BIRD MUSIC IN THE FLATHEAD REGION. 279 



ready to leave the parental roof, it is the male who usually takes them in 

 charge and instructs them in the way of making an honest grosbeak living. 



Another songster of the bushes is the arctic towhee. It prefers the 

 shrubbery in the neighborhood of ponds and streams and lakes. Its song 

 is not a masterpiece of musical power, but it has a place in the wildwood 

 orchestra, and would certainly be missed by anyone who has learned to 

 know it. The usual call of the towhee is a group of about two syllables, 

 which has suggested its name, for it resembles the word "towhee." The 

 singing of the towhee consists of short series of notes suggesting the 

 words "Ain't I pretty?" repeated with monotonous persistence from some 

 low situation. The ending of the performance is a rattling trill, uttered 

 with rising inflection and slurred in its hurried execution. The song is 

 very easily identified by close attention on the listener's part. 



The mountain song sparrow is one of our masters of song. It is a 

 hardy little creature, being among the earliest to arrive from the south 

 in the spring, and one of the first to open the vernal season of song. By 

 the time our Station work begins, the high tide of sparrow music has spent 

 Its force, and all that remains for us is the slowly subsiding ebb. Our 

 song sparrow, though, is one of the few songsters that can utter its cheer- 

 ful roundelay at almost any season. The males are generally in song 

 until they take their departure in the fall, and at any time one of them is 

 likely to give a gentle, tuneful recital. 



The song sparrow is famed for its varied repertoire in musical per- 

 formance. The singing of any particular songster is much the same to 

 ordinary listeners, but with no great degree of discrimination it can be 

 perceived that a number of different Thongs make up a day's program of 

 this little virtuoso. The same song may be given an indefinite number of 

 times, when the songster will vary the arrangement so strikingly that the 

 result will be a different song, which is repeated at impulse. Thus from 

 time to time each song sparrow shows himself to be a master of eight to 

 ten songs, each so unlike the others that it will pass for a different song. 

 Generally the song begins with several distinct notes of equal value and 

 tone; then there follows a series of hurried, blending syllables, ending 

 with a cadenza of tuneful spirit. 



In our account of the bird music of this region, we must not forget our 

 junco, not l^ecause of its leadership in song, but because its music is a 

 part of the later springtime which we enjoy in the early days of our Sta- 

 tion season. Furthermore, the singing of the junco is -so similar to that 

 of the familiar chipping sparrow, that it is worth while to mention it that 

 we may give the former its due share of credit for the rattling trills that 

 we hear so frequently in the woods. The song of the junco is louder and 

 sharper than that of the chipping sparrow, though like that of the latter, 

 it is a series of monotonous chirps. It is usually uttered from one of 

 the taller trees, preferably one apart in the sunshine or in the margin of 

 the woodland. 



In most portions of the Flathead region the singing of the western 

 vesper sparrow is a noticeable feature. You remember it is the song 

 of this sparrow about which John Burroughs wrote so charmingly. Some- 

 one has described the performance of the vesper sparrow as that of the 



