20 
THE CONDOR 
Vol. VII 
twenty yards within the grounds, my attention was attracted by a female varied 
thrush chirping in the lower branches of a large conifer. I lost no time in collect- 
ing her, and soon went on my way rejoicing; but something about her peculiar 
action, in sitting there chirping as she had done, set me to thinking. I went back 
to the place, and looking over the locality, found a nest in a scrubby fir about 
twenty feet from the roadside. The affair did not look promising, for it appeared 
to be an old nest of olive-backed thrush, though somewhat larger. The site was 
eleven feet from the ground, on a horizonsal branch beside the main stem, a typ- 
ical site for the olive-back. Upon climbing to it, I found three eggs in the nest. 
It was a bulky structure, having an external framework of coarse twigs, with thick 
walls of lichen, bark, and dried grasses. The lining was of fine dried grass, the 
cavity being three inches and three and one-half inches across in various direc- 
tions, and one and seven-eights inches deep. In preparing the eggs, I found 
them incubated 50 per cent or more. Later dissection of the female showed that 
the set was complete. After packing the eggs, I went back to the station, got an 
axe, cut down the tree, cut out the section containing the nest, and later photo- 
graphed the nest in situ with the accompanying results. 
The male had not yet appeared, and I waited. While cutting down the tree, 
I heard several peculiar, long-drawn whistles in different keys, and I knew that he 
was in the neighborhood. For a long time he hesitated to come near, but kept in the 
tree tops out of sight, still calling. At length I attempted to respond to his calls, and 
presently he flitted nearer, finally alighting over my head in a tree at the edge of 
the woods. His was a most unusual call, a plaintive though loud whistle, uttered 
singly, each call in a different key from the preceeding utterance, as if he were 
practicing various tones of the musical scale, though he appeared to strike only 
three or four different tones. 
Several conclusions may be drawn from the finding of this nest. The fact is 
established that the varied thrush nests regularly as far eastward as Flathead Lake; 
it is also apparent that this thrush nests later than is generally supposed; and that 
under ordinary circumstances, after its first brood has left the nest, it hastens to 
rear another brood. Generally the nest-site is much lower than in the instance 
under consideration, according to the reports of native observers; and it was be- 
cause of this I did not think of making such a find at the time. Later examina- 
tion of the nest showed that the foundation and walls contained dried leaves and 
similar material which had dried in form, giving a solidity to the structure common 
to nests of other thrushes. 
This season for the first time I found the Tennessee warbler (. HelmintJiopliila 
pcreg 7 'ina) at home. Near the station there is a large willow swamp, annually 
overflowed and usually inaccessible because of mosquitoes; but this season there 
was a pleasant lack of such pests, and I spent many hours with the birds in the 
swamp. On June 29 my attention was attracted by a new song. At a favorable 
opportunity I captured the songster. He spent most of his time in the top of the 
lower undergrowth and shrubbery, but when taken he was singing vigorously 
among the larger willows. It proved to be a new bird to my Montana list, easily 
identified. Another male was singing as it gleaned among the foliage of dogwood 
and wfillow saplings, but at that time I had no need for it. Soon several males 
were found to be frequenting that part of the swamp, each appearing to have his 
little area. On several occasions I followed a singing male entirely around his 
little domain, and in the course of my visits to the swamp I learned the particular 
locality each male frequented. The center of operations of each was a little open- 
