300 BIRDS OF THE ROCKIES 



their bills were quite slender, their bodies lithe and 

 graceful, and their tails of well-proportioned length. 

 Save in color, they presented a decidedly thrush-like 

 appearance, and their manners were also thrush-like. 



Indeed, the colors and markings puzzled me not a 

 little. The upper parts were brownish-gray of various 

 shades, the wings and tail for the most part dusky, the 

 wing-coverts, tertials, and some of the quills bordered 

 and tipped with white, also the tail. The white of both 

 wings and tail became quite conspicuous when they were 

 spread. This was the feathered conundrum that flitted 

 about before me. The birds were about the size of the 

 hermit thrushes, but lither and suppler. They ambled 

 about gracefully, and did not seem to be very shy, and 

 presently one of them broke into a song the song that 

 I had previously heard, only it was loud and ringing and 

 well articulated, now that I was near the singer. Again 

 and again they lifted their rich voices in song. When 

 they wandered a little distance from each other, they 

 called in affectionate tones, giving their " All "s well." 



Then one of them, no doubt the male, darted from a 

 pine branch obliquely into the air, and mounted up and 

 up and up, in a series of graceful leaps, until he was 

 a mere speck against the blue dome, gyrating to and 

 fro in zigzag lines, or wheeling in graceful circles, his 

 song dribbling faintly down to me at frequent intervals. 

 A thing of buoyancy and grace, more angel than bird, 



