THE CONDOR 
A Bi-Monthly Magazine of 
Western Ornithology 
Volume XXIV May-June, 1922 Number 3 
[Issued June 10, 1922] 
MISCELLANEOUS BIRD NOTES FROM MONTANA 
By CHARLES L. WHITTLE 
WITH TWO ILLUSTRATIONS 
URING the spring of 1921, from May 14 to June 5, the writer was occa- 
sionally afield in the vicinity of Great Falls, Montana, and much more 
extensively so in the Little Belt Mountains, about fifty-five miles south- 
easterly from that city. Great Falls is situated on the Missouri River where 
the stream debouches from the Rocky Mountains into a broad, inter-mountain 
valley, at this point approximately 3300 feet above the sea. The valley bottom 
is treeless except along water courses, and a considerable portion of it is under 
cultivation. 
The section of the mountains visited lay on and near the head-waters of 
two or three small torrential streams flowing into Belt Creek near Neihart; in 
particular, Carpenter Creek, which drains the north slope of ‘‘ Neihart Baldy’’, 
a mountain about 8000 feet high. Barring narrow strips along streams ocecu- 
pied by a small deciduous growth, and occasional ‘‘mountain parks’’, this area 
is almost completely covered with lodge-pole pines, nearly all ten to twenty 
years old, in most places replacing an older growth of heavy timber of the 
same species, largely destroyed by fire. 
Much of this mountain country was still covered with snow on May 14, 
aud on June 5 snow was still present as drifts on northerly slopes of peaks 
and ridges occurring at elevations of over 7000 feet. The region visited dur- 
ing this period has an elevation ranging from 5500 to 7300 feet. My visit was 
therefore fortunate in the matters of time of year and snow conditions, to wit- 
ness the gradual coming of the birds that visit these somewhat isolated moun- 
tains for nesting purposes or pass through them in migration. 
Such notes as follow were made incidentally, in connection with other 
field work in the region mentioned above, and are given in part to show ar- 
rival dates for some species and the breeding distribution of others as affected 
by elevation. The order given follows the American Ornithologists’ Union 
Check-Iast, third edition. 
