308 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 



sleighs along, while around the Yellowstone Falls it was 

 possible to move only on snowshoes. There was little 

 life in those woods. In the upper basin I caught a 

 meadow mouse on the snow; I afterwards sent it to Hart 

 Merriam, who told me it was of a species he had de- 

 scribed from Idaho, Microtus nanus; it had not been 

 previously found in the Yellowstone region. We saw an 

 occasional pine squirrel, snowshoe rabbit or marten; and 

 in the open meadows around the hot waters there were 

 Canada geese and ducks of several species, and now and 

 then a coyote. Around camp Clark's crows and Stellar's 

 jays, and occasionally magpies, came to pick at the refuse; 

 and of course they were accompanied by the whiskey 

 jacks, which behaved with their usual astounding famil- 

 iarity. At Norris Geyser Basin there was a perfect 

 chorus of bird music from robins, western purple finches, 

 juncos and mountain bluebirds. In the woods there were 

 mountain chickadees and pygmy nuthatches, together 

 with an occasional woodpecker. In the northern coun- 

 try we had come across a very few blue grouse and ruffed 

 grouse, both as tame as possible. We had seen a pygmy 

 owl no larger than a robin sitting on the top of a pine in 

 broad daylight, and uttering at short intervals a queer 

 un-owl-like cry. 



The birds that interested us most were the solitaires, 

 and especially the dippers or water-ousels. We were 

 fortunate enough to hear the solitaires sing not only when 

 perched on trees, but on the wing, soaring over a great 

 canyon. They are striking birds in every way, and their 

 habit of singing while soaring, and their song, are alike 



