The Mountain Bluebird 
of the same month, a great wave of migration occurred, and some two 
hundred birds, all “Arctics” now, 1 and at least one third of them females, 
distributed themselves over a half deserted “townsite”—with what 
delighted appreciation on our part, may best be imagined. The 
males are practically all azure; but the 
females have a much more modest 
garb of reddish gray, or stone- 
olive, which flashes into 
blue on wings and tail, 
only as the bird 
from post to post. 
The Mountain 
Bluebird is a frequent 
and most endearin 
sight of the timberline 
association in the Si¬ 
erras. Here, 
amidst re¬ 
treating snow- 
fields and 
bursting 
greenery, 
where every¬ 
thing is fresh and clear-cut and radiant, our azure incarnation seems 
exactly at home. The jagged peaks are cutting the horizon into blue 
tatters, anyhow, and it is no matter for surprise when detached shreds 
of the cerulean wreckage flutter over the heather, or lose themselves 
by the margin of some turquoise pool. And here, where gnarled pine 
trees have felt the tooth of the frost and have yielded sheltering hollows, 
the Mountain Bluebirds make their nests. Or, perchance, some hardy 
woodpecker has paved the way and left a princely excavation, which the 
Bluebirds have only to line with soft dead grasses and call their own. 
From five to seven dainty eggs, the palest possible blue, furnish 
occasion for pride and solicitude, and a little later for gallantries of 
ministration and defense, the sweetest and the bravest which this gallant 
old world knows. And if I had not seen a score of male Bluebirds whose 
sole concern was to protect their home with its precious contents, I 
should not tell this tale of another not so gallant. There were seven 
babies, and the very least excuse for cowardice in this case, but I had 
marked this bird as a timorous fowl, who would not even venture up to 
have his picture taken. So when, one day, a great outcry arose with 
reference to a Clark’s Crow, I hurried over. Some determined avenger 
flits 
Taken in Inyo County Photo by the Author 
THE VALIANT MRS. BLUEBIRD 
783 
1 Formerly Sialia arclica. 
