MOUNTAIN BLUEBIRD 277 



protected slope in the dwarf timberline trees on the south side of 

 Truchas." 



In the Yosemite region, according to Grinnell and Storer (1924), 

 it is chiefly a bird of the Hudsonian Zone, the greater part of the 

 population being found at altitudes above 8,000 feet, "and from there 

 it ranges up to the highest meadows found in our maintains short 

 of timber line." The highest points at which these bluebirds were 

 seen were at about 10,500 feet, and the lowest were seen at 7,400 

 feet at Mono Meadow in June. 



Russell K. Grater writes to me from Zion National Park, Utah, 

 that "this species is resident during the summer months above 7,500 

 feet. During the winter months, these birds wander to lower eleva- 

 tions, but seldom enter the deep canyons, apparently preferring more 

 open valley country." 



Aretas A. Saunders (1921b) calls it a common summer resident 

 throughout Montana and says that it "breeds in the Transition zone 

 and less commonly in the Canadian. In the eastern part of the state 

 breeds in the pine hills, farther west, in cotton wood groves, about 

 ranch buildings, and in the more open types of coniferous forests in 

 the foothills of the mountains. In the Canadian zone, it is sometimes 

 found about the edges of mountain parks, but it is never as common 

 at such elevations in Montana as it is in the Transition." 



Spring. — At Chelan, Wash., during what they called a typical season, 

 Dawson and Bowles (1909) noted that "the migrations opened with 

 the appearance, on the 24th day of February, of seven males of most 

 perfect beauty." These observers continue: 



They deployed upon the townsile in search of insects, and uttered plaintive notes 

 of Sialian quality, varied by dainty, thrush-like tsooks of alarm when too closely 

 pressed. * * * On the 15th of March a flock of fifty Bluebirds, all males, 

 were sighted flying in close order over the mountain-side, a vision of loveliness 

 which was enhanced by the presence of a dozen or more Westerns. Several flocks 

 were observed at this season in which the two species mingled freely. On the 27th 

 of the same month the last great wave of migration was noted, and some two 

 hundred birds, all 'Arctics' now, and at least a third of them females, quartered 

 themselves upon us for a day, — with what delighted appreciation upon our part 

 may best be imagined. The males are practically all azure; but the females have 

 a much more modest garb of reddish gray, or stone-olive, which flashes into blue 

 on wings and tail, only as the bird flits from post to post. 



Norman Criddle (1927), of Treesbank, Manitoba, writes: 



The male bluebirds always arrive a few days in advance of the females, but it is 

 not long before the latter appear upon the scene and in an astonishingly short time 

 pairs have taken possesoion of |a nesting site and the females are taking nesting 

 material into boxes. This haste in constructing a nest is difficult to appreciate 

 because the birds do not, as a rule, actually start domestic duties for some time 

 afterwards. * * * 



