BIKDS. 



199 



entrance to the park, for there, be- 

 sides being* welcomed b}' the ricli 

 song of a thrush coming from the 

 willow, thickets under our win- 

 dows and hearing the homelike 

 notes of nesting robins, we found 

 a pair of the exquisitely tinted 

 mountain bluebirds, most beautiful 

 of all the lovel}^ bluebirds, actually 

 nesting in an old woodpecker hole 

 in one of the great yellow-pine pil- 

 lars of the hotel. How touching- 

 it seemed that the grand old tree, 

 felled in its might and carried 

 far from its forest home, had 

 brought shelter for the gentle 

 pair, helpless to excavate a nest 

 of their own and otherwise unpro- 

 vided ! A pretty sight the father 

 bluebird made sitting on a beam 

 close to the nest while the mother 

 brooded inside. 



At Many Glaciers nature had 

 made no such kindl}^ provision for 

 the bluebirds, and, as the slen- 

 der young trees around the hotel 

 offered no natural nesting boxes 

 and man had failed to supply the 

 deficiency', a pair seeking the shel- 

 ter and protection of the hotel 

 were sorely put to it. At last, 

 trying to forget family traditions, 

 they built on a rafter at the end of 

 the piazza, over the heads of the 

 hotel guests promenading back 

 and forth enjoj'ing the wonderful 

 views of the mountains reflected in 

 the lake. Sh}- and nervous in such 

 an unnatural position, the gentle 

 birds made a pathetic appeal for 

 hospitality' ; and how well they 

 Avould repa}^ it, numbered as they 

 are among the loveliest birds of 

 the West ! 



"""iV 



Photograph by Hi)l>. rt H. l{...kwiH. 



Fig. 94. — Mountain 



tluebird. 



