ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES FROM THE WEST. 347 
were also the hairy and yellow-bellied. Lewis’s differed considera- 
bly from the others in habits, rising into the air almost vertically 
to a great height, apparently in pursuit of insects, descending 
again as abruptly\to repeat soon the same manœuvre. The 
specimens of hairy woodpecker taken by us represented typically 
the form known as Harris’s woodpecker, which differs from the 
eastern form in being darker, with fewer of the rounded white 
spots on the wings. The plumage of the old birds was much worn 
and very ragged and the white of the belly deeply stained with 
dusky, but the full-grown young were as white below as in the 
eastern form, showing the dusky color of the old birds on these 
parts to be the result of stains acquired from the fire-blackened 
The pigmy nuthatch was also numerous, more resembling in its 
habits the kinglets and titmice,—like them hunting about the 
extremities of the branches, hanging head downwards — than the 
common larger species of the East. It is not only gregarious 
with those of its own kind, but associates freely with the titmice 
ad the ruby crowned kinglet, all keeping up a lively, social 
twitter, The violet-green swallow, one of the most beautiful of 
the Hirundines, was everywhere numerous, breeding in deserted 
Woodpeckers’ holes, and far outnumbering all the other Hirun- 
j 5 together: A single specimen of Townsend’s flycatcher, a 
“i Somewhat allied to the thrushes, though generally associated 
mit the chatterer s, and formerly with the flycatchers, was 
“xen on Deer Creek. Wilson’s thrush was observed at intervals, 
= the hermit thrush was everywhere quite common. The broad- 
_ failed humming bird (Selasophorus platycercus), the only represent- 
ah of the Trochilide, was excessively numerous, and though 
Smewhat larger and otherwise different from the eastern ruby- 
i throat, might easily be mistaken for it by the casual observer. The 
! v Whistling of his wings, caused by the excessive attenuation ot 
N ter primaries, is, however, a peculiarity one is sure to notice. 
ene of our camps we heard scores of Nuttall’s whippoorwills, 
. S of which were dimly seen, but the darkness prevented our 
IR "g their acquaintance “ autoptically.” The dusky grouse 
i apparently common, was the only representa- 
eE family we met with in the — except the 
Above ei ptarmigan, soon to be more particularly mentioned. 
"S eight thousand feet, Lincoln’s sparrow was the most abun- 
