170 



Bird - Lore 



necked Duck, Golden-eye, and Buffle- 

 head. 



Among the land-birds enjo}'ed on that 

 spring day may be mentioned: Chestnut- 

 collared Longspurs, migrated throughout 

 the day, singing as they went; a pair of 

 American Pipits; Swainson's Western Red- 

 tail, and Marsh Hawks and Prairie Fal- 

 cons and Redwings galore. Western 

 Meadowlarks were singing on every side. 

 Early in the morning the drumming of 

 the Prairie Chicken resounded from afar. 



I hope that the thousands of bird- 

 lovers who would appreciate it may some- 

 time have the pleasure of spending such 

 a day as I have tried to describe, in 

 Dakota. — Stephen Sargent Visher, 

 Vermilion, S. D. 



sometimes to miss their hold on its bottle- 

 neck, or to find the nest already occupied 

 by a quarrelsome neighbor. 



Before long the birds had all gone in- 

 doors again; but there was an eye at every 

 window, watching me as I prowled around 

 below. 



From the litter on the rocks and ground 

 these nests must have been occupied ever 

 since these birds came down from their 

 northern summer home, which is about 

 the middle of November. 



During the day, the Leucosticte spends 

 its time in the hills among the sage brush, 

 in search of seeds. But, when the evening 

 sun throws long, slender shadows across 

 the valleys, they return to the cliff for 

 the night. — Sandford Mills, Hailey, Wyo 



Leucostictes Making Cliff Swallows' 

 Nests Their Night Abode 



Late one cold January evening, while 

 passing below a high, rocky cliff, I noticed 

 a flock of small birds flying about near some 

 Cliff Swallows' nests. They were greatly dis- 

 turbed by a Golden Eagle which was 

 soaring near the cliff, and would dart out 

 after him every time he passed. 



The following morning I climbed up the 

 steep talus under some of the lower nests, 

 but no birds were to be seen. But that 

 evening, when I again climbed up to the 

 nests, the birds were there, as on the pre- 

 vious evening. They all flew out of the 

 nests as I approached, and, to my great 

 surprise, I found them to be the Gray- 

 crowned Leucosticte {Leucosticte tephro- 

 colis), a ground bird, making the home of 

 a cliff-dweller its night abode. It did not 

 seem possible, but it was true; for, while 

 I stood beneath the towering rock, these 

 little birds hovered overhead, scolding 

 me, and at times some would come quite 

 near. But they quieted down, upon find- 

 ing I was not going to harm them, and 

 soon they were entering the nests again, 

 scolding and quarreling over the owner- 

 ship of the various nests. They had not 

 the certainty of entering the nests that 

 the Swallows have, but hovered for some 

 time at the door, then made a dive at it; 



Wilson's Snipe and Its Nest 



It was in a willow swamp on the east 

 side of the Bridger Mountains, Mont., 

 that I first made an intimate acquaintance 

 with the Wilson's Snipe. The swamp was 

 the home of many kinds of birds. A 

 colony of Brewer's Blackbirds built their 

 nests in the willows, and with them were 

 one or two nests of the Thick-billed Red- 

 wing. In an open, grassy spot. Western 

 Savannah Sparrows and Bobolinks were 

 common; and, each time I ventured in a 

 certain direction, a pair of Wilson's Phal- 

 aropes circled about my head, uttering 

 soft, plaintive notes. Near a small pool 

 of water, several Killdeer and a pair of 

 Carolina Rails were usually feeding. In 

 a corner where the willows grew tall and 

 thick, I found the bulky arched-over, mud- 

 and-stick nest of a pair of Magpies. In 

 addition to these birds, the early morn- 

 ing chorus proclaimed that Goldfinches, 

 White-crowned and Song Sparrows, Yel- 

 low Warblers, Yellow-throats, Catbirds, 

 Chickadees and Robins inhabited the wil- 

 low thicket. 



During May and early June, the most 

 noticeable bird of all was the Wilson's 

 Snipe; though, as far as I knew, but a 

 single pair inhabited the swamp. From 

 earl}' in the evening, throughout the night, 

 and often until nine or ten o'clock in the 



