BIRDS. 179 



tlie catchy I'hj'thm, phrase themselves — " Green, ejreeiv, iva'ter, see-it- 

 there." 



Like the song of the white-crown, the plirase may change with 

 the setting, as under the white snow of Baring Basin one seemed 

 to say, " WMte, white snmv' hanks, see'them-there" and at Gunsight 

 on a cokl, cloudy morning, with fresh snow on the mountain sides an- 

 other sang, " Cold, cold wafter, see-it-there." A second song, clear, 

 rich, and musical, something like the four-noted song of the white- 

 crown, but reversed, began high and descended, suggesting " Green 

 lake, green lake, see-it-there." 



In the grim amphitheater of Iceberg Lake, with its high glacier 

 debouching into the green water, as we watched insectlike mountain 

 goats climbing up the mountain walls above us and nutcrackers 

 flying about over beds of heather, wind-bared, wide-skirted spruces, 

 and snow banks tinted with the famous pink snow of circumpolar 

 and Alpine regions, the '■'■ Iligh-np, high-up" of the white-crown 

 seemed well attuned to the spirit of the place. Then suddenly, 

 to my astonishment there rang out loud and clear the bright, cheery 

 '''' Green, green ica'ter, see-it-there" What was he doing up here? 

 As I asked myself the question I looked about and the willow thicket 

 bordering the lake answered me. He was simply following the wil- 

 lows. Tracing the loud, sweet song to a hedge of spruce, on the tip 

 of a spire I caught the familiar dark-gray head of my bird, and as 

 he pitched clown and I went to look for him, I found that he had been 

 singing over a spruce alcove carpeted with the exquisite lemon-yellow 

 Er^^thronium that was filling the air with its fragrance at the edges 

 of melting snowbanks. But never did I appreciate the lovely song 

 so much as when after protracted days of following trails through 

 the dark coniferous forest we came out onto the simny chaparral 

 slope of Cathedral Peak and were greeted again by the bright, cheer- 

 ing A'oice of our friend. 



Aectic Towhee : Pipilo maculcdus arcticus. — The strikingly marked 

 arctic towhee — the male with black foreparts, white belly, and brown 

 flanks ; the female with black rejalaced by olive brown — found scratch- 

 ing among the leaves on the ground or singing in a bush not far above, 

 Avhile characteristically a bird of the Transition and Upper Sonoran 

 zones, breeds at these lower levels as far north as Alberta and Sas- 

 katchewan, and several were observed by Messrs. Bailey and Howell 

 on May 24, 189.5, at St. Mary Lake. 



Black-headed Grosbeak : Zamelodia jnelanoeephala melano- 

 cephala. — Mr. Bryant reports the musical brown-breasted, black- 

 headed grosbeak nesting in mountain maples inside the park in the- 

 region of the N'orth Fork of the Flathead. 

 51140°— 18 15 



