2Q2 General Notes. [July 



bird was hidden by thick bushes, handed me his gun and I secured it. 

 They proved to be a young male and a female, the first examples of this 

 species, I believe, ever taken in Worcester County. — R. E. Kimball, 

 Fitchburg, Mass. 



A Yellow-crowned Regulus calendula. — April 27, 1S90, I shot near 

 Laurel, Md., an adult male 'Ruby-crowned' Kinglet which has the 

 crown-patch pure orange-yellow instead of vermillion, the plumage being 

 otherwise quite normal. The crown-patch is very well developed, being 

 more extensive than in the average of specimens. — Robert Ridgway, 

 Washington, D. C. 



The Breeding Ranges and Songs of Three Thrushes in Montana. — In 

 June, 1SS9, while collecting in the Belt River Canon I found the summer 

 home of three of the smaller Thrushes more or less overlapping, and the fol- 

 lowing notes and comparisons, made at the time, may be of interest. The 

 birds referred to are Turdus fusccscens salicicolus, T. ustvlatus s-wainsoni 

 and T. aonalaschkie anduboni, the Willow, Olive-backed and Audubon's 

 Thrushes. 



First, I will speak of the Willow Thrush, the commonest and most 

 widely distributed of the Thrushes in Montana. It finds favorite nesting 

 sites all along the valley streams in thickets of willow, rose, box-elder, 

 etc. , that, as the summer advances, become almost impenetrable with a 

 rank growth of weeds. From such localities its song is often heard on 

 its first arrival, but later little else than its loud, plaintive call-note 

 greets the listener's ear and one may spend many a fruitless moment in 

 trying to obtain a fair glimpse of the wary little inhabitant of the secluded 

 covert. From the lower valleys this species ranges up to the mountain 

 foot-hills and canons, but I have never seen it far from water or more 

 than a few yards above the earth, and never in heavy, evergreen timber. 

 The Willow Thrush's song, identical with that of the Eastern form, 

 although so difficult to describe, is probably familiar to most lovers of 

 birds in the regions where either variety breeds. It is not surpassed, in 

 my estimation, either in beauty or length by the song of the Olive- 

 backed or of Audubon's Thrush. The song of the latter may about equal 

 it, while in any case, I should put the Olive-back last on the list of 

 vocalists, although its notes are the most varied, and quite odd as well. 

 Willow Thrushes are rare here in spring and fall migration, from which 

 it may be inferred that no great numbers go much farther north. They 

 arrive with considerable regularity about May 15. The latest date I have 

 for their departure is September 7. 



Next in order of abundance during the breeding season, is the Olive- 

 backed Thrush. In migration it is the only common bird of the 

 three, appearing in considerable numbers about the middle of May, and 

 again the second or third week in September, along all the lower valley 

 streams. The earfiest I have noted their arrival in spring is May 10, and. 

 at this season they do not tarry long away from their breeding grounds. 

 In the (all they appear from the higher elevations about September 1, and 



