THRUSHES 



245 



abandoned Woodpecker hole, corners oi barns and out- 

 buildings, and even under the eaves of porches or 

 houses; in parts of the West, old abandoned mine shafts 

 are utilized; the nest is built almost entirely of dried 

 grass, and is lined occasionally with a few feathers and 

 hue strips of cedar or other tree bark. Eggs: From 4 

 to 7, usually 5, plain greenish-blue. 



Distribution. — Mountain districts of western North 

 America ; north to Mackenzie and Yukon Territory ; 



breeding southward to higher mountains of Xew 

 Me.xico and Arizona (San Francisco and MogoUon 

 Mountains), and Chihuahua, eastward to eastern Wyo- 

 ming (Black Hills) and northwestern Texas, westward 

 to the Sierra Nevada and Cascade ranges ; wintering 

 southward from southern California and Colorado to 

 Guadalupe Island, Lower California, northern Sonora, 

 and northwestern Chihuahua and eastward to Kansas. 

 Oklahoma, and Texas. 



Though it is somewhat larger, and has a jiro- 

 portioiiately shorter tail, the Mountain liluebird 

 presents a general appearance very similar to 

 that of its eastern relative. As its name indi- 

 cates, however, it has a distinct liking for the 

 mountains. A\'ells ^^'. Cooke found the birds in 

 Colorado above timber-line to at least 13,000 

 feet. Another observer records being greeted by 

 a little family of them near the summit of San 

 Antonio Peak ( " Old Baldy," ) in southern Cali- 

 fornia, at an altitude of nearly 10,000 feet, at 

 that time far above the clouds, through whose 

 dense billows the highest of the surrounding 



peaks protruded like islands in a motionless sea. 

 The indescribable weirdness of the scene, and 

 the unearthly quiet, which had deeply imjiressed 

 the lone wanderer, had no apparent efifect upon 

 the Bluebirds, whose warbling was- as sweet 

 and gentle up there above the clouds as that of 

 their eastern brethern in a Connecticut X'alley 

 orchard. 



Their insect food is obtainable at all times of 

 the year, and the general diet varies only in the 

 fall, when some frtiit, principallv elderberries, 

 is eaten, though an occasional blackberry or 

 grape is also relished. 



Drawing by R. I. Br, 



MOUNTAIN BLUEBIRD - ;, nat. sizei 

 A gentle mountaineer often found far above timber-line 



