24 THE sAvUeD7U, BO UN) BUA Cee ae 
2. MOUNTAIN BLUEBIRD (Sialia currucoides) 
THE MOUNTAIN BLUEBIRD, state bird of Idaho and Nevada, is the 
bluest of the bluebirds. It is azure blue above and below, and has a 
white belly. The female is largely gray above and a dull brownish below, 
with bluish rump, tail, and wings. 
The Mountain Buebird nests in scattered evergreen groves in the 
high mountains, sometimes at elevations of 7,000 feet or even higher. 
Both the Mountain and the Western Bluebirds visit the lowlands in 
winter. The nest of the Mountain Bluebird may be in an old woodpecker 
hole, in crevices in rocks, or in bird houses. There are from five to seven 
pale, greenish blue eggs. 
The diet of the Mountain Bluebird consists of insects obtainable at 
all times of the year. It is highly beneficial as a destroyer of insects. The 
general diet varies only in the fall when some fruit, principally elder- 
berries, is eaten. The song is a beautiful, clear, sweet warble, higher 
pitched than that of the Eastern Bluebird. 
The Mountain Bluebird spends much time on the wing. It is not swift, 
probably not making more than 17 or 18 miles per hour on its ordinarily 
short flights. John Taylor (1918) said that a company of these birds 
in flight may be identified at a distance by their peculiar manner of posing 
for a few seconds on rapidly beating wings, then flying ahead in undulat- 
ing Swoops. 
This bird occupies a wide breeding range throughout the western 
half of the United States west of the Great Plains. It breeds as far south 
as the higher mountains of New Mexico and Arizona, wintering southward 
from southern Colorado and California to Guadalupe Island and Mexico. 
Mountain Bluebirds do not wholly desert the higher elevations, not even in 
midwinter. 
929 Brummel Street, Evanston, Illinois 
ft ft ft ft 
Illinois Field Notes - Winter, 1962 
By John Rybicki 
AN OREGON JUNCO was seen at my bird feeder on Jan. 6, 1962. The 
sides were definitely brown, plainly visible at a distance of 15 feet from 
my window. After comparing the bird before me with Peterson’s Field 
Guide, I concluded that I was watching a female. It was not until I 
reviewed the Distributional Check List of the Birds of Illinois, by Smith 
and Parmalee, that I realized how unusual the Oregon Junco is in this area. 
2238 Spruce Road, Homewood, Illinois 
PUBLICATION RECEIVED 
DISTRIBUTION AND ABUNDANCE OF PHEASANTS IN ILLINOIS, 
by Frecerick Greeley, Ronald F. Labisky, and Stuart H. Mann. “Biol- 
ogical Notes No. 47” of the State Natural History Survey Division, 
Urbana, Illinois. March, 1962; 16 pages, 16 illustrations, 8%” x 11”, 
paper-bound. Free. 
Another of a series of reports on the status of what is now the most 
popular upland game bird in Illinois. Earlier literature, dating back to 
1931, is reviewed. Most of the data is presented in full-page shaded maps 
based on rural mail-carrier censuses. The pheasant is most abundant in 
the northeast third of Illinois, with a center in Ford and Livingston 
Counties. Here is another example of the effective cooperative research 
being done by the State Natural History Survey, the Illinois Department 
of Conservation, and the U. S. Bureau of Sports Fisheries and Wildlife. 
