otters. These changes of colour
certainly take place at different gradations of life. The very
young ones had brown hair, which was coarse, with very little fur
underneath; but those of the size of the entire animal, which came
into our possession, and just described, had a considerable quantity
of that substance, and both in that colour and state the sea-otters
seem to remain, till they have attained their full growth. After that,
they lose the black colour, and assume a deep brown or sooty colour,
but have then a greater quantity of very fine fur, and scarcely any
long hairs. Others, which we suspected to be still older, were of
a chesnut-brown; and a few skins were seen that had even acquired a
perfectly yellow colour. The fur of these animals, as mentioned in
the Russian accounts, is certainly softer and finer than that of any
others we know of; and, therefore, the discovey of this part of the
continent of North America, where so valuable an article of commerce
may be met with, cannot be a matter of indifference.[2]

[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 a