BIRDS. 165 



Hammoxd Flycatcher: Empidoiiax ham7nondi{?) . — Mr. H. C. 

 Bryant, of California, saw an Empldonax July 31, 1917, that he took 

 to be hammoTidi in " some open woods near Lewis's on Lake Mc- 

 Donald." 



Family ALAUDID^: Larks. 



Desert Horned Lark: Otocoris alpesti'ls leucolcema. — Mr. Bryant 

 has seen horned larks at Belton on the railroad track in fall, but never 

 in the park. Mr. SteA'enson, however, has seen them on the high 

 barren ridges of the park, and says they are com- 

 mon outside on the dry plains to the east. On 

 April 15, 1918, Mr. Bailey saw two on the Big- 

 Prairie of the North Fork, where there were 

 open fields suitable for breeding grounds. 



Family CORVID^: Crows, Jays, Magpies. 



Fig. (;S. — Ilurncd lark. 



Magpie: Pica jnca hudsonia. — The magpie, 

 with its striking black and white plumage, long 

 graduated tail, and loud, strenuous voice, is one of the spectacular 

 birds of the region, but the only ones seen b}'^ us were outside the 

 boundary' of the park, near the upper St. Mary Lake, although they 

 are said to come up into the 23ark for exposed garbage. The bulk of 

 them, Mr. Bryant says, enter the park in September and leave the 

 last of ]March. In fall and winter he has seen them on the prairie 

 patches along the Xorth Fork of the Flathead. 



Black-headed Jay: Cyanocitta stelleri annectens. — The high- 

 crested, black-headod blue jay is one of the handsomest, most domi- 

 nant birds of the pine forests, dashing around and flying from tree to 

 tree, calling loudly as he goes. For this reason the apparent decrease 

 in his numbers in the park is striking. In 1887 Dr. Grinnell said that 

 in the St. Mary Lakes region the jays were common in the pine forest 

 up to the rocks ; and in 1895 Messrs. Bailey and Howell observed them 

 at timberline and in the spruce timber on the side of Kootenai IMoun- 

 tain. and reported them common from Java to Belton. In the winter 

 of 1899-1900 Mr. Higginson reported them very abundant in the 

 Stanton Lake region, stajdng most of the time on the high ridges. 

 But during the two months that we spent in traversing the park we 

 saw them in only four localities — at a lumber camp at the head of Lake 

 Josephme, near AVaterton Lake, at the Reynolds Cabin, and on the 

 Camas Lake Trail above Lake McDonald ; and on Mr. Bailey's return 

 to the west side of the park in April, he saw only one — at Belton. 

 Perhaps, like the eagles, they have been accidentally caught by 

 the fur trappers. 



