Vol i^07" IV ] Cameron, Birds of Custer & Dawson Counties, Mont. 395 



fly across the gulches. The two nests mentioned were about four miles 

 apart, and so far, I have found no evidence of the birds breeding in colonies 

 here, as in the mountains, but judging from the size of the flocks it would 

 appear that they undoubtedly do so. The paucity of nests met with is 

 readily explained by the impenetrable nature of the country to be explored. 



One of the above mentioned nests was only two miles from my ranch 

 so that I was able to keep the birds under observation. The pair were 

 first noticed to be carrying twigs on May 19, at which date the nest was 

 about half-finished, both birds assisting in its construction. Without 

 the guidance of the birds it is unlikely that I should have found the nest 

 at all, placed, as it was, near the extremity of a thick pine bough and. 

 completely screened from observation except from above within the tree. 

 The nest was of large size with a smaller interior cup, the whole of the 

 exterior, together with a platform on which the cup rested, being com- 

 posed entirely of dead greasewood sticks and a few rootlets. The width 

 across the sticks was 14 inches, and the height of the nest 8 inches. The 

 cup was very strongly made of dead grass, pulled by the birds into a mate- 

 rial like tow, and so thickly matted together, that it remained intact when 

 nearly all the surrounding sticks had been blown away. Some dead thistle 

 leaves were woven into the rim. The inner cup was 5\ inches in diameter 

 and 2\ inches deep. Although no clay was used in its manufacture the 

 cup at first resembled the white clay lining of some nests and thus afforded 

 charming contrast to the eggs in their bower of pine needles. By the time 

 that the young were hatched the cup had turned from white to brown. 

 The female began to lay apparently on May 24, as she was sitting on five 

 eggs on May 28. To the best of my belief, both birds share the duties of 

 incubation. The ground color of the eggs is pale greenish, spotted, streaked, 

 and clouded with reddish brown and purple. As seen in the nest they are 

 indistinguishable from handsome eggs of the Blackbird (Turdus merula). 

 The naked slate-colored young were hatched on June 15, so that the time 

 of incubation was about 18 days. They are fully feathered at two weeks 

 old, being then a uniform lavender of exactly the same color as the flower 

 of that name, with bill, legs, and feet to match. This hue is darkest on 

 the quills and lightest on the crissum. After leaving the nest they became 

 more ash gray, lighter below; the tail is then dark slate with a light tip, 

 and the ends of the primaries almost black. Until after the fall moult 

 the birds show no real blue. The irides are hazel. The adult female is a 

 pale lavender blue, with the head blue; the male is a darker, more uniform 

 blue. As pointed out by Coues 1 this blue is "very variable in intensity." 



I regret to record that these interesting, but unfortunate, nestlings were 

 hatched only to meet with a cruel fate, for on the very day after emerging 

 from the shell (on June 16), they began to disappear at intervals, one after 

 another, in a most perplexing manner. At first I attributed their loss to 

 the violent gales which swept over the country, uprooting many pines, 



1 Kev to North American Birds, p. 418, 1887. 



