same season by Sir John Richardson, at Great Bear Lake, latitude 65°. In the latter region he states that they appeared in flocks about the 24th of May. At that time the spring thaw had exposed the berries of the Arbutus and the Vaccinium, that had been covered during the winter. It stayed only a few days, and none of the Indians knew where it bred, or had ever seen its nest. Afterwards, early in May, 1827, Sir John Richardson saw a large flock of three or four hundred individuals at Carlton House, on the Saskatchewan. They all alighted in a grove of poplars, on one or two trees, making a loud twittering noise. They stayed only about an hour in the morning, and were too shy to be approached within gunshot.
In England they have been known to appear as early as August. They are always shy, and not easily approached. In their activity and incessant change of position and place, they are said to resemble the Titmice. They feed on the berries of the mountain-ash, the hawthorn, and the ivy. They will also feed on insects, catching them as dexterously as Flycatchers. Their call-note is a single chirp, frequently repeated.
Mr. McCulloch, writing to Mr. Audubon, gives a touching account of the devotion shown by one of these birds to its wounded mate. The latter had been so crippled that it was hardly able to move. Its mate stationed itself on the top of the tree in which it had sought shelter, and with great vehemence continually uttered the notes tzee-tzee, in alarm and warning, and, when danger approached, flew against it and urged it on to flight, and stayed to share its fate, rather than leave its partner.
The nest and eggs of this species remained entirely unknown until the spring of 1856, when the late Mr. John Wolley, an enthusiastic English oölogist, first discovered them in Lapland. The season was unusually backward and cold, and the nests contained their full complement by the 12th of June. One of the nests, obtained in Finland, June 19, 1861 (S. I., 5,327),
contained five eggs. It is of remarkable size in proportion to that of its builder, measuring eight inches in diameter. It is flattened in shape, and its cavity, though large, is not deep. The height of the nest is three and a quarter inches, and the depth of the base is fully two and a half inches. The cavity is less than an inch deep, and is four inches in diameter. The base and outer periphery of this nest are of a coarse interlacing of the small ends of branches of fir and spruce trees. Within this is built a close, compact inner nest, chiefly composed of a lichen peculiar to Arctic regions, called tree-hair, which hangs abundantly from the branches of trees in northern forests. It resembles a mass of delicate black rootlets. These are not uncommon ingredients in the nests of northern birds, especially of European. In America, Arctic nests of the A. carolinensis are occasionally built of similar materials. With these lichens are also mingled fragments of dry leaves and soft dark-colored mosses. The rim of the nest is strongly made, almost exclusively of these fine dark-colored lichens. This kind of lichen is not always black, but is often brown, and even whitish. In some of these nests silvery fibres of grass-leaves are mingled with the lichens, and in one or two there is a slight lining of feathers.
The Lapland nests were built on the branch of a tree, at a distance from the trunk, and stood up from it unsupported by the surrounding twigs, and at the height of from six to twelve feet from the ground. They were generally much exposed, and were, for the most part, built in the more open portions of the forests. The general number of the eggs was five, in one instance it was six.
The nest from the Yukon, obtained by Mr. Kennicott (S. Coll., 6,326), is smaller, and bears but little resemblance to the European. It is but five inches in diameter, of irregular shape. In height and cavity it nearly corresponds. In place of the lichens of the European, this nest is made of fine grass-stems, strips of bark, and a few feathers.