The Wapiti 205 



takes short flights after passing insects, as often as 

 it scrambles over the twigs in the ordinary wood- 

 pecker fashion. Like its companion, the Clark's 

 crow, it is ordinarily a bird of the high tree-tops, 

 and around these it indulges in curious aerial games, 

 again like those of the little crow. It is fond of 

 going in troops, and such a troop frequently choose 

 some tall pine and soar round and above it in irregu- 

 lar spirals. 



The remarkable and almost amphibious little 

 water wren, with its sweet song, its familiarity, and 

 its very curious habit of running on the bottom of 

 the stream, several feet beneath the surface of the 

 race of rapid water, is the most noticeable of the 

 small birds of the Rocky Mountains. It sometimes 

 sings loudly while floating with half-spread wings on 

 the surface of a little pool. Taken as a whole, small 

 birds are far less numerous and noticeable in the 

 wilderness, especially in the deep forests, than in the 

 groves and farmland of the settled country. The 

 hunter and trapper are less familiar with small-bird 

 music than with the screaming of the eagle and the 

 large hawks, the croaking bark of the raven, the 

 loon's cry, the crane's guttural clangor, and the un- 

 earthly yelling and hooting of the big owls. 



No bird is so common around camp, so familiar, 

 so amusing on some occasions, and so annoying on 

 others, as that drab-colored imp of iniquity, the 

 whiskey- jack also known as the moose bird and 



