246 Cameron, Birds of Custer & Davenport Counties, Mont. [july 



acres and acres of rose brush clothing the creek bottom while large 

 patches of wild fruit trees were abundant on the hillsides. Under 

 the taller ash and box elders spread a net-work of clematis, which 

 intertwining with plum-trees and choke-cherries, overhung the 

 smaller bushes, the whole forming an impenetrable covert, con- 

 taining several springs of water while yielding its store of food 

 to the birds. At one place so dense was the thicket, where it 

 joined the north window of the ranch-house, that entry thereto 

 was impossible save by using a fallen tree as a bridge. 



Numbers of newly arrived migrants would work through this 

 labyrinth from the north end until their further progress was 

 barred by the window above mentioned. In this way many rare 

 visitors were first observed from inside the room, such as Town- 

 send's Warbler, White-crowned Sparrow, Olive-backed Thrush, 

 etc. 



My wife used to thread blue-bottle flies and hang them outside 

 the glass, for the pleasure of watching the Long-tailed Chats and 

 Redstarts, which would suddenly appear and pull them off the 

 string. Many birds nested within these thickets; some of which, 

 to the best of my knowledge, did not do so elsewhere in the county, 

 such as the Black-billed Cuckoo and Cedar Waxwing. 



In 1902, I built a ranch in Dawson County amidst pines four 

 and a half miles to the north of Fallon, on the Northern Pacific 

 Railway, and moved over there. The house is situated below 

 some springs surrounded by pines and cedars where I have placed 

 three water-troughs. All species of birds inhabiting the pine hills 

 of eastern Montana visit them to bathe and drink. It is indeed 

 a charming sight in summer to watch the flocks of Crossbills, 

 Pinon Jays, and Goldfinches descend to the water, while in winter 

 such numbers of Rosy Finches come, that the sound of their wings 

 resembles the wind in the pines. Even mule deer from adjacent 

 badlands drink regularly here, passing in early dawn within thirty- 

 five yards of the house. This shows what may be accomplished 

 where the peace of nature is never disturbed. 



