iSgo.] General Notes. 2 93 



remain till October 10 at least. Throughout the summer the Olive-back 

 is only found in the mountains and, like the Willow Thrush, but very 

 short distances from water, but unlike that species, the male is not satis- 

 fied with an elevation of only a few feet, when towards evening he pours 

 forth his curious lay to his shy mate below. At such times the most 

 prominent limb of some tall cotton wood is none too lofty a perch. 



About the first of July I camped for several days in a grove that seemed 

 a chosen resort for Olive-backs. Regularly, an hour or so before dark, a 

 bird would be heard from some topmost branch, and scarcely would he be 

 through, before another would answer from a few rods away, only to be 

 followed by still another, till half a dozen or more could be heard from 

 different localities. Nor would they cease until the last rays of daylight 

 were rapidly disappearing from the western sky. In early morning they 

 were not nearly so active. In regard to the song itself, the birds almost 

 always begin with several call-notes, interspersed with various odd chucks, 

 then the ringing melody, characteristic of the Willow Thrush's song is 

 produced, winding up rather abruptly with some fine, weaker notes. 

 Occasionally they would utter the first call-notes and chucks without any- 

 thing following, but I never heard the latter ami more pleasing part of 

 the song without the prelude. They were so excessively shy that it was 

 some time before I actually identified the song as belonging to this bird. 

 Usually, long before getting within anything like shooting distance, the 

 notes would cease, and while vainly endeavoring to catch a glimpse of 

 the shy performer through the dense foliage above, suddenly his mocking 

 call-note would come from some impenetrable thicket near by. 



Audubon's Thrush, according to my observations, is much the rarest, 

 in Montana, of the birds under consideration. It reaches a somewhat 

 higher elevation than the other two, and I have seen it at least half a mile 

 from streams in dense evergreen timber. The first specimen noted was 

 in the top of a pine sixty or seventy feet high, standing on a projecting 

 knoll of the mountainside some eight hundred or a thousand feet above 

 Belt River. I was first attracted by the song, at that time quite new tome, 

 and shortly discovered and obtained the bird. Their song begins with 

 two (sometimes only one) clear, whistle-like notes of slightly different 

 pitch, followed by the ringing melody peculiar to the songs of the other 

 species, and the whole, though rather too brief, produces a fine effect as it 

 comes floating, clear and distinct, from the silent dark-timbered moun- 

 tainsides. They sing at irregular intervals throughout the day, and never 

 seem to collect together in any numbers, certainly manifesting some very 

 hermit-like traits. 



Following arc about the altitudes at which I have found the three spe- 

 cies during the breeding season. The Willow Thrush inhabits from the 

 low.est valleys up to about 4200 ft., the Olive-back from 4200 to 5000 ft. 

 and Audubon's Thrush from 4200 ft. up to probably 6000 ft. — R. S. Wil- 

 liams, Great Falls. Montana. 



