352 BIRD-LIFE IN WESTERN CANADA 



ing response by tins elusive forest dweller to the advances 

 of civilization. 



In July, 1901, on my first visit to Glacier, a pair of Barn 

 Swallows, after the charming manner of their kind, were 

 giving a more complete evidence of their confidence in man, 

 by attempting to build a nest beneath the hotel piazza. The 

 conditions, however, were evidently novel and the mud 

 would not stick on the smooth face of the rafter which had 

 been selected as a site. I ventured to nail up a cleat by way 

 of foundation. The assistance was accepted in good part and 

 the nest was completed. In 1907, I found a pair of Barn 

 Swallows nesting where I had left either them or their pred- 

 ecessors six years lief ore. 



Trilling Juncos, slightly browner than the eastern bird, 

 are common at the edges of the wood along the railway track 

 and particularly about the stables attached to the hotels. 

 With them may lie found Intermediate White-crowned 

 Sparrows, whose plaintive song of five notes, so singularly 

 suggestive of the song of the Black-throated Green War- 

 bler, is here one of the most characteristic bits of bird mu- 

 sic ; and from the tangle of fallen tree-tops, the song of the 

 Western Winter Wren, trickles out like the voice of a hid- 

 den brook. 



At Laggan, the Fox Sparrows, singing gaily, succeeded 

 as few birds can, in making dark days seem bright and 

 cheerful, while from the tree-tops, the Ruby-crowned King- 

 let played his magic Ante and the Olive-sided Flycatcher 

 called his emphatic "Come up here." The Solitaire, a dis- 

 tinguished figure in the list of American song birds, was not 

 uncommon at Laggan, but only once did I hear the ecstatic 

 carrolling which takes the bird from its feet, high above the 

 tree tops. This was at timberline where the bird seemed lift- 

 ed by the force of its song, not only above the trees but 

 above the mountains tops, above the very earth itself. In 

 July these are the leading members of the feathered 

 choir in the Canadian Rockies, which it is evident, contains 



