[Footnote 2: Mr Coxe, on the authority of Mr Pallas, informs us, that the old and middle-aged sea-otters' skins are sold at Kiachta, by the Russians to the Chinese, from 80 to 180 rubles a skin, that is, from 16l. to 20l. each.--See _Coxe's Russian Discoveries_, p. 13.--D.] Birds, in general, are not only rare as to the different species, but very scarce as to numbers; and these few are so shy, that, in all probability, they are continually harassed by the natives, perhaps to eat them as food, certainly to get possession of their feathers, which they use as ornaments. Those which frequent the woods, are crows and ravens, not at all different from our English ones, a blueish jay or magpie, common wrens, which are the only singing bird that we heard, the Canadian or migrating thrush, and a considerable number of brown eagles, with white heads and tails, which, though they seem principally to frequent the coast, come into the Sound in bad weather, and sometimes perch upon the trees. Amongst some other birds, of which the natives either brought fragments, or dried skins, we could distinguish a small species of hawk, a heron, and the _alcyon_, or large-crested American king-fisher. There are also some, which, I believe, are not mentioned, or at least vary, very considerably, from the accounts given of them by any writers who have treated professedly on this part of natural history. The two first of these are _species_ of wood-peckers. One less than a thrush, of a black colour above, with white spots on the wings, a crimson head, neck, and breast, and a yellowish olive-coloured belly, from which last circumstance it might, perhaps, not improperly be called the yellow-bellied wood-pecker. The other is a larger, and much more elegant bird, of a dusky brown colour, on the upper part, richly waved with black, except about the head, the belly of a reddish cast, with round black spots, a black spot on the breast, and the under-side of the wings and tail of a plain scarlet colour, though blackish above, with a crimson streak running from the angle of the mouth, a little down the neck on each side. The third and fourth, are a small bird of the finch kind, about the size of a linnet, of a dark dusky colour, whitish below, with a black head and neck, and white bill; and a sand-piper, of the size of a small pigeon, of a dusky brown colour, and white below, except the throat and breast, with a broad white band across the wings. There are also humming-birds, which yet seem to differ from the numerous sorts of this delicate animal already known, unless they be a mere variety of the _trochilus colubris_ of Linnaeus. These, perhaps, inhabit more to the southward, and spread northward as the season advances; because we saw none at first, though, near the time of our departure, the natives brought them to the ships in great numbers.