196 WILD ANIMALS OP GLACIEE NATIONAL PARK. 



site song of the fuscescens has been described as a series of descending 

 silver rings, but that only gives a hint of its rare quality and charm. 



Olive-backed Thrush : IlyJocicKla ustulaia swainsoni. — The olive- 

 backed — distinguished from the willovF by its bright buffy throat, its 

 more heavily marked breast, and especially by its buffy cheeks and 

 eye ring — and distinguished from the red-tailed Audubon hermit 

 by having the tail nearly the same color as the back, is said, by 

 Mr. Bryant, to breed in the park. A nest that we took for a swain- 

 soni was found near Glenn Lake, in a small balsam about 10 feet 

 from the ground, and was loosely made of soft black and green 

 bearded lichens, moss, and grass, lined with lichen. It contained one 

 young bird and one dull-green egg lightly spotted with brownish. 



The loud beautiful song of the olive-back whose effect, as it is 

 said, " is much enhanced by the evening hush in which it is most often 

 hoard," must be listened to carefidly to distinguish it from that of 

 the Audubon hermit. Not only do its cadences ascend rather than 

 descend, but, as Dr. Jonathan Dwight describes the song, it " lacks 

 the leisurely sweetness of the hermit thrush's outpourings, nor is 

 there pause, but in lower ke^' and with greater energy it bubbles on 

 rapidly to a close rather than fading out with the soft melody of its 

 renowned rival." 



Audubon Hermit Thrush : Hylocichla guttata auclubonl. — Two 

 Audubon thrushes seen at the Grinnell water-thrush pond on Lake 

 McDonald close enough for a distinct view of their diagnostic reddish 

 brown tails, were probably migrants, but four others were seen or 

 heard during the nesting season, two of them close enough for iden- 

 tification. 



The songs heard were, curiously enough, associated with particu- 

 larly impressive mountain views. On the trail to Iceberg Lake, when 

 w^e had been slowlj^ climbing up through the dark forest of close-set 

 shagg}' firs and spruces, with only an occasional sunbeam lighting up 

 a green fern bed, a patch of lemon yellow lichen, or a clump of 

 magenta Mimulus, suddenly, at a turn, we rode out of the shadowed 

 forest and looked across a great space upon the Swiftcurrent glacier 

 and the noble peak of Grinnell Mountain. As we gazed, spellbound, 

 at the landscape, over our heads came the thrilling, exalted song of 

 the Audubon hermit, unheard before in the mountains, with its sub- 

 limated refrain — ''''Tligh ahove you, high above you.'''' Farther along 

 the trail, when once more we rode out of the shadowed forest for our 

 first inspiring view of the uplifted head of Mount Wilbur and the 

 glacier above Glacier Lake, we were again thrilled by the exalted 

 song with its cool, serene notes — " Iligh ahove you, high above you.'''' 



Western Eobin: Planesticus migi^atorius propinquus, — Familar 

 homelike robins, practically indistinguishable from the eastern, were 

 nesting on beams under the eaves at Glacier Park Hotel and at Many 



