The Mountain Bluebird 
GENTLE and de¬ 
mure, as well as brave 
and high-spirited, is this 
sky-born thorough- 
bred of the Sierras, this 
bit of heaven’s own blue 
incarnate. We shall 
think only of the milder 
qualities when we come 
upon a company of 
Mountain Bluebirds de¬ 
ployed over some south- 
sloping hillside on a 
sunny winter’s day. 
Pasture weeds or fence- 
posts serve for lookout 
stations, whence the 
mountaineer may spy 
the crawling beetle, and 
seize daintily with flut- 
terings of purest azure. 
Some pensive notes, 
chee'ry or dear'ie , like 
those of the Eastern 
Bluebird (S. sialis), but 
not so clear-cut, will be 
heard; or, if we press 
too closely, certain 
thrush-like tsook s of 
dainty alarm. Other 
song the birds have 
none, save an emphatic 
whew (never ‘mill'), ut- 
Taken in Idaho Photo by H. J. Rust tered Under StreSS of 
MOUNTAIN BLUEBIRD AT NEST . r , , 
emotion. ror here, 
again, the entire song tradition, including the “delightful warble” at¬ 
tributed to the bird by Townsend, appears to be quite without foundation, 
as in the case of S', m. occidentalis. 
Occasionally, during migration, this species associates itself with the 
Western Bluebird; and the writer will not soon forget the vision of 
loveliness afforded by such a mixed flock of fifty birds as, on a raw March 
day, it swept northward in azure tranquility. Again toward the end 
