14 Williams o?i Upper Missouri River Birds. [January 



of the same leaf . In this way it will be possible to cut apnrt 

 your notes into slips and assort with others of same purport, so 

 as to rearrange systematically. Do this for your own notes as 

 well as those you send me : You will often realize the advan- 

 tage of so doing." 



It is unnecessary here to go into details concerning events 

 subsequent to the beginning of this correspondence. Suffice it 

 to say that in all his relations with Professor Baird the writer 

 remembers, with deepest gratitude and reverence, his uniform 

 great kindness of heart, his genial manners, his wise counsels, 

 ant! his steadfast friendship ; and, with others who were so for- 

 timate as to have enjoyed the privilege of his acquaintance, he 

 mourns a departed friend and teacher, whose loss is irreparable. 



UPPER MISSOURI RIVER BIRDS. 



BY ROBERT S. WILLIAMS. 



It is a bright morning on the 9th of May, and, with gun and 

 game bag, I start out for a walk along the Missouri River above 

 town (Great Falls, Montana). The wind, which has been blow- 

 ing almost a gale for several days past, is this morning scarcely 

 perceptible ; a few fleecy clouds are in the clear sky above, and 

 the prairies are rapidly changing their dull colors to summer 

 tints of green. At a distance, the scattered cotton-woods stand 

 up as bare and gray as in the depth of winter, and the willows 

 scarcely show signs of returning life, except in the warm, sunny 

 nooks, where they are rapidly assuming the misty green that 

 will shortly envelop them and change their whole appearance. 



On all sides the birds are doing their best to proclaim the 

 arrival of another spring. In the distance are heard the loud 

 and long-drawn out whistlings of the Curlew as he wings his 

 way here and there over the prairie. Close at hand are Chest- 

 nut-collared and McCown's Longspurs uttering their pleasing 

 warbles. The latter bird is constantly flying rapidly upward for 

 a short distance, then with wings motionless above the back, it 

 sails slowly to the ground, reminding one of a huge butterfly, 



