May, 1912 
AN AFTERNOON’S FIELD NOTES 
107 
call note, others like the hoarse chuck of a mockingbird — very hard to describe ! 
A while ago the chat flew up through the air fifty feet or so, singing, with pecu- 
liarly drooping and flopping wings. I am sure a pair of W ren-tits have a nest 
nearby. Also a pair of Bush-tits, the latter probably in the oak, where I have seen 
them fly several times. Two Western Wood Pewees are about, one frequently in 
full pursuit of the other with loud snapping of bills, and muttered notes. A Tur- 
key Buzzard is circling overhead. Just watched a female Green-backed Gold- 
finch laying the first foundation material for a nest five and one-half feet up in a 
tall weed {Malvaf). 
2 :55 — Just located the Bush-tit’s nest. It is of usual style, six feet up in 
outer lower drooping oak branch ; contained five half-grown young whose daws 
were clinched together tightly through the material of the nest bottom, and could 
only be pulled out by pulling the feathers, etc., to which they clung. No wind 
could dislodge them without tearing the nest to shreds first. The youngsters twit- 
ter loudly in chorus when a parent enters the nest with food. 
Later — A pair of Mourning Doves have been feeding on the croquet ground 
by the Wood’s house. I saw a Hammond Flycatcher perched on a stake in the 
reservoir, and another in the orchard. Also two Black Phoebes, and a female 
Yellow Warbler. At least three Phainopeplas are among the olives and pepper 
trees along the street. Have also seen about the ranch: Western Lark Sparrow, 
lots of Linnets, Mockingbirds, Western Chipping Sparrows, and Anthony Tow- 
hees. 
FROM FIELD AND STUDY 
Some Changes and Additions to the List of Birds of Southwestern Montana.—’ 
Owing to the fact that I neglected to have several bird-skins, collected in Southwestern 
Montana, properly identified until recently, I have one correction and one addition to make 
to my list in the last number of The Condor. An adult male Red-winged Blackbird col- 
lected in the Silver Bow marshes, May 21, 1911, has been identified by Dr. L. B. Bishop 
as the Northwestern Redwing (Agelakts phoeniceits caurimis). He states that it agrees 
exactly with skins in his collection from the coast of British Columbia. This is all the 
more surprizing because of the fact that I had every reason to believe it to be a breeding 
bird. I found several nests containing both eggs and newly hatched young in the Silver 
Bow marshes on the day this bird was secured. Since it is the only one of this species that 
I have taken in that part of Montana it leaves the breeding form of Redwing there in con- 
siderable doubt until more conclusive evidence can be obtained. 
An adult female Junco, taken on Clear Creek, Deer Lodge County, October 9, 1910, Dr. 
Bishop identifies as the Oregon Junco (Junco hycinalis oregaiins) stating that it is an 
unusually high-colored specimen even for that race. I had rather suspected that this form 
occurred among the migrant Juncos of western Montana for some time, but this is my first 
opportunity to prove it. I confidently believe that more extended collecting will prove it of 
regular and not rare occurrence. — Aretas A. Saunders. 
Migration of White-necked Ravens.— This past winter has been unusually cold 
and as a result there has been an utter absence of White-necked Ravens [Corvtts cryplo- 
Icucns). Those from this section (Cochise County, Arizona) migrated in one immense 
flock the second Monday in last November. This flock extended over a distance of nearly 
three miles along the foot hills of the Dragoon Mountains near Gleason in this county. 
There did not seem to be any regular flight, but a sort of general slow movement to the 
south, The birds were present in many thousands and it was two days before the last 
stragglers disappeared. A few are now back again, the first being seen on the 22nd of 
February. 
