[Lewis:]
Monday March 3rd. 1806.
Two of our perogues have been lately injured very much in
consequence of the tide leaving them partially on shore. they
split by this means with their own weight. we had them drawn
out on shore. our convalessents are slowly on the recovery.
Lapage is taken sick, gave him a doze of Scots pills which did
not operate. no movement of the party today worthy of
notice. every thing moves on in the old way and we are
counting the days which seperate us from the 1
st. of April and
which bind us to fort Clatsop.
The large black and white pheasant is peculiar to that portion
of the Rocky Mountain watered by the Columbia river.
at least we did not see them in these mountains untill we
reached the waters of that river nor since we have left those
mountains. they are about the size of a well grown hen. the
contour of the bird is much that of the redish brown pheasant
common to our country. the tail is proportionably as long and
is composed of eighteen feathers of equal length, of an uniform
dark brown tiped with black. the feathers of the body are of
a dark brown black and white. the black is that which most
predominates, and wh[i]te feathers are irregularly intermixed
with those of the black and dark brown on every part, but in
greater proportion about the neck breast and belley. this mixture
gives it very much the appearance of that kind of dunghill
fowl which the hen-wives of our country call dommanicker
[Dominique]. in the brest of some of these birds the white
predominates most. they are not furnished with tufts of long
feathers on the neck as our pheasants are, but have a space on
each side of the neck about 2 1/2 inches long and 1 In. in width
on which no feathers grow, tho' t[h]is is concealed by the feathers
which are inserted on the hinder and front part of the neck; this
space seems to surve them to dilate or contract the feathers of
the neck with more ease. the eye is dark, the beak black, curved
somewhat pointed and the upper exceeds the under chap. they
have a narrow stripe of vermillion colour above each eye which
consists of a fleshey substance not protuberant but uneven
with a number of minute rounded dots. it has four toes on
each foot of which three are in front. it is booted to the toes.
it feeds on wild fruits, particularly the berry of the sac-a-commis,
and much also on the seed of the pine and fir.
The small speckled pheasant found in the same country with
that above discribed, differs from it only in point of size and
somewhat in colour. it is scarcely half the size of the other;
ascociates in much larger flocks and is very gentle. the black
is more predominant and the dark bro[w]n feathers less frequent
in this than the larger species. the mixture of white is
also more general on every part of this bird. it is considerably
smaller than our pheasant and the body reather more round.
in other particulars the[y] differ not at all from the large black
and white pheasant. this by way of distinction I have called
the speckled phesant. the flesh of both these species of party
coloured phesants is of a dark colour and with the means we
had of cooking them not very well flavored.
The small brown pheasant is an inhabitant of the same
country and is of the size and shape of the spec[k]led pheasant
which it also resembles in it's economy and habits. the stripe
above the eye in this species is scarcely perceptable, and is
when closely examined of a yellow or orrange colour instead
of the vermillion of the outhers. it's colour is an uniform
mixture of dark and yellowish brown with a slight mixture of
brownish white on the breast belley and the feathers underneath
the tail. the whol[e] compound is not unlike that of
the common quail only darker. this is also booted to the
toes. the flesh of this is preferable to either of the others and
that of the breast is as white as the pheasant of the Atlantic
coast. the redish brown pheasant has been previously discribed.[67]
The Crow raven and Large Blackbird are the same as
those of our country only that the crow is here much smaller
yet it's note is the same. I observe no difference either between
the hawks of this coast and those of the Atlantic. I have
observed the large brown hawk, the small or sparrow hawk,
and the hawk of an intermediate size with a long tail and
blewish coloured wings remarkably swift in flight and very
firce. sometimes called in the U'States the hen hawk. these
birds seem to be common to every part of this country, and
the hawks crows & ravens build their nests in great numbers
along the high and inaccessable clifts of the Columbia river and
it's S.E. branch where we passed along them. we also met
with the large hooting Owl under the Rocky Mountain on
the Kooskoskee river. it did not appear to differ materially
from those of our country. I think it's colours reather deeper
and brighter than with us, particularly the redish brown. it is
the same size and form.
