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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Bird-Lover in the West, by 
+Olive Thorne Miller and Harriet Mann Miller
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: A Bird-Lover in the West
+
+Author: Olive Thorne Miller
+        Harriet Mann Miller
+
+Release Date: January 27, 2009 [EBook #27902]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A BIRD-LOVER IN THE WEST ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Stephen Hope, Barbara Kosker, Joseph Cooper
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ A BIRD-LOVER IN THE WEST
+
+
+ BY
+
+ OLIVE THORNE MILLER
+
+
+
+
+ BOSTON AND NEW YORK
+ HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY
+ The Riverside Press, Cambridge
+ 1900
+
+
+
+
+ Copyright, 1894,
+ BY H. M. MILLER.
+
+ _All rights reserved._
+
+
+ _The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A._
+ Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton & Co.
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTORY.
+
+
+The studies in this volume were all made, as the title indicates, in the
+West; part of them in Colorado (1891), in Utah (1893), and the remainder
+(1892) in what I have called "The Middle Country," being Southern Ohio,
+and West only relatively to New England and New York, where most of my
+studies have been made.
+
+Several chapters have appeared in the "Atlantic Monthly" and other
+magazines, and in the "Independent" and "Harper's Bazar," while others
+are now for the first time published.
+
+ OLIVE THORNE MILLER.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+ IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
+
+                                                                PAGE
+
+     I. CAMPING IN COLORADO                                         3
+
+    II. IN THE COTTONWOODS                                         17
+
+           Western wood-pewee. _Contopus richardsonii._
+           Western house wren. _Troglodytes aëdon aztecus._
+           Towhee. _Pipilo erythrophthalmus._
+
+   III. AN UPROAR OF SONG                                          32
+
+           Western meadow-lark. _Sturnella magna neglecta._
+           Horned lark. _Otocoris alpestris leucolæma._
+           Yellow warbler. _Dendroica æstiva._
+           Western wood-pewee. _Contopus richardsonii._
+           Humming-bird. _Trochilus colubris._
+           Long-tailed chat. _Icteria virens longicauda._
+
+    IV. THE TRAGEDY OF A NEST                                      42
+
+           Long-tailed chat. _Icteria virens longicauda._
+
+     V. A FEAST OF FLOWERS                                         52
+
+    VI. A CINDERELLA AMONG FLOWERS                                 60
+
+   VII. CLIFF-DWELLERS IN THE CAÑON                                70
+
+           Cañon wren. _Catherpes mexicanus conspersus._
+           American dipper. _Cinclus mexicanus._
+
+
+ IN THE MIDDLE COUNTRY.
+
+  VIII. AT FOUR O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING                             95
+
+           Purple grackle. _Quiscalus quiscula._
+           Mourning dove. _Zenaidura macroura._
+           Red-headed woodpecker. _Melanerpes erythrocephalus._
+           Blue jay. _Cyanocitta cristata._
+           Cardinal grosbeak. _Cardinalis cardinalis._
+           American robin. _Merula migratoria._
+           Golden-wing woodpecker. _Colaptes auratus._
+           House sparrow. _Passer domesticus._
+
+    IX. THE LITTLE REDBIRDS                                       113
+
+           Cardinal grosbeak. _Cardinalis cardinalis._
+           House sparrow. _Passer domesticus._
+
+     X. THE CARDINAL'S NEST                                       119
+
+           Cardinal grosbeak. _Cardinalis cardinalis._
+           Bobolink. _Dolichonyx oryzivorus._
+           Meadow-lark. _Sturnella magna._
+
+    XI. LITTLE BOY BLUE                                           126
+
+           Blue jay. _Cyanocitta cristata._
+
+   XII. STORY OF THE NESTLINGS                                    136
+
+           Blue jay. _Cyanocitta cristata._
+
+  XIII. BLUE JAY MANNERS                                          144
+
+           Blue jay. _Cyanocitta cristata._
+
+   XIV. THE GREAT CAROLINIAN                                      154
+
+           Great Carolina wren. _Thryothorus ludovicianus._
+           Yellow-billed cuckoo. _Coccyzus americanus._
+           Crested flycatcher. _Myiarchus crinitus._
+
+    XV. THE WRENLINGS APPEAR                                      172
+           Great Carolina wren. _Thryothorus ludovicianus._
+
+   XVI. THE APPLE-TREE NEST                                       183
+
+           Orchard oriole. _Icterus spurius._
+
+  XVII. CEDAR-TREE LITTLE FOLK                                    194
+
+           Mourning dove. _Zenaidura macroura._
+
+
+ BESIDE THE GREAT SALT LAKE.
+
+ XVIII. IN A PASTURE                                              207
+
+           Louisiana tanager. _Piranga ludoviciana._
+           Green-tailed towhee. _Pipilo chlorurus._
+           Magpie. _Pica pica hudsonica._
+
+   XIX. THE SECRET OF THE WILD ROSE PATH                          231
+
+           Long-tailed chat. _Icteria virens longicauda._
+           Western robin. _Merula migratoria propinqua._
+           Black-headed grosbeak. _Habia melanocephala._
+
+    XX. ON THE LAWN                                               259
+
+           Lazuli-painted finch. _Passerina amœna._
+           Broad-tailed humming-bird. _Trochilus platycercus._
+           House sparrow. _Passer domesticus._
+
+
+
+
+IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
+
+ Trust me, 't is something to be cast
+ Face to face with one's self at last,
+ To be taken out of the fuss and strife,
+ The endless clatter of plate and knife,
+   The bore of books, and the bores of the street,
+ From the singular mess we agree to call Life.
+
+        *       *       *       *       *
+
+   And to be set down on one's own two feet
+ So nigh to the great warm heart of God,
+   You almost seem to feel it beat
+ Down from the sunshine and up from the sod;
+   To be compelled, as it were, to notice
+ All the beautiful changes and chances
+ Through which the landscape flits and glances,
+     And to see how the face of common day
+     Is written all over with tender histories.
+
+ JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL.
+
+
+
+
+A BIRD-LOVER IN THE WEST.
+
+
+
+
+I.
+
+CAMPING IN COLORADO.
+
+
+This chronicle of happy summer days with the birds and the flowers, at
+the foot of the Rocky Mountains, begins in the month of May, in the year
+eighteen hundred and ninety-two.
+
+As my train rolled quietly out of Jersey City late at night, I uttered a
+sigh of gratitude that I was really off; that at last I could rest. Up
+to the final moment I had been hurried and worried, but the instant I
+was alone, with my "section" to myself, I "took myself in hand," as is
+my custom.
+
+At the risk of seeming to stray very far from my subject, I want at this
+point to say something about rest, the greatly desired state that all
+busy workers are seeking, with such varying success.
+
+A really re-creative recreation I sought for years, and
+
+ "I've found some wisdom in my quest
+ That's richly worth retailing,"
+
+and that cannot be too often repeated, or too urgently insisted upon.
+What is imperatively needed, the sole and simple secret of rest, is
+this: To go to our blessed mother Nature, and to go with the whole
+being, mind and heart as well as body. To deposit one's physical frame
+in the most secret and sacred "garden of delights," and at the same time
+allow the mind to be filled, and the thoughts to be occupied, with the
+concerns of the world we live in year after year, is utterly useless;
+for it is not the external, but the internal man that needs recreation;
+it is not the body, but the spirit that demands refreshment and relief
+from the wearing cares of our high-pressure lives. "It is of no use,"
+says a thoughtful writer, "to carry my body to the woods, unless I get
+there myself."
+
+Let us consult the poets, our inspired teachers, on this subject. Says
+Lowell,--
+
+ "In June 't is good to lie beneath a tree
+ While the blithe season comforts every sense,
+ Steeps all the brain in rest, and heals the heart,
+ Brimming it o'er with sweetness unawares,
+ Fragrant and silent as that rosy snow
+ Wherewith the pitying apple-tree fills up
+ And tenderly lines some last-year's robin's nest."
+
+And our wise Emerson, in his strong and wholesome, if sometimes rugged
+way,--
+
+ "Quit thy friends as the dead in doom,
+ And build to them a final tomb.
+
+        *       *       *       *       *
+
+ Behind thee leave thy merchandise,
+ Thy churches and thy charities.
+
+        *       *       *       *       *
+
+ Enough for thee the primal mind
+ That flows in streams--that breathes in wind."
+
+Even the gentle Wordsworth, too; read his exquisite sonnet, beginning,--
+
+ "The world is too much with us; late and soon,
+ Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers."
+
+All recognize that it is a mental and spiritual change that is needed.
+
+With the earnest desire of suggesting to tired souls a practicable way
+of resting, I will even give a bit of personal history; I will tell the
+way in which I have learned to find recreation in nature.
+
+When I turn my back upon my home, I make a serious and determined effort
+to leave behind me all cares and worries. As my train, on that beautiful
+May evening, passed beyond the brick and stone walls, and sped into the
+open country, and I found myself alone with night, I shook off, as well
+as I was able, all my affairs, all my interests, all my
+responsibilities, leaving them in that busy city behind me, where a few
+burdens more or less would not matter to anybody. With my trunks
+checked, and my face turned toward the far-off Rocky Mountains, I left
+the whole work-a-day world behind me, departing--so far as possible--a
+liberated soul, with no duties excepting to rejoice and to recruit.
+This is not an easy thing to do; it is like tearing apart one's very
+life; but it can be done by earnest endeavor, it has been done, and it
+is a charm more potent than magic to bring restoration and recreation to
+the brain and nerve-weary worker.
+
+To insure any measure of success I always go alone; one familiar face
+would make the effort of no avail; and I seek a place where I am a
+stranger, so that my ordinary life cannot be recalled to me. When I
+reach my temporary home I forget, or at least ignore, my notions as to
+what I shall eat or drink, or how I shall sleep. I take the goods the
+gods provide, and adjust myself to them. Even these little things help
+one out of his old ways of thought and life. To still further banish
+home concerns, I mark upon my calendar one week before the day I shall
+start for home, and sternly resolve that not until I reach that day will
+I give one thought to my return, but will live as though I meant to stay
+always. I take no work of any sort, and I banish books, excepting a few
+poets and studies of nature.
+
+Such is the aim of my honest and earnest striving; that I do not quite
+reach my goal is merely to say I am human. Letters from home and friends
+will drag me back to old interests, and times will come, in sleepless
+nights and unguarded moments, when the whole world of old burdens and
+cares sweep in and overwhelm me. But I rouse my will, and resolutely,
+with all my power, push them back, refuse to entertain them for a
+moment.
+
+The result, even under these limitations, is eminently satisfactory.
+Holding myself in this attitude of mind, I secure a change almost as
+complete as if I stepped out of my body and left it resting, while I
+refreshed myself at the fountain of life. A few weeks in the country
+make me a new being; all my thoughts are turned into fresh channels; the
+old ruts are smoothed over, if not obliterated; nerves on the strain all
+the year have a chance to recreate themselves; old worries often weaken
+and fade away.
+
+The morning after I left home that balmy evening in May dawned upon me
+somewhere in western New York, and that beautiful day was passed in
+speeding through the country, and steadily getting farther and farther
+from work and care.
+
+And so I went on, day after day, night after night, till I entered
+Kansas, which was new to me. By that time I had succeeded in banishing
+to the farthest corner of my memory, behind closed and locked doors, all
+the anxieties, all the perplexities and problems, all the concerns, in
+fact, of my home life. I was like a newly created soul, fresh and eager
+to see and enjoy everything. I refused the morning papers; I wished to
+forget the world of strife and crime, and to get so into harmony with
+the trees and flowers, the brooks and the breezes, that I would realize
+myself
+
+ "Kith and kin to every wild-born thing that thrills and blows."
+
+In one word, I wished as nearly as possible to walk abroad out of my
+hindering body of clay.
+
+I looked out of the windows to see what the Cyclone State had to give
+me. It offered flowers and singing birds, broad fields of growing grain,
+and acres of rich black soil newly turned up to the sun. Everything was
+fresh and perfect, as if just from the hands of its maker; it seemed the
+paradise of the farmer.
+
+From the fertile fields and miles of flowers the train passed to bare,
+blossomless earth; from rich soil to rocks; from Kansas to Colorado.
+That part of the State which appeared in the morning looked like a vast
+body of hardly dry mud, with nothing worth mentioning growing upon it.
+Each little gutter had worn for itself a deep channel with precipitous
+sides, and here and there a great section had sunken, as though there
+was no solid foundation. Soon, however, the land showed inclination to
+draw itself up into hills, tiny ones with sharp peaks, as though
+preparing for mountains. Before long they retreated to a distance and
+grew bigger, and at last, far off, appeared the mountains, overtopping
+all one great white peak, the
+
+ "Giver of gold, king of eternal hills."
+
+A welcome awaited me in the summer home of a friend at Colorado Springs,
+in the presence of the great Cheyenne Range, with the snow-cap of Pike's
+Peak ever before me. Four delightful days I gave to friendship, and then
+I sought and found a perfect nook for rest and study, in a cottonwood
+grove on the banks of the Minnelowan (or Shining Water). This is a mad
+Colorado stream which is formed by the junction of the North and South
+Cheyenne Cañon brooks, and comes tumbling down from the Cheyenne,
+rushing and roaring as if it had the business of the world on its
+shoulders, and must do it man-fashion, with confusion and noise enough
+to drown all other sounds.
+
+Imagine a pretty, one-story cottage, set down in a grove of
+cottonwood-trees, with a gnarly oak and a tall pine here and there, to
+give it character, and surrounded as a hen by her chickens, by tents,
+six or eight in every conceivable position, and at every possible angle
+except a right angle. Add to this picture the sweet voices of birds, and
+the music of water rushing and hurrying over the stones; let your
+glance take in on one side the grand outlines of Cheyenne Mountain,
+
+ "Made doubly sacred by the poet's pen
+ And poet's grave,"
+
+and on the other the rest of the range, overlooked by Pike's Peak,
+fourteen thousand feet higher than the streets of New York. Do this, and
+you will come as near to realizing Camp Harding as one can who is
+hundreds of miles away and has never seen a Colorado camp.
+
+Do not think, however, that such camps are common, even in that land of
+outdoors, where tents are open for business in the streets of the towns,
+and where every householder sets up his own canvas in his yard, for the
+invalids to sleep in, from June to November. The little settlement of
+tents was an evolution, the gradual growth of the tent idea in the mind
+of one comfort-loving woman. She went there seven or eight years before,
+bought a grove under the shadow of Cheyenne, put up a tent, and passed
+her first summer thus. The next year, and several years thereafter, she
+gradually improved her transient abode in many ways that her womanly
+taste suggested,--as a wooden floor, a high base-board, partitions of
+muslin or cretonne, door and windows of wire gauze. The original
+dwelling thus step by step grew to a framed and rough-plastered house,
+with doors and windows _en règle_.
+
+Grouped picturesquely around the house, however, were some of the most
+unique abiding-places in Colorado. On the outside they were permanent
+tents with wooden foundations; on the inside they were models of
+comfort, with regular beds and furniture, rugs on the floor, gauzy
+window curtains, drapery wardrobes, and even tiny stoves for cool
+mornings and evenings. They combined the comforts of a house with the
+open air and delightful freshness of a tent, where one might hear every
+bird twitter, and see the dancing leaf shadows in the moonlight. Over
+the front platform the canvas cover extended to form an awning, and a
+wire-gauze door, in addition to one of wood, made them airy or snug as
+the weather demanded.
+
+The restfulness craved by the weary worker was there to be had for both
+soul and body, if one chose to take it. One might swing in a hammock all
+day, and be happy watching "the clouds that cruise the sultry sky"--a
+sky so blue one never tires of it; or beside the brook he might "lie
+upon its banks, and dream himself away to some enchanted ground." Or he
+might study the ever-changing aspect of the mountains,--their dreamy,
+veiled appearance, with the morning sun full upon them; their deep
+violet blueness in the evening, with the sun behind them, and the
+mystery of the moonlight, which "sets them far off in a world of their
+own," as tender and unreal as mountains in a dream.
+
+He _might_ do all these things, but he is far more likely to become
+excited, and finally bewitched by guide-books, and photographs, and talk
+all about him of this or that cañon, this or that pass, the Garden of
+the Gods, Manitou, the Seven Sisters' Falls, the grave of "H. H.;" and
+unless a fool or a philosopher, before he knows it to be in the full
+swing of sight-seeing, and becoming learned in the ways of burros, the
+"Ship of the Rockies," so indispensable, and so common that even the
+babies take to them.
+
+This traveler will climb peaks, and drive over nerve-shaking roads, a
+steep wall on one side and a frightful precipice on the other; he will
+toil up hundreds of steps, and go quaking down into mines; he will look,
+and admire, and tremble, till sentiment is worn to threads, purse
+depleted, and body and mind alike a wreck. For this sort of a traveler
+there is no rest in Colorado; there always remains another mountain to
+thrill him, another cañon to rhapsodize over; to one who is greedy of
+"sights," the tameness of Harlem, or the mud flats of Canarsie, will
+afford more rest.
+
+For myself I can always bear to be near sights without seeing them. I
+believed what I heard--never were such grand mountains! never such
+soul-stirring views! never such hairbreadth roads! I believed--and
+stayed in my cottonwood grove content. I knew how it all looked; did I
+not peer down into one cañon, holding my breath the while? and, with
+slightly differing arrangement of rocks and pine-trees and brooks, are
+not all cañons the same? Did I not gaze with awe at the "trail to the
+grave of H. H.," and watch, without envy, the sight-seeing tourist
+struggle with its difficulties? Could I not supply myself with
+photographs, and guide-books, and poems, and "H. H.'s" glowing words,
+and picture the whole scene? I could, I did, and to me Colorado was a
+delightful place of rest, with mountain air that it was a luxury to
+breathe (after the machinery adjusted itself to the altitude), with
+glorious sunshine every morning, with unequaled nights of coolness, and
+a new flower or two for every day of the month.
+
+If to "see Colorado" one must ascend every peak, toil through every
+cañon, cast the eyes on every waterfall, shudder over each precipice,
+wonder at each eccentric rock, drink from every spring, then I have not
+seen America's Wonderland. But if to steep my spirit in the beauty of
+its mountains so that they shall henceforth be a part of me; to inhale
+its enchanting air till my body itself seemed to have wings; if to paint
+in my memory its gorgeous procession of flowers, its broad mesa crowned
+with the royal blossoms of the yucca, its cosy cottonwood groves, its
+brooks rushing between banks of tangled greenery; if this is to "see
+Colorado," then no one has ever seen it more thoroughly.
+
+The "symphony in yellow and red," which "H. H." calls this wonderland,
+grows upon the sojourner in some mysterious way, till by the time he has
+seen the waxing and waning of one moon he is an enthusiast. It is
+charming alike to the sight-seer whose jaded faculties pine for new and
+thrilling emotions, to the weary in brain and body who longs only for
+peace and rest, and to the invalid whose every breath is a pain at home.
+To the lover of flowers it is an exhaustless panorama of beauty and
+fragrance, well worth crossing the continent to enjoy; to the mountain
+lover it offers endless attractions.
+
+Nothing is more fascinating to the stranger in Colorado than the
+formation of its cañons, not only the grand ones running up into the
+heart of the mountains, but the lesser ones cutting into the high
+table-land, or mesa, at the foot of the hills. The above mentioned
+cottonwood grove, for example, with its dozen of dwellings and a
+natural park of a good many acres above it, with tall pines that bear
+the marks of age, is so curiously hidden that one may come almost upon
+it without seeing it. It is reached from Colorado Springs by an electric
+road which runs along the mesa south of the town. As the car nears the
+end of the line, one begins to look around for the grove. Not a tree is
+in sight; right and left as far as can be seen stretches the treeless
+plain to the foot of the eternal hills; not even the top of a tall pine
+thrusts itself above the dead level. Before you is Cheyenne--grim,
+glorious, but impenetrable. The conductor stops. "This is your place,"
+he says. You see no place; you think he must be mistaken.
+
+"But where is Camp Harding?" you ask. He points to an obscure
+path--"trail" he calls it--which seems to throw itself over an edge. You
+approach that point, and there, to your wonder and your surprise, at
+your feet nestles the loveliest of smiling cañon-like valleys, filled
+with trees, aspen, oak, and pine, with here and there a tent or red roof
+gleaming through the green, and a noisy brook hurrying on its way
+downhill. By a steep scramble you reach the lower level, birds singing,
+flowers tempting on every side, and the picturesque, narrow trail
+leading you on, around the ledge of rock, over the rustic bridge, till
+you reach the back entrance of the camp. Before it, up the narrow
+valley, winds a road, the carriage-way to the Cheyenne cañons.
+
+
+
+
+II.
+
+IN THE COTTONWOODS.
+
+
+A cottonwood grove is the nearest approach to our Eastern rural
+districts to be found in Colorado, and a cotton storm, looking exactly
+like a snowstorm, is a common sight in these groves. The white, fluffy
+material grows in long bunches, loosely attached to stems, and the fibre
+is very short. At the lightest breeze that stirs the branches, tiny bits
+of it take to flight, and one tree will shed cotton for weeks. It clings
+to one's garments; it gets into the houses, and sticks to the carpets,
+often showing a trail of white footprints where a person has come in; it
+clogs the wire-gauze screens till they keep out the air as well as the
+flies; it fills the noses and the eyes of men and beasts. But its most
+curious effect is on the plants and flowers, to which it adheres, being
+a little gummy. Some flowers look as if they were encased in ice, and
+others seem wrapped in the gauziest of veils, which, flimsy as it looks,
+cannot be completely cleared from the leaves.
+
+It covers the ground like snow, and strangely enough it looks in June,
+but it does not, like snow, melt, even under the warm summer sunshine.
+It must be swept from garden and walks, and carted away. A heavy rain
+clears the air and subdues it for a time, but the sun soon dries the
+bunches still on the trees, and the cotton storm is again in full blast.
+This annoyance lasts through June and a part of July, fully six weeks,
+and then the stems themselves drop to, the ground, still holding enough
+cotton to keep up the storm for days. After this, the first rainfall
+ends the trouble for that season.
+
+In the midst of the cottonwoods, in beautiful Camp Harding, I spent the
+June that followed the journey described in the last chapter,--
+
+ "Dreaming sweet, idle dreams of having strayed
+ To Arcady with all its golden lore."
+
+The birds, of course, were my first concern. Ask of almost any resident
+not an ornithologist if there are birds in Colorado, and he will shake
+his head.
+
+"Not many, I think," he will probably say. "Camp birds and magpies. Oh
+yes, and larks. I think that's about all."
+
+This opinion, oft repeated, did not settle the matter in my mind, for I
+long ago discovered that none are so ignorant of the birds and flowers
+of a neighborhood as most of the people who live among them. I sought
+out my post, and I looked for myself.
+
+There are birds in the State, plenty of them, but they are not on
+exhibition like the mountains and their wonders. No driver knows the way
+to their haunts, and no guide-book points them out. Even a bird student
+may travel a day's journey, and not encounter so many as one shall see
+in a small orchard in New England. He may rise with the dawn, and hear
+nothing like the glorious morning chorus that stirs one in the Atlantic
+States. He may search the trees and shrubberies for long June days, and
+not find so many nests as will cluster about one cottage at home.
+
+Yet the birds are here, but they are shy, and they possess the true
+Colorado spirit,--they are mountain-worshipers. As the time approaches
+when each bird leaves society and retires for a season to the bosom of
+its own family, many of the feathered residents of the State bethink
+them of their inaccessible cañons. The saucy jay abandons the
+settlements where he has been so familiar as to dispute with the dogs
+for their food, and sets up his homestead in a tall pine-tree on a slope
+which to look at is to grow dizzy; the magpie, boldest of birds, steals
+away to some secure retreat; the meadow-lark makes her nest in the
+monotonous mesa, where it is as well hidden as a bobolink's nest in a
+New England meadow.
+
+The difficulties in the way of studying Colorado birds are several,
+aside from their excessive suspicion of every human being. In the first
+place, observations must be made before ten o'clock, for at that hour
+every day a lively breeze, which often amounts to a gale, springs up,
+and sets the cottonwood and aspen leaves in a flutter that hides the
+movements of any bird. Then, all through the most interesting month of
+June the cottonwood-trees are shedding their cotton, and to a person on
+the watch for slight stirrings among the leaves the falling cotton is a
+constant distraction. The butterflies, too, wandering about in their
+aimless way, are all the time deceiving the bird student, and drawing
+attention from the bird he is watching.
+
+On the other hand, one of the maddening pests of bird study at the East
+is here almost unknown,--the mosquito. Until the third week in June I
+saw but one. That one was in the habit of lying in wait for me when I
+went to a piece of low, swampy ground overgrown with bushes. Think of
+the opportunity this combination offers to the Eastern mosquito, and
+consider my emotions when I found but a solitary individual, and even
+that one disposed to coquette with me.
+
+I had hidden myself, and was keeping motionless, in order to see the
+very shy owners of a nest I had found, when the lonely mosquito came as
+far as the rim of my shade hat, and hovered there, evidently meditating
+an attack--a mosquito hesitating! I could not stir a hand, or even shake
+my leafy twig; but it did not require such violent measures; a light
+puff of breath this side or that was enough to discourage the gentle
+creature, and in all the hours I sat there it never once came any
+nearer. The race increased, however, and became rather troublesome on
+the veranda after tea; but in the grove they were never annoying; I
+rarely saw half a dozen. When I remember the tortures endured in the
+dear old woods of the East, in spite of "lollicopop" and pennyroyal, and
+other horrors with which I have tried to repel them, I could almost
+decide to live and die in Colorado.
+
+The morning bird chorus in the cottonwood grove where I spent my June
+was a great shock to me. If my tent had been pitched near the broad
+plains in which the meadow-lark delights, I might have wakened to the
+glorious song of this bird of the West. It is not a chorus, indeed, for
+one rarely hears more than a single performer, but it is a solo that
+fully makes up for want of numbers, and amply satisfies the lover of
+bird music, so strong, so sweet, so moving are his notes.
+
+But on my first morning in the grove, what was my dismay--I may almost
+say despair--to find that the Western wood-pewee led the matins! Now,
+this bird has a peculiar voice. It is loud, pervasive, and in quality of
+tone not unlike our Eastern phoebe, lacking entirely the sweet
+plaintiveness of our wood-pewee. A pewee chorus is a droll and dismal
+affair. The poor things do their best, no doubt, and they cannot prevent
+the pessimistic effect it has upon us. It is rhythmic, but not in the
+least musical, and it has a weird power over the listener. This morning
+hymn does not say, as does the robin's, that life is cheerful, that
+another glorious day is dawning. It says, "Rest is over; another day of
+toil is here; come to work." It is monotonous as a frog chorus, but
+there is a merry thrill in the notes of the amphibian which are entirely
+wanting in the song. If it were not for the light-hearted tremolo of the
+chewink thrown in now and then, and the loud, cheery ditty of the summer
+yellow-bird, who begins soon after the pewee, one would be almost
+superstitious about so unnatural a greeting to the new day. The evening
+call of the bird is different. He will sit far up on a dead twig of an
+old pine-tree, and utter a series of four notes, something like "do, mi,
+mi, do," repeating them without pausing till it is too dark to see him,
+all the time getting lower, sadder, more deliberate, till one feels
+like running out and committing suicide or annihilating the bird of
+ill-omen.
+
+I felt myself a stranger indeed when I reached this pleasant spot, and
+found that even the birds were unfamiliar. No robin or bluebird greeted
+me on my arrival; no cheerful song-sparrow tuned his little pipe for my
+benefit; no phœbe shouted the beloved name from the peak of the barn.
+Everything was strange. One accustomed to the birds of our Eastern
+States can hardly conceive of the country without robins in plenty; but
+in this unnatural corner of Uncle Sam's dominion I found but one pair.
+
+The most common song from morning till night was that of the summer
+yellow-bird, or yellow warbler. It was not the delicate little strain we
+are accustomed to hear from this bird, but a loud, clear carol, equal in
+volume to the notes of our robin. These three birds, with the addition
+of a vireo or two, were our main dependence for daily music, though we
+were favored occasionally by others. Now the Arkansas goldfinch uttered
+his sweet notes from the thick foliage of the cottonwood-trees; then the
+charming aria of the catbird came softly from the tangle of rose and
+other bushes; the black-headed grosbeak now and then saluted us from the
+top of a pine-tree; and rarely, too rarely, alas! a passing meadow-lark
+filled all the grove with his wonderful song.
+
+And there was the wren! He interested me from the first; for a wren is a
+bird of individuality always, and his voice reminded me, in a feeble
+way, of the witching notes of the winter wren, the
+
+ "Brown wren from out whose swelling throat
+ Unstinted joys of music float."
+
+This bird was the house wren, the humblest member of his musical family;
+but there was in his simple melody the wren quality, suggestive of the
+thrilling performances of his more gifted relatives; and I found it and
+him very pleasing.
+
+The chosen place for his vocal display was a pile of brush beside a
+closed-up little cottage, and I suspected him of having designs upon
+that two-roomed mansion for nesting purposes. After hopping all about
+the loose sticks, delivering his bit of an aria a dozen times or more,
+in a most rapturous way, he would suddenly dive into certain secret
+passages among the dead branches, when he was instantly lost to sight.
+Then, in a few seconds, a close watcher might sometimes see him pass
+like a shadow, under the cottage, which stood up on corner posts, dart
+out the farther side, and fly at once to the eaves.
+
+One day I was drawn from the house by a low and oft-repeated cry, like
+"Hear, hear, hear!" It was emphatic and imperative, as if some
+unfortunate little body had the business of the world on his shoulders,
+and could not get it done to his mind. I carefully approached the
+disturbed voice, and was surprised to find it belonged to the wren, who
+was so disconcerted at sight of me, that I concluded this particular
+sort of utterance must be for the benefit of his family alone. Later,
+that kind of talk, his lord-and-master style as I supposed, was the most
+common sound I heard from him, and not near the cottage and the brush
+heap, but across the brook. I thought that perhaps I had displeased him
+by too close surveillance, and he had set up housekeeping out of my
+reach. Across the brook I could not go, for between "our side" and the
+other raged a feud, which had culminated in torn-up bridges and barbed
+wire protections.
+
+One day, however, I had a surprise. In studying another bird, I was led
+around to the back of the still shut-up cottage, and there I found, very
+unexpectedly, an exceedingly busy and silent wren. He did sing
+occasionally while I watched him from afar, but in so low a tone that it
+could not be heard a few steps away. Of course I understood this
+unnatural circumspection, and on observing him cautiously, I saw that
+he made frequent visits to the eaves of the cottage, the very spot I
+had hoped he would nest. Then I noted that he carried in food, and on
+coming out he alighted on a dead bush, and sang under his breath. Here,
+then, was the nest, and all his pretense of scolding across the brook
+was but a blind! Wary little rogue! Who would ever suspect a house wren
+of shyness?
+
+I had evidently done him injustice when I regarded the scolding as his
+family manner, for here in his home he was quiet as a mouse, except when
+his joy bubbled over in trills.
+
+To make sure of my conclusions I went close to the house, and then for
+the first time (to know it) I saw his mate. She came with food in her
+beak, and was greatly disturbed at sight of her uninvited guest. She
+stood on a shrub near me fluttering her wings, and there her anxious
+spouse joined her, and fluttered his in the same way, uttering at the
+same time a low, single note of protest.
+
+On looking in through the window, I found that the cottage was a mere
+shell, all open under the eaves, so that the birds could go in and out
+anywhere. The nest was over the top of a window, and the owner thereof
+ran along the beam beside it, in great dudgeon at my impertinent
+staring. Had ever a pair of wrens quarters so ample,--a whole cottage to
+themselves? Henceforth, it was part of my daily rounds to peep in at
+the window, though I am sorry to say it aroused the indignation of the
+birds, and always brought them to the beam nearest me, to give me a
+piece of their mind.
+
+Bird babies grow apace, and baby wrens have not many inches to achieve.
+One day I came upon a scene of wild excitement: two wrenlings flying
+madly about in the cottage, now plump against the window, then tumbling
+breathless to the floor, and two anxious little parents, trying in vain
+to show their headstrong offspring the way they should go, to the
+openings under the eaves which led to the great out-of-doors. My face at
+the window seemed to be the "last straw." A much-distressed bird came
+boldly up to me behind the glass, saying by his manner--and who knows
+but in words?--"How can you be so cruel as to disturb us? Don't you see
+the trouble we are in?" He had no need of Anglo-Saxon (or even of
+American-English!). I understood him at once; and though exceedingly
+curious to see how they would do it, I had not the heart to insist. I
+left them to manage their willful little folk in their own way.
+
+The next morning I was awakened by the jolliest wren music of the
+season. Over and over the bird poured out his few notes, louder, madder,
+more rapturously than I had supposed he could. He had guided his family
+safely out of their imprisoning four walls, I was sure. And so I found
+it when I went out. Not a wren to be seen about the house, but soft
+little "churs" coming from here and there among the shrubbery, and every
+few minutes a loud, happy song proclaimed that wren troubles were over
+for the summer. Far in among the tangle of bushes and vines, I came upon
+him, as gay as he had been of yore:--
+
+ "Pausing and peering, with sidling head,
+ As saucily questioning all I said;
+ While the ox-eye danced on its slender stem,
+ And all glad Nature rejoiced with them."
+
+The chewink is a curious exchange for the robin. When I noticed the
+absence of the red-breast, whom--like the poor--we have always with us
+(at the East), I was pleased, in spite of my fondness for him, because,
+as every one must allow, he is sometimes officious in his attentions,
+and not at all reticent in expressing his opinions. I did miss his voice
+in the morning chorus,--the one who lived in the grove was not much of a
+singer,--but I was glad to know the chewink, who was almost a stranger.
+His peculiar trilling song was heard from morning till night; he came
+familiarly about the camp, eating from the dog's dish, and foraging for
+crumbs at the kitchen door. Next to the wood-pewee, he was the most
+friendly of our feathered neighbors.
+
+He might be seen at any time, hopping about on the ground, one moment
+picking up a morsel of food, and the next throwing up his head and
+bursting into song:--
+
+ "But not for you his little singing,
+ Soul of fire its flame is flinging,
+ Sings he for himself alone,"
+
+as was evident from the unconscious manner in which he uttered his notes
+between two mouthfuls, never mounting a twig or making a "performance"
+of his music. I have watched one an hour at a time, going about in his
+jerky fashion, tearing up the ground and searching therein, exactly
+after the manner of a scratching hen. This, by the way, was a droll
+operation, done with both feet together, a jump forward and a jerk back
+of the whole body, so rapidly one could hardly follow the motion, but
+throwing up a shower of dirt every time. He had neither the grace nor
+the dignity of our domestic biddy.
+
+Matter of fact as this fussy little personage was on the ground, taking
+in his breakfast and giving out his song, he was a different bird when
+he got above it. Alighting on the wren's brush heap, for instance, he
+would bristle up, raising the feathers on head and neck, his red eyes
+glowing eagerly, his tail a little spread and standing up at a sharp
+angle, prepared for instant fight or flight, whichever seemed desirable.
+
+I was amused to hear the husky cry with which this bird expresses most
+of his emotions,--about as nearly a "mew," to my ears, as the catbird
+executes. Whether frolicking with a comrade among the bushes, reproving
+a too inquisitive bird student, or warning the neighborhood against some
+monster like a stray kitten, this one cry seemed to answer for all his
+needs, and, excepting the song, was the only sound I heard him utter.
+
+Familiar as the chewink might be about our quarters, his own home was
+well hidden, on the rising ground leading up to the mesa,--
+
+                           "An unkempt zone,
+ Where vines and weeds and scrub oaks intertwine,"
+
+which no one bigger than a bird could penetrate. Whenever I appeared in
+that neighborhood, I was watched and followed by anxious and disturbed
+chewinks; but I never found a nest, though, judging from the conduct of
+the residents, I was frequently "very warm" (as the children say).
+
+About the time the purple aster began to unclose its fringed lids, and
+the mariposa lily to unfold its delicate cups on the lower
+mesa,--nearly the middle of July,--full-grown chewink babies, in brown
+coats and streaked vests, made their appearance in the grove, and after
+that the whole world might search the scrub oaks and not a bird would
+say him nay.
+
+                       "All is silent now
+ Save bell-note from some wandering cow,
+ Or rippling lark-song far away."
+
+
+
+
+III.
+
+AN UPROAR OF SONG.
+
+
+The bird music of Colorado, though not so abundant as one could wish, is
+singularly rich in quality, and remarkable for its volume. At the
+threshold of the State the traveler is struck by this peculiarity. As
+the train thunders by, the Western meadow-lark mounts a telegraph pole
+and pours out such a peal of melody that it is distinctly heard above
+the uproar of the iron wheels.
+
+This bird is preëminently the bird of the mesa, or high table-land of
+the region, and only to hear his rare song is well worth a journey to
+that distant wonderland. Not of his music could Lucy Larcom say, as she
+so happily does of our bird of the meadow,--
+
+ "Sounds the meadow-lark's refrain
+     Just as sad and clear."
+
+Nor could his sonorous song be characterized by Clinton Scollard's
+exquisite verse,--
+
+ "From whispering winds your plaintive notes were drawn."
+
+For the brilliant solo of Colorado's bird is not in the least like the
+charming minor chant of our Eastern lark. So powerful that it is heard
+at great distances in the clear air, it is still not in the slightest
+degree strained or harsh, but is sweet and rich, whether it be close at
+one's side in the silence, or shouted from the housetop in the tumult of
+a busy street. It has, moreover, the same tender winsomeness that charms
+us in our own lark song; something that fills the sympathetic listener
+with delight, that satisfies his whole being; a siren strain that he
+longs to listen to forever. The whole breadth and grandeur of the great
+West is in this song, its freedom, its wildness, the height of its
+mountains, the sweep of its rivers, the beauty of its flowers,--all in
+the wonderful performance. Even after months of absence, the bare memory
+of the song of the mesa will move its lover to an almost painful
+yearning. Of him, indeed, Shelley might truthfully say,--
+
+ "Better than all measures
+   Of delightful sound,
+ Better than all treasures
+   That in books are found,
+ Thy skill to poet were,
+   Thou scorner of the ground."
+
+Nor is the variety of the lark song less noteworthy than its quality.
+That each bird has a large _répertoire_ I cannot assert, for my
+opportunities for study have been too limited; but it is affirmed by
+those who know him better, that he has, and I fully believe it.
+
+One thing is certainly true of nearly if not quite all of our native
+birds, that no two sing exactly alike, and the close observer soon
+learns to distinguish between the robins and the song-sparrows of a
+neighborhood, by their notes alone. The Western lark seems even more
+than others to individualize his utterances, so that constant surprises
+reward the discriminating listener. During two months' bird-study in
+that delightful cañon-hidden grove at the foot of Cheyenne Mountain, one
+particular bird song was for weeks an unsolved mystery. The strain
+consisted of three notes in loud, ringing tones, which syllabled
+themselves very plainly in my ear as "Whip-for-her."
+
+This unseemly, and most emphatic, demand came always from a distance,
+and apparently from the top of some tall tree, and it proved to be most
+tantalizing; for although the first note invariably brought me out,
+opera-glass in hand, I was never able to come any nearer to a sight of
+the unknown than the sway of a twig he had just left.
+
+One morning, however, before I was up, the puzzling songster visited the
+little grove under my windows, and I heard his whole song, of which it
+now appeared the three notes were merely the conclusion. The
+performance was eccentric. It began with a soft warble, apparently for
+his sole entertainment, then suddenly, as if overwhelmed by memory of
+wrongs received or of punishment deserved, he interrupted his tender
+melody with a loud, incisive "Whip-for-her!" in a totally different
+manner. His nearness, however, solved the mystery; the ring of the
+meadow-lark was in his tones, and I knew him at once. I had not
+suspected his identity, for the Western bird does not take much trouble
+to keep out of sight, and, moreover, his song is rarely less than six or
+eight notes in length.
+
+Another unique singer of the highlands is the horned lark. One morning
+in June a lively carriage party passing along the mountain side, on a
+road so bare and bleak that it seemed nothing could live there, was
+startled by a small gray bird, who suddenly dashed out of the sand
+beside the wheels, ran across the path, and flew to a fence on the other
+side. Undisturbed, perhaps even stimulated, by the clatter of two horses
+and a rattling mountain wagon, undaunted by the laughing and talking
+load, the little creature at once burst into song, so loud as to be
+heard above the noisy procession, and so sweet that it silenced every
+tongue.
+
+"How exquisite! What is it?" we asked each other, at the end of the
+little aria.
+
+"It's the gray sand bird," answered the native driver.
+
+"Otherwise the horned lark," added the young naturalist, from his
+broncho behind the carriage.
+
+Let not his name mislead: this pretty fellow, in soft, gray-tinted
+plumage, is not deformed by "horns;" it is only two little tufts of
+feathers, which give a certain piquant, wide-awake expression to his
+head, that have fastened upon him a title so incongruous. The nest of
+the desert-lover is a slight depression in the barren earth, nothing
+more; and the eggs harmonize with their surroundings in color. The whole
+is concealed by its very openness, and as hard to find, as the
+bobolink's cradle in the trackless grass of the meadow.
+
+Most persistent of all the singers of the grove beside the house was the
+yellow warbler, a dainty bit of featherhood the size of one's thumb. On
+the Atlantic coast his simple ditty is tender, and so low that it must
+be listened for; but in that land of "skies so blue they flash," he
+sings it at the top of his voice, louder than the robin song as we know
+it, and easily heard above the roar of the wind and the brawling of the
+brook he haunts.
+
+Before me at this moment is the nest of one of these little sprites,
+which I watched till the last dumpy infant had taken flight, and then
+secured with the branchlet it was built upon. It was in a young oak, not
+more than twelve feet from the ground, occupying a perpendicular fork,
+where it was concealed and shaded by no less than sixteen twigs,
+standing upright, and loaded with leaves. The graceful cup itself, to
+judge by its looks, might be made of white floss silk,--I have no
+curiosity to know the actual material,--and is cushioned inside with
+downy fibres from the cottonwood-tree. It is dainty enough for a fairy's
+cradle.
+
+The wood-pewee, in dress and manners nearly resembling his Eastern
+brother,
+
+ "The pewee of the loneliest woods,
+ Sole singer in the solitudes,"
+
+has a strange and decidedly original utterance. While much louder and
+more continuous, it lacks the sweetness of our bird's notes; indeed, it
+resembles in quality of tone the voice of our phœbe, or his beautiful
+relative, the great-crested flycatcher. The Westerner has a great deal
+to say for himself. On alighting, he announces the fact by a single
+note, which is a habit also of our phœbe; he sings the sun up in the
+morning, and he sings it down in the evening, and he would be a
+delightful neighbor if only his voice were pleasing. But there is little
+charm in the music, for it is in truth a dismal chant, with the air and
+cheerfulness of a funeral dirge--a pessimistic performance that inspires
+the listener with a desire to choke him then and there.
+
+This bird's nest, as well as his song, is unlike that of our wood-pewee.
+Instead of a delicate, lichen-covered saucer set lightly upon a
+horizontal crotch of a dead branch,--our bird's chosen home,--it is a
+deeper cup, fastened tightly upon a large living branch, and, at least
+in a cottonwood grove, decorated on the outside with the fluffy cotton
+from the trees.
+
+Even the humming-bird, who contents himself in this part of the world
+with a modest hum, heard but a short distance away, at the foot of the
+Rocky Mountains may almost be called a noisy bird. The first one I
+noticed dashed out of a thickly leaved tree with loud, angry cries,
+swooped down toward me, and flew back and forth over my head, scolding
+with a hum which, considering his size, might almost be called a roar. I
+could not believe my ears until my eyes confirmed their testimony. The
+sound was not made by the wings, but was plainly a cry strong and harsh
+in an extraordinary degree.
+
+The Western ruby-throat has other singularities which differentiate him
+from his Eastern brother. It is very droll to see one of his family take
+part in the clamors of a bird mob, perching like his bigger fellows,
+and adding his excited cries to the notes of catbird and robin, chewink
+and yellow-bird. Attracted one morning by a great bird outcry in a dense
+young oak grove across the road, I left my seat under the cottonwoods
+and strolled over toward it. It was plain that some tragedy was in the
+air, for the winged world was in a panic. Two robins, the only pair in
+the neighborhood, uttered their cry of distress from the top of the
+tallest tree; a catbird hopped from branch to branch, flirting his tail
+and mewing in agitation; a chewink or two near the ground jerked
+themselves about uneasily, adding their strange, husky call to the
+hubbub; and above the din rose the shrill voice of a humming-bird. Every
+individual had his eyes fixed upon the ground, where it was evident that
+some monster must be lurking. I expected a big snake at the very least,
+and, putting the lower branches aside, I, too, peered into the
+semi-twilight of the grove.
+
+No snake was there; but my eyes fell upon an anxious little gray face,
+obviously much disturbed to find itself the centre of so much attention.
+As I appeared, this bugaboo, who had caused all the excitement,
+recognized me as a friend and ran toward me, crying piteously. It was a
+very small lost kitten!
+
+I took up the stray little beastie, and a silence fell upon the
+assembly in the trees, which began to scatter, each one departing upon
+his own business in a moment. But the humming-bird refused to be so
+easily pacified; he was bound to see the end of the affair, and he
+followed me out of the grove, still vigorously speaking his mind about
+the enemy in fur. I suspected that the little creature had wandered away
+from the house on the hill above, and I went up to see. The hummer
+accompanied me every step of the way, sometimes flying over my head, and
+again alighting for a minute on a branch under which I passed. Not until
+he saw me deliver pussy into the hands of her own family, and return to
+my usual seat in the grove, did he release me from surveillance and take
+his leave.
+
+The yellow-breasted chat, the long-tailed variety belonging to the West,
+delivers his strange medley of "chacks" and whistles, and rattles and
+other indescribable cries, in a voice that is loud and distinct, as well
+as sweet and rich. He is a bird of humor, too, with a mocking spirit not
+common in his race. One day, while sitting motionless in a hidden nook,
+trying to spy upon the domestic affairs of this elusive individual, I
+was startled by the so-called "laugh" of a robin, which was instantly
+repeated by a chat, unseen, but quite near. The robin, apparently
+surprised or interested, called again, and was a second time mocked.
+Then he lost his temper, and began a serious reproof to the levity of
+his neighbor, which ended in a good round scolding, as the saucy chat
+continued to repeat his taunting laugh. This went on till the red-breast
+flew away in high dudgeon.
+
+Why our little brothers in feathers are so much more boisterous than
+elsewhere,
+
+ "Up in the parks and the mesas wide,
+ Under the blue of the bluest sky,"
+
+has not, so far as I know, been discovered.
+
+Whether it be the result of habitual opposition to the strong winds
+which, during the season of song, sweep over the plains every day, or
+whether the exhilaration of the mountain air be the cause--who can
+tell?
+
+
+
+
+IV.
+
+THE TRAGEDY OF A NEST.
+
+
+Near to the Camp, a little closer to beautiful Cheyenne Mountain, lay a
+small park. It was a continuation of the grove, through which the brook
+came roaring and tumbling down from the cañons above, and, being several
+miles from the town, it had never become a popular resort. A few winding
+paths, and a rude bench here and there, were the only signs of man's
+interference with its native wildness; it was practically abandoned to
+the birds--and me.
+
+The birds had full possession when I appeared on the scene, and though I
+did my best to be unobtrusive, my presence was not so welcome as I could
+have wished. Every morning when I came slowly and quietly up the little
+path from the gate, bird-notes suddenly ceased; the grosbeak, pouring
+out his soul from the top of a pine-tree, dived down the other side; the
+towhee, picking up his breakfast on the ground, scuttled behind the
+bushes and disappeared; the humming-bird, interrupted in her morning
+"affairs," flew off over my head, scolding vigorously; only the
+vireo--serene as always--went on warbling and eating, undisturbed.
+
+Then I made haste to seek out an obscure spot, where I could sit and
+wait in silence, to see who might unwittingly show himself.
+
+I was never lonely, and never tired; for if--as sometimes happened--no
+flit of wing came near to interest me, there before me was beautiful
+Cheyenne, with its changing face never twice alike, and its undying
+associations with its poet and lover, whose lonely grave makes it
+forever sacred to those who loved her. There, too, was the wonderful sky
+of Colorado, so blue it looked almost violet, and near at hand the
+"Singing Water," whose stirring music was always inspiring.
+
+One morning I was startled from my reverie by a sudden cry, so loud and
+clear that I turned quickly to see what manner of bird had uttered it.
+The voice was peculiar and entirely new to me. First came a scolding
+note like that of an oriole, then the "chack" of a blackbird, and next a
+sweet, clear whistle, one following the other rapidly and vehemently, as
+if the performer intended to display all his accomplishments in a
+breath. Cheyenne vanished like "the magic mountain of a dream," blue
+skies were forgotten, the babbling brook unheard, every sense was
+instantly alert to see that extraordinary bird,--
+
+ "Like a poet hidden,
+ Singing songs unbidden."
+
+But he did not appear. Not a leaf rustled, not a twig bent, though the
+strange medley kept on for fifteen minutes, then ceased as abruptly as
+it had begun, and not a whisper more could be heard. The whole thing
+seemed uncanny. Was it a bird at all, or a mere "wandering voice"? It
+seemed to come from a piece of rather swampy ground, overgrown with
+clumps of willow and low shrubs; but what bird of earthly mould could
+come and go, and make no sign that a close student of bird ways could
+detect? Did he creep on the ground? Did he vanish into thin air?
+
+Hours went by. I could not go, and my leafy nook was "struck through
+with slanted shafts of afternoon" before I reluctantly gave up that I
+should not see my enchanter that day, and slowly left the grove, the
+mystery unexplained.
+
+Very early the next morning I was saluted by the same loud, clear calls
+near the house. Had then the Invisible followed me home? I sprang up and
+hurried to the always open window. The voice was very near; but I could
+not see its author, though I was hidden behind blinds.
+
+This time the bird--if bird it were--indulged in a fuller _répertoire_.
+I seized pencil and paper, and noted down phonetically the different
+notes as they were uttered. This is the record: "Rat-t-t-t-t" (very
+rapid); "quit! quit! quit!" (a little slower); "wh-eu! wh-eu!" (still
+more deliberately); "chack! chack! chack!" (quite slow); "crē,
+crē, crē, crē" (fast); "hu-way! hu-way!" (very sweet). There
+was a still more musical clause that I cannot put into syllables, then a
+rattle exactly like castanets, and lastly a sort of "Kr-r-r! kr-r-r!" in
+the tone of a great-crested flycatcher. While this will not express to
+one who has not heard it the marvelous charm of it all, it will at least
+indicate the variety.
+
+Hardly waiting to dispose of breakfast, I betook myself to my "woodland
+enchanted," resolved to stay till I saw that bird.
+
+ "All day in the bushes
+ The woodland was haunted."
+
+The voice was soon on hand, and once more I was treated to the
+incomparable recitative.
+
+This day, too, my patience was rewarded; the mystery was solved; I saw
+the Unknown! While my eyes were fixed upon a certain bush before me, the
+singer incautiously ventured too near the top of a twig, and I saw him
+plainly, standing almost upright, and vehemently chanting his fantasia,
+opening his mouth very wide with every call. I knew him at once, the
+rogue! from having read of him; he was the yellow-breasted chat. It was
+well, indeed, that I happened to be looking at that very spot, and that
+I was quick in my observation; for in a moment he saw the blunder he had
+made, and slipped back down the stem, too late for his secret--I had him
+down in black and white.
+
+From that time the little park was never lonely, nor did I spend much
+time dreaming over Cheyenne. The moment I appeared in the morning my
+lively host began his vocal gymnastics, while I sat spellbound,
+bewitched by the magic of his notes. In spite of being absorbed in
+listening to him, I retained my faculties sufficiently to reflect that
+the chat had probably other employment than entertaining me, and that
+doubtless his object was to distract my attention from looking about me,
+or to reproach me for intruding upon his private domain. In either case
+there was, of course,
+
+         "A nest unseen
+ Somewhere among the million stalks;"
+
+and, delightful as I found the unseen bird, his nest was a treasure I
+was even more anxious to see.
+
+Not to disturb him more than necessary, I spent part of an evening
+studying up the nesting habits of the chat,--the long-tailed,
+yellow-breasted, as I found him to be,--and the next morning made a
+thorough search through the swamp, looking into every bush and examining
+every thicket. An hour or two of this hard work satisfied me for the
+day, and I went home warm and tired, followed to the very door by the
+mocking voice, triumphing, as it seemed, in my failure.
+
+The next day, however, fortune smiled upon me; I came upon a nest, not
+far above the ground, among the stems of a clump of shrubs, which
+exactly answered the description of the one I sought. Careful not to lay
+a finger on it, I slightly parted the branches above, and looked in upon
+three pinkish-white eggs, small in size and dainty as tinted pearls.
+Happy day, I thought, and the forerunner of happy to-morrows when I
+should watch
+
+ "The green nest full of pleasant shade
+ Wherein three speckled eggs were laid,"
+
+and see and delight in the family life centring about it.
+
+To study a bird so shy required extraordinary precautions; I therefore
+sought, and found, a post of observation a long way off, where I could
+look through a natural vista among the shrubs, and with my glass bring
+the bush and its precious contents into view. For greater seclusion in
+my retreat, so that I should be as little conspicuous as possible, I
+drew down a branch of the low tree over my seat, and fastened it with a
+fine string to a stout weed below. Then I thought I had a perfect
+screen; I devoutly hoped the birds would not notice me.
+
+Vain delusion! and labor as vain! Doubtless two pairs of anxious eyes
+watched from some neighboring bush all my careful preparations, and then
+and there two despairing hearts bade farewell to their lovely little
+home, abandoned it and its treasures to the spy and the destroyer, which
+in their eyes I seemed to be.
+
+This conclusion was forced upon me by the experiences of the next few
+days. The birds absolutely would not approach the nest while I was in
+the park. The first morning I sat motionless for nearly two hours, and
+not a feather showed itself near that bush; it was plainly "tabooed."
+During the next day the chat called from this side and that, moving
+about in his wonderful way, without disturbing a twig, rustling a leaf,
+or flitting a wing--as silently, indeed, as if he were a spirit
+unclothed.
+
+While waiting for him to show himself, making myself as nearly a part of
+nature about me as a mortal is gifted to do, I congratulated myself upon
+the one good look I had secured, for, with all my efforts and all my
+watching, I saw him but twice more all summer. The enigma of that
+remarkable voice would have been maddening indeed, if I could not have
+known to whom it belonged.
+
+After several days of untiring observation I had but two glimpses to
+record. On one occasion a chat alighted on the top sprig of the fateful
+shrub, as if going to the nest, but almost on the instant vanished. The
+same day, a little later, one of these birds flitted into my view,
+without a sound. So perfectly silent were his movements that I should
+not have seen him if he had not come directly before my eyes. He, or
+she, for the pair are alike, alighted in a low bush and scrambled about
+as if in search of insects, climbing, not hopping. He stayed but a few
+seconds and departed like a shadow, as he had come.
+
+On the tenth day after my discovery of the nest with its trio of eggs I
+went out as usual, for I could not abandon hope. In passing the nest I
+glanced in and saw one egg; I could never see but one as I went by, but,
+not liking to go too near, I presumed that the other two were there, as
+I had always found them, and slipped quietly into my usual place.
+
+In a few moments the chat shouted a call so near that it fairly startled
+me. From that he went on to make his ordinary protest, but, as happened
+nearly every time, I was not able to see him. I saw something--something
+that took my breath away. A shadowy form creeping stealthily through the
+shrubs five or six feet from me. It glided across the opening in front,
+and in a moment went to the bush I was watching. In silence, but with
+evident excitement, it moved about, approached the nest, and in a few
+seconds flew quickly across the path in plain sight, holding in its mouth
+something white which was large for its beak. I was reminded of an
+English sparrow carrying a piece of bread as big as his head, a sight
+familiar to every one. In a minute or two the same bird, or his twin,
+came to the nest again and disappeared on the other side.
+
+When I left my place to go home, I looked with misgivings into the nest
+on which I had built so many hopes. Lo! it was empty!
+
+Now I identified that stealthy visitor absolutely, but I shall never
+name him. I have never heard him accused of nest-robbing, and I shall
+not make the charge; for I am convinced that the chat had deserted the
+nest, and that this abstracter of eggs knew it, and simply took the good
+things the gods threw in his way--as would the best of us.
+
+After that unfortunate ending the chat disappeared from the little park;
+but a week later I came upon him, or his voice, in a private and rarely
+visited pasture down the road, where many clumps of small trees and much
+low growth offered desirable nesting-places. He made his usual protest,
+and feeling that I had been the cause of the tragedy of the first nest,
+though I had grieved over it as much as the owners could, the least I
+could do, to show my regret, was to take myself and my curiosity out of
+his neighborhood. So I retired at once, and left the whole broad pasture
+to the incorrigible chat family, who, I hope, succeeded at last in
+enriching the world by half a dozen more of their bewitching kind.
+
+
+
+
+V.
+
+A FEAST OF FLOWERS.
+
+ When first the crocus thrusts its point of gold
+ Up through the still snow-drifted garden mould,
+ And folded green things in dim woods unclose
+ Their crinkled spears, a sudden tremor goes
+ Into my veins and makes me kith and kin
+ To every wild-born thing that thrills and blows.
+
+ T. B. ALDRICH.
+
+
+My feast of flowers began before I entered Colorado. For half the
+breadth of Kansas the banks of the railroad were heavenly blue with
+clustered blossoms of the spiderwort. I remember clumps of this flower
+in my grandmother's old-fashioned garden, but my wildest dreams never
+pictured miles of it, so profuse that, looking backward from the train,
+the track looked like threads of steel in a broad ribbon of blue.
+
+Through the same State, also, the Western meadow-larks kept us company,
+and I shall never again think of "bleeding Kansas," but of smiling
+Kansas, the home of the bluest of blossoms and the sweetest of singers.
+The latter half of the way through the smiling State was golden with
+yellow daisies in equal abundance, and beside them many other flowers.
+Beginning at noon, I counted twenty-seven varieties, so near the track
+that I could distinguish them as we rushed past.
+
+The Santa Fé road enters Colorado in a peculiarly desolate region.
+Flowers and birds appear to have stayed behind in Kansas, and no green
+thing shows its head, excepting one dismal-looking bush, which serves
+only to accentuate the poverty of the soil. As we go on, the mud is
+replaced by sand and stones, from gravel up to big bowlders, and flowers
+begin to struggle up through the unpromising ground.
+
+Nothing is more surprising than the amazing profusion of wild-flowers
+which this apparently ungenial soil produces. Of a certainty, if
+Colorado is not the paradise of wild-flowers, it is incomparably richer
+in them than any State east of the Mississippi River and north of "Mason
+and Dixon's Line." To begin with, there is a marvelous variety. Since I
+have taken note of them, from about the 10th of June till nearly the
+same date in July, I have found in my daily walk of not more than a mile
+or two, each time from one to seven new kinds. A few days I have found
+seven, many times I have brought home four, and never has a day passed
+without at least one I had not seen before. That will average, at a low
+estimate, about a hundred varieties of flowers in a month, and all
+within a radius of four miles. What neighborhood can produce a record
+equal to this?
+
+Then, again, the blossoms themselves are so abundant. Hardly a root
+contents itself with a single flower. The moccasin-plant is the only one
+I have noticed as yet. One root will usually send up from one to a dozen
+stems, fairly loaded with buds--like the yucca--which open a few every
+day, and thus keep in bloom for weeks. Or if there is but one stem, it
+will be packed with buds from the ground to the tip, with new ones to
+come out for every blossom that falls.
+
+One in the vase on my stand at this moment is of this sort. It is a stem
+that sometimes attains a height of four or five feet. I think it
+lengthens as long as it is blossoming, and, to look at its preparations,
+that must be all summer. Every two or three inches of the stout stem is
+a whorl of leaves and buds and blossoms. Except the number of buds, it
+is all in fours. Opposite each other, making a cross, are four leaves,
+like a carnation leaf at first, but broadening and lengthening till it
+is two inches at the base and eight or ten long. Rising out of the axil
+of each leaf are buds, of graduated size and development up to the open
+blossom. That one stem, therefore, is prepared to open fresh flowers
+every day for a long time.
+
+The plant is exquisitely beautiful, for the whole thing, from the stem
+to the flower petals, is of a delicate, light pea-green. The blossom
+opens like a star, with four stamens and four petals. The description
+sounds mathematical, but the plant is graceful--a veritable symphony in
+green.
+
+A truly royal bouquet stands on my table--three spikes of yucca flowers
+in a tall vase, the middle one three feet high, bearing fifty blossoms
+and buds, of large size and a pink color; on its right, one a little
+less in size, with long creamy cups fully open; and on the left another,
+set with round greenish balls, not so open as cups. They are distinctly
+different, but each seems more exquisite than the other, and their
+fragrance fills the room. In fact it is so overpowering that when at
+night I close the door opening into the grove, I shut the vase and its
+contents outside.
+
+This grand flower is the glory of the mesa or table-land at the foot of
+this range of the Rocky Mountains--the Cheyenne Range. Where no
+grass--that we name grass--will grow, where trees die for want of water,
+these noble spikes of flowers dot the bare plains in profusion.
+
+It is the rich possessor of three names. To the flower-lover it is the
+yucca; to the cultivator, or whosoever meddles with its leaves, it is
+the Spanish-bayonet; to the utilitarian, who values a thing only as it
+is of use to him, it is the soap-weed--ignoble name, referring to
+certain qualities pertaining to its roots. When we remember that this
+flower is not the careful product of the garden, but of spontaneous
+growth in the most barren and hopeless-looking plains, we may well
+regard it as a type of Colorado's luxuriance in these loveliest of
+nature's gifts.
+
+Of a surly disposition is the blossom of a cactus--the "prickly-pear,"
+as we call it in Eastern gardens, where we cultivate it for its oddity,
+I suppose. When the sojourner in this land of flowers sees, opening on
+all sides of this inhospitable-looking plant, rich cream-colored cups,
+the size of a Jacqueminot bud, and of a rare, satiny sheen, she cannot
+resist the desire to fill a low dish with them for her table.
+
+Woe to her if she attempts to gather them "by hand"! Properly warned,
+she will take a knife, sever the flower from the pear (there is no stem
+to speak of), pick it up by the tip of a petal, carry it home in a paper
+or handkerchief, and dump it gently into water--happy if she does not
+feel a dozen intolerable prickles here and there, and have to extract,
+with help of magnifying-glass and tweezers, as many needle-like barbs
+rankling in her flesh. She may as well have spared herself the trouble.
+The flowers possess the uncompromising nature of the stock from which
+they sprung; they will speedily shut themselves up like buds again--I
+almost believe they close with a snap--and obstinately refuse to display
+their satin draperies to delight the eyes of their abductors. This
+unlovely spirit is not common among Colorado flowers; most of them go on
+blooming in the vase day after day.
+
+Remarkable are the places in which the flowers are found. Not only are
+they seen in crevices all the way up the straight side of rocks, where
+one would hardly think a seed could lodge, but beside the roads, between
+the horses' tracks, and on the edge of gutters in the streets of a city.
+One can walk down any street in Colorado Springs and gather a bouquet,
+lovely and fragrant, choice enough to adorn any one's table. I once
+counted twelve varieties in crossing one vacant corner lot on the
+principal street.
+
+One of the richest wild gardens I know is a bare, open spot in a
+cottonwood grove, part of it tunneled by ants, which run over it by
+millions, and the rest a jumble of bowlders and wild rosebushes,
+impossible to describe. In this spot, unshaded from the burning sun,
+flourish flowers innumerable. Rosebushes, towering far above one's head,
+loaded with bloom; shrubs of several kinds, equally burdened by delicate
+white or pink blossoms; the ground covered with foot-high pentstemons,
+blue and lavender, in which the buds fairly get in each other's way; and
+a curious plant--primrose, I believe--which opens every morning, a few
+inches from the ground, a large white blossom like the magnolia, turns
+it deep pink, and closes it before night; several kinds of yellow
+flowers; wild geraniums, with a look of home in their daintily penciled
+petals; above all, the wonderful golden columbine. I despair of
+picturing this grand flower to eyes accustomed to the insignificant
+columbine of the East. The blossom is three times the size of its
+Eastern namesake, growing in clumps sometimes three feet across, with
+thirty or forty stems of flowers standing two and a half feet high. In
+hue it is a delicate straw color, sometimes all one tint, sometimes with
+outside petals of snowy white, and rarely with those outsiders of
+lavender. It is a red-letter day when the flower-lover comes upon a
+clump of the lavender-leaved columbine. Far up in the mountains is found
+still another variety of this beautiful flower, with outside petals of a
+rich blue. This, I believe, is the State flower of Colorado.
+
+I am surprised at the small number of flowers here with which I am
+familiar. I think there are not more than half a dozen in all this
+extraordinary "procession of flowers" that I ever saw before. In
+consequence, every day promises discoveries, every walk is exciting as
+an excursion into unknown lands, each new find is a fresh treasure.
+
+
+
+
+VI.
+
+A CINDERELLA AMONG FLOWERS.
+
+ Like torches lit for carnival,
+ The fiery lilies straight and tall
+ Burn where the deepest shadow is;
+ Still dance the columbines cliff-hung,
+ And like a broidered veil outflung
+ The many-blossomed clematis.
+
+ SUSAN COOLIDGE.
+
+
+A rough, scraggy plant, with unattractive, dark-green foliage and a
+profusion of buds standing out at all angles, is, in July, almost the
+only growing thing to be seen on the barren-looking mesa around Colorado
+Springs. Anything more unpromising can hardly be imagined; the coarsest
+thistle is a beauty beside it; the common burdock has a grace of growth
+far beyond it; the meanest weed shows a color which puts it to shame.
+Yet if the curious traveler pass that way again, late in the afternoon,
+he shall find that "Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of
+these." He will see the bush transfigured; its angular form hidden under
+a mass of many pointed stars of snowy whiteness, with clusters of pale
+gold stamens. Then will stand revealed the "superb mentzelia," a true
+Cinderella, fit only for ignominious uses in the morning, but a suitable
+bride for the fairy prince in the evening.
+
+To look at the wide-stretching table-lands, where, during its season,
+this fairy-story transformation takes place daily, so burned by the sun,
+and swept by the wind, that no cultivated plant will flourish on it, one
+would never suspect that it is the scene of a brilliant "procession of
+flowers" from spring to fall. "There is always something going on
+outdoors worth seeing," says Charles Dudley Warner, and of no part of
+the world is this more true than of these apparently desolate plains at
+the foot of the Rocky Mountains. Rich is the reward of the daily
+stroller, not only in the inspiration of its pure, bracing air, the
+songs of its meadow-larks, and the glory of its grand mountain view, but
+in its charming flower show.
+
+This begins with the anemone, modest and shy like our own, but three
+times as big, and well protected from the sharp May breezes by a soft,
+fluffy silk wrap. Then some day in early June the walker shall note
+groups of long, sword-shaped leaves, rising in clusters here and there
+from the ground. He may not handle them with impunity, for they are
+strong and sharp-edged, and somewhat later the beauty they are set to
+guard is revealed. A stem or two, heavy and loaded with hard green
+balls, pushes itself up among them day by day, till some morning he
+stands spellbound before the full-blown bells of the yucca, cream-tinted
+or pink, and fragrant as the breath of summer.
+
+Before the Nature-lover is tired of feasting his eyes upon that stately
+flower, shall begin to unfold the crumpled draperies of the great
+Mexican poppy, dotting the hillsides and the mesa with white, as far as
+the eye can reach. Meanwhile, the earth itself shall suddenly turn to
+pink, and a close look disclose a tiny, low-growing blossom, sweet as
+the morning, with the glow of the sunrise in its face; a little bunch of
+crazy-looking stamens, and tiny snips of petals standing out at all
+angles, and of all shades on one stem, from white to deep red; the whole
+no bigger than a gauzy-winged fly, and shaped not unlike one, with a
+delicious odor that scents the air.
+
+Next day--or next week--wandering over the pathless barrens, the
+observer may come upon a group of cream-colored satin flowers, wide open
+to the sun, innocent looking and most tempting to gather. But the great
+fleshy leaves from which they spring give warning; they belong to the
+cactus family, and are well armed to protect their treasures from the
+vagrant hand. The walker--if he be wise--will content himself with
+looking, nor seek a nearer acquaintance.
+
+While these royal beauties are adorning the highlands, others, perhaps
+even more lovely, are blooming in the cañons, under the trees, and
+beside the noisy brooks. First, there is a "riot of roses"--the only
+expression that adequately suggests the profusion of these beautiful
+flowers. They grow in enormous bushes, far above one's head, in
+impenetrable thickets, extending for yards each way.
+
+         "Rose hedges
+ Abloom to the edges."
+
+Every country road is walled in by them; every brookside is glorified by
+their rich masses of color; and no rocky wall is so bare but here and
+there a tiny shoot finds root, and open its rosy bloom. All these
+bushes, from the low-growing sort that holds its mottled and shaded
+petals three inches above the ground, to that whose top one cannot
+reach, are simply loaded with blossoms of all shades, from nearly white
+to deepest rose-color, filling the air with perfume.
+
+The first time one comes upon this lavish display, he--or more probably
+she--picks a spray from the first bush; she cannot resist the next
+variety, and before she knows it her arms are full, with temptations as
+strong as ever before her. She may at last, like "H. H.," take home her
+roses by the carriage load, or, overwhelmed by their numbers, leave them
+all on their stems, and enjoy them in mass.
+
+Shyly hiding under the taller shrubs beside the running water, the
+experienced seeker will find the gilia, one of the gems of Colorado's
+bouquet. This plant consists of one slender stem two feet or more tall,
+swayed by every breeze, and set for several inches of its length with
+daintiest blossoms,--
+
+ "Like threaded rubies on its stem."
+
+They are like fairy trumpets, in many shades, from snow white to deep
+rose, and brilliant scarlet, with great variety of delicate marking
+visible only under a glass. The stem is so sticky that the flowers must
+be arranged as they are gathered; for they cling to each other more
+closely than the fabled "brother," and an attempt to separate them will
+result in torn flowers.
+
+Anything more exquisite than a vase of gilias alone is rarely seen. The
+buds are as lovely as the blossoms; new ones open every day, and even
+the faded ones are not unsightly; their petals are simply turned
+backward a little. One minute every morning spent in snipping off
+blossoms that are past their prime insures the happy possessor a
+bouquet that is a joy forever, even in memory; lovely and fresh, in
+ever-changing combinations of color and form.
+
+Some day shall be made memorable to the enthusiast by the discovery of a
+flower which should be named for "H. H.,"--the one which looked so
+charming from the moving train that her winning tongue brought the iron
+horse to a pause while it was gathered, "root and branch," for her
+delectation. Finding the gorgeous spike of golden blossoms without a
+common name, she called it--most happily--the golden prince's feather.
+It is to be presumed that it has an unwieldy scientific cognomen in the
+botanies; but I heard of no common one, except that given by the poet.
+
+While this royal flower is still in bloom, may be found the mariposa, or
+butterfly lily, small and low on the burning mesa, but more generous in
+size, and richer of hue, in the shaded cañons.
+
+ "Like a bubble borne in air
+   Floats the shy Mariposa's bell,"
+
+says Susan Coolidge in her beautiful tribute to her beloved friend and
+poet. The three petals of this exquisite flower form a graceful cup of
+differing degrees of violet hue, some being nearly white, with the color
+massed in a rich, deep-toned crescent, low down at the heart of each
+petal, while others are glowing in the most regal purple.
+
+All these weeks, too, have been blossoming dozens, yes, hundreds of
+others; every nook and corner is full; every walk brings surprises. Some
+of our most familiar friends are wanting. One is not surprised that the
+most common wayside flower of that golden region is the yellow daisy, or
+sunflower it is called; but she remembers fondly our fields of white
+daisies, and clumps of gay little buttercups, and she longs for
+cheery-faced dandelions beside her path. A few of the latter she may
+find, much larger and more showy than ours; but these--it is said in
+Colorado Springs--are all from seed imported by an exile for health's
+sake, who pined for the flowers of home.
+
+Several peculiarities of Colorado flowers are noteworthy. Some have
+gummy or sticky stems, like the gilia, already mentioned, and others
+again are "clinging," by means of a certain roughness of stem and leaf.
+The mentzelia is of this nature; half a dozen stalks can with difficulty
+be separated; and they seem even to attract any light substance, like
+fringe or lace, holding so closely to it that they must be torn apart.
+
+Many of the prettiest flowers are, like our milkweed, nourished by a
+milky juice, and when severed from the parent stem, not only weep thick
+white tears, which stain the hands and the garments, but utterly refuse
+to subsist on water, and begin at once to droop. Is it the vitality in
+the air which forces even the plants to eccentricities? Or can it be
+that they have not yet been subdued into uniformity like ours? Are they
+unconventional--nearer to wild Nature? So queries an unscientific lover
+of them all.
+
+This slight sketch of a few flowers gives hardly a hint of the richness
+of Colorado's flora. No words can paint the profusion and the beauty. I
+have not here even mentioned some of the most notable: the great golden
+columbine, the State flower, to which our modest blossom is an
+insignificant weed;
+
+ "The fairy lilies, straight and tall,
+ Like torches lit for carnival;"
+
+the primrose, opening at evening a disk three or four inches across,
+loaded with richest perfume, and changed to odorless pink before
+morning; exquisite vetches, with bloom like our sweet pea, and of more
+than fifty varieties; harebells in great clumps, and castilleias which
+dot the State with scarlet; rosy cyclamens "on long, lithe stems that
+soar;" and mertensias, whose delicate bells, blue as a baby's eyes, turn
+day by day to pink; the cleome, which covers Denver with a purple veil;
+the whole family of pentstemons, and hundreds of others.
+
+An artist in Colorado Springs, who has given her heart, almost her life,
+to fixing in imperishable color the floral wealth about her, has painted
+over three hundred varieties of Colorado wild-flowers, and her list is
+still incomplete.
+
+It is not pleasant to mar this record of beauty, but one thing must be
+mentioned. The luxuriance of the flowers is already greatly diminished
+by the unscrupulousness of the tourists who swarm in the flower season,
+especially, I am sorry to say, women. Not content with filling their
+hands with flowers, they fill their arms and even their carriage, if
+they have one. Moreover, the hold of the plant on the light, sandy soil
+is very slight; and the careless gatherer, not provided with knife or
+scissors, will almost invariably pull the root with the flower, thus
+totally annihilating that plant. When one witnesses such greediness, and
+remembers that these vandals are in general on the wing, and cannot stay
+to enjoy what they have rifled, but will leave it all to be thrown out
+by hotel servants the next morning, he cannot wonder at the indignation
+of the residents toward the traveler, nor that "No admittance" notices
+are put up, and big dogs kept, and that "tourist" is a name synonymous
+with "plunderer," and bitterly hated by the people.
+
+I have seen a party of ladies--to judge by their looks--with arms so
+full of the golden columbine that it seemed they could not hold another
+flower, whose traveling dress and equipments showed them to be mere
+transient passers through, who could not possibly make use of so many.
+Half a dozen blossoms would have given as much pleasure as half a
+hundred, and be much more easily cared for, besides leaving a few for
+their successors to enjoy. The result is, of course, plain to see: a few
+more years of plunder, and Colorado will be left bare, and lose half her
+charm.
+
+One beautiful place near Colorado Springs, Glen Eyrie, belonging to
+General Palmer, was generously left open for every one to enjoy by
+driving through; but, incredible as it seems, his hospitality was so
+abused, his lovely grounds rifled, not only of wild-flowers, but even of
+cultivated flowers and plants, that he was forced at last to put up
+notices that the public was allowed to "drive through _without
+dismounting_."
+
+
+
+
+VII.
+
+CLIFF-DWELLERS IN THE CAÑON.
+
+                                   Glad
+ With light as with a garment it is clad
+ Each dawn, before the tardy plains have won
+ One ray; and often after day has long been done
+ For us, the light doth cling reluctant, sad to leave its brow.
+
+ H. H.
+
+
+The happiest day of my summer in the Rocky Mountains was passed in the
+heart of a mountain consecrated by the songs and the grave of its lover,
+"H. H.,"--beautiful Cheyenne, the grandest and the most graceful of its
+range.
+
+Camp Harding, my home for the season, in its charming situation, has
+already been described. The fortunate dwellers in this "happy valley"
+were blessed with two delectable walks, "down the road" and "up the
+road." Down the road presented an enchanting procession of flowers,
+which changed from day to day as the season advanced; to-day the scarlet
+castilleia, or painter's-brush, flaming out of the coarse grasses;
+to-morrow the sand lily, lifting its dainty face above the bare sand;
+next week the harebell, in great clumps, nodding across the field, and
+next month the mariposa or butterfly lily, just peeping from behind the
+brush,--with dozens of others to keep them company. As one went on, the
+fields grew broader, the walls of the mesa lowered and drew apart, till
+the cañon was lost in the wide, open country.
+
+This was the favorite evening walk, with all the camp dogs in
+attendance,--the nimble greyhound, the age-stiffened and sedate spaniel,
+the saucy, ill-bred bull-terrier, and the naïve baby pug. The loitering
+walk usually ended at the red farmhouse a mile away, and the walkers
+returned to the camp in the gloaming, loaded with flowers, saturated
+with the delicious mountain air, and filled with a peace that passeth
+words.
+
+Up the road led into the mountain, under thick-crowding trees, between
+frowning rocks, ever growing higher and drawing nearer together, till
+the carriage road became a burro track, and then a footpath; now this
+side the boisterous brook, then crossing by a log or two to the other
+side, and ending in the heart of Cheyenne in a _cul-de-sac_, whose high
+perpendicular sides could be scaled only by flights of steps built
+against the rocks. From high up the mountain, into this immense rocky
+basin, came the brook Shining Water, in seven tremendous leaps, each
+more lovely than the last, and reached at bottom a deep stone bowl,
+which flung it out in a shower of spray forbidding near approach, and
+keeping the rocks forever wet.
+
+The morning walk was up the road, in the grateful shade of the trees,
+between the cool rocks, beside the impetuous brook. This last was an
+ever fresh source of interest and pleasure, for nothing differs more
+widely from an Eastern brook than its Western namesake. The terms we
+apply to our mountain rivulets do not at all describe a body of water on
+its way down a Rocky Mountain valley. It does not murmur,--it roars and
+brawls; it cannot ripple,--it rages and foams about the bowlders that
+lie in its path. The name of a Colorado mountain stream, the Roaring
+Fork, exactly characterizes it.
+
+One warm morning in June, a small party from the camp set out for a walk
+up the road. By easy stages, resting here and there on convenient rocks,
+beguiled at every step by something more beautiful just ahead, they
+penetrated to the end of the cañon. Of that party I was one, and it was
+my first visit. I was alternately in raptures over the richness of
+color, the glowing red sandstone against the violet-blue sky, and
+thrilled by the grandeur of places which looked as if the whole
+mountain had been violently rent asunder.
+
+But no emotion whatever, no beauty, no sublimity even, can make me
+insensible to a bird note. Just at the entrance to the Pillars of
+Hercules, two towering walls of perpendicular rock that approach each
+other almost threateningly, as if they would close up and crush between
+them the rash mortal who dared to penetrate farther,--in that impressive
+spot, while I lingered, half yielding to a mysterious hesitation about
+entering the strange portal, a bird song fell upon my ear. It was a
+plaintive warble, that sounded far away up the stern cliff above my
+head. It seemed impossible that a bird could find a foothold, or be in
+any way attracted by those bare walls, yet I turned my eyes, and later
+my glass that way.
+
+At first nothing was to be seen save, part way up the height, an
+exquisite bit of nature. In a niche that might have been scooped out by
+a mighty hand, where scarcely a ray of sunlight could penetrate, and no
+human touch could make or mar, were growing, and blooming luxuriantly, a
+golden columbine, Colorado's pride and glory, a rosy star-shaped blossom
+unknown to me, and a cluster of
+
+ "Proud cyclamens on long, lithe stems that soar."
+
+When I could withdraw my eyes from this dainty wind-sown garden, I
+sought the singer, who proved to be a small brown bird with a
+conspicuous white throat, flitting about on the face of the rock,
+apparently quite at home, and constantly repeating his few notes. His
+song was tender and bewitching in its effect, though it was really
+simple in construction, being merely nine notes, the first uttered
+twice, and the remaining eight in descending chromatic scale.
+
+Now and then the tiny songster disappeared in what looked like a slight
+crack in the wall, but instantly reappeared, and resumed his siren
+strains. Spellbound I stood, looking and listening; but alas! the hour
+was late, the way was long, and others were waiting; I needs must tear
+myself away. "To-morrow I will come again," I said, as I turned back.
+"To-morrow I shall be here alone, and spend the whole day with the cañon
+wren."
+
+Then we retraced our steps of the morning, lingering among the pleasant
+groves of cottonwood, oak, and aspen; pausing to admire the cactus
+display of gorgeous yellow, with petals widespread, yet so wedded to
+their wildness that they resented the touch of a human hand, resisting
+their ravisher with needle-like barbs, and then sullenly drawing
+together their satin petals and refusing to open them more; past great
+thickets of wild roses, higher than our heads and fragrant as the
+morning; beside close-growing bushes, where hid the
+
+ "Golden cradle of the moccasin flower,"
+
+and the too clever yellow-breasted chat had mocked and defied me; and so
+home to the camp.
+
+At an early hour the next morning, the carriage of my hostess set me
+down at the entrance of Cheyenne Cañon proper, with the impedimenta
+necessary for a day's isolation from civilization. I passed through the
+gate,--for even this grand work of nature is claimed as private
+property; but, happily, through good sense or indifference,
+"improvements" have not been attempted, and one forgets the gate and the
+gate-keeper as soon as they are passed.
+
+Entering at that unnatural hour, and alone, leaving the last human being
+behind,--staring in astonishment, by the way, at my unprecedented
+proceeding,--I began to realize, as I walked up the narrow path, that
+the whole grand cañon, winding perhaps a mile into the heart of this
+most beautiful of the Rocky Mountains, was mine alone for three hours.
+Indeed, when the time arrived for tourists to appear, so little did I
+concern myself with them that they might have been a procession of
+spectres passing by; so, in effect, the cañon was my solitary possession
+for nine blissful hours.
+
+The delights of that perfect day cannot be put into words. Strolling up
+the path, filled with an inexpressible sense of ownership and seclusion
+from all the world, I first paused in the neighborhood of the small
+cliff-dweller whose music had charmed me, and suggested the enchanting
+idea of spending a day with him in his retreat. I seated myself opposite
+the forbidding wall where the bird had hovered, apparently so much at
+home. All was silent; no singer to be heard, no wren to be seen. The
+sun, which turned the tops of the Pillars to gold as I entered, crept
+down inch by inch till it beat upon my head and clothed the rock in a
+red glory. Still no bird appeared. High above the top of the rocks, in
+the clear thin air of the mountain, a flock of swallows wheeled and
+sported, uttering an unfamiliar two-note call; butterflies fluttered
+irresolute, looking frivolous enough in the presence of the eternal
+hills; gauzy-winged dragonflies zigzagged to and fro, their intense blue
+gleaming in the sun. The hour for visitors drew near, and my precious
+solitude was fast slipping away.
+
+Slowly then I walked up the cañon, looking for my singer. Humming-birds
+were hovering before the bare rock as before a flower, perhaps sipping
+the water-drops that here and there trickled down, and large hawks, like
+mere specks against the blue, were soaring, but no wren could I see. At
+last I reached the end, with its waterfall fountain. Close within this
+ceaseless sprinkle, on a narrow ledge that was never dry, was placed--I
+had almost said grew--a bird's nest; whose, it were needless to ask. One
+American bird, and one only, chooses perpetual dampness for his
+environment,--the American dipper, or water ouzel.
+
+Here I paused to muse over the spray-soaked cradle on the rock. In this
+strange place had lived a bird so eccentric that he prefers not only to
+nest under a continuous shower, through which he must constantly pass,
+but to spend most of his life in, not on the water. Shall we call him a
+fool or a philosopher? Is the water a protection, and from what? Has
+"damp, moist unpleasantness" no terrors for his fine feathers? Where now
+were the nestlings whose lullaby had been the music of the falling
+waters? Down that sheer rock, perhaps into the water at its foot, had
+been the first flight of the ouzel baby. Why had I come too late to see
+him?
+
+But the hours were passing, while I had not seen, and, what was worse,
+had not heard my first charmer, the cañon wren. Leaving these perplexing
+conundrums unsolved, I turned slowly back down the walk, to resume my
+search. Perhaps fifty feet from the ouzel nest, as I lingered to admire
+the picturesque rapids in the brook, a slight movement drew my attention
+to a little projection on a stone, not six feet from me, where a small
+chipmunk sat pertly up, holding in his two hands, and eagerly
+nibbling--was it, could it be a strawberry in this rocky place?
+
+Of course I stopped instantly to look at this pretty sight. I judged him
+to be a youngster, partly because of his evident fearlessness of his
+hereditary enemy, a human being; more on account of the saucy way in
+which he returned my stare; and most, perhaps, from the appearance of
+absorbing delight, in which there was a suggestion of the unexpected,
+with which he discussed that sweet morsel. Closely I watched him as he
+turned the treasure round and round in his deft little paws, and at last
+dropped the rifled hull. Would he go for another, and where? In an
+instant, with a parting glance at me, to make sure that I had not moved,
+he scrambled down his rocky throne, and bounded in great leaps over the
+path to a crumpled paper, which I saw at once was one of the bags with
+which tourists sow the earth. But its presence there did not rouse in my
+furry friend the indignation it excited in me. To him it was a
+treasure-trove, for into it he disappeared without a moment's
+hesitation; and almost before I had jumped to the conclusion that it
+contained the remains of somebody's luncheon, he reappeared, holding in
+his mouth another strawberry, bounded over the ground to his former
+seat, and proceeded to dispose of that one, also. The scene was so
+charming and his pleasure so genuine that I forgave the careless
+traveler on the spot, and only wished I had a kodak to secure a
+permanent picture of this unique strawberry festival.
+
+As I loitered along, gazing idly at the brook, ever listening and
+longing for the wren song, I was suddenly struck motionless by a loud,
+shrill, and peculiar cry. It was plainly a bird voice, and it seemed to
+come almost from the stream itself. It ceased in a moment, and then
+followed a burst of song, liquid as the singing of the brook, and
+enchantingly sweet, though very low. I was astounded. Who could sing
+like that up in this narrow mountain gorge, where I supposed the cañon
+wren was king?
+
+At the point where I stood, a straggling shrub, the only one for rods,
+hung over the brink. I silently sank to a seat behind it, lest I disturb
+the singer, and remained without movement. The baffling carol went on
+for some seconds, and for the only time in my life I wished I could put
+a spell upon brook-babble, that I might the better hear.
+
+Cautiously I raised my glass to my eyes, and examined the rocks across
+the water, probably eight feet from me. Then arose again that strange
+cry, and at the same instant my eye fell upon a tiny ledge, level with
+the water, and perhaps six inches long, on which stood a small
+fellow-creature in great excitement. He was engaged in what I should
+call "curtsying"; that is, bending his leg joint, and dropping his plump
+little body for a second, then bobbing up to his fullest height,
+repeating the performance constantly,--looking eagerly out over the
+water the while, evidently expecting somebody. This was undoubtedly the
+bird's manner of begging for food,--a very pretty and well-bred way,
+too, vastly superior to the impetuous calls and demands of some young
+birds. The movement was "dipping," of course, and he was the dipper, or
+ouzel baby, that had been cradled in that fountain-dashed nest by the
+fall. He was not long out of it, either; for though fully dressed in his
+modest slate-color, with white feet, and white edgings to many of his
+feathers, he had hardly a vestige of a tail. He was a winsome baby, for
+all that.
+
+While I studied the points of the stranger, breathless lest he should
+disappear before my eyes, he suddenly burst out with the strange call I
+had heard. It was clearly a cry of joy, of welcome, for out of the
+water, up on to the ledge beside him, scrambled at that moment a
+grown-up ouzel. He gave one poke into the wide-open mouth of the infant,
+then slipped back into the water, dropped down a foot or more, climbed
+out upon another little shelf in the rock, and in a moment the song
+arose. I watched the singer closely. The notes were so low and so
+mingled with the roar of the brook that even then I should not have been
+certain he was uttering them if I had not seen his throat and mouth
+distinctly. The song was really exquisite, and as much in harmony with
+the melody of the stream as the voice of the English sparrow is with the
+city sounds among which he dwells, and the plaintive refrain of the
+meadow-lark with the low-lying, silent fields where he spends his days.
+
+But little cared baby ouzel for music, however ravishing. What to his
+mind was far more important was food,--in short, worms. His pretty
+begging continued, and the daring notion of attempting a perilous
+journey over the foot of water that separated him from his papa plainly
+entered his head. He hurried back and forth on the brink with growing
+agitation, and was seemingly about to plunge in, when the singer again
+entered the water, brought up another morsel, and then stood on the
+ledge beside the eager youngling, "dipping" occasionally himself, and
+showing every time he winked--as did the little one, also--snowy-white
+eyelids, in strange contrast to the dark slate-colored plumage.
+
+This aesthetic manner of discharging family duties, alternating food for
+the body with rapture of the soul, continued for some time, probably
+until the young bird had as much as was good for him; and then supplies
+were cut off by the peremptory disappearance of the purveyor, who
+plunged with the brook over the edge of a rock, and was seen no more.
+
+A little later a grown bird appeared, that I supposed at first was the
+returning papa, but a few moments' observation convinced me that it was
+the mother; partly because no song accompanied the work, but more
+because of the entirely different manners of the new-comer. Filling the
+crop of that importunate offspring of hers was, with this Quaker-dressed
+dame, a serious business that left no time for rest or recreation. Two
+charmed hours I sat absorbed, watching the most wonderful evolutions one
+could believe possible to a creature in feathers.
+
+At the point where this little drama was enacted, the brook rushed over
+a line of pebbles stretching from bank to bank, lying at all angles and
+of all sizes, from six to ten inches in diameter. Then it ran five or
+six feet quietly, around smooth rocks here and there above the water,
+and ended by plunging over a mass of bowlders to a lower level. The bird
+began by mounting one of those slippery rounded stones, and thrusting
+her head under water up to her shoulders. Holding it there a few
+seconds, apparently looking for something, she then jumped in where the
+turmoil was maddest, picked an object from the bottom, and, returning to
+the ledge, gave it to baby.
+
+The next moment, before I had recovered from my astonishment at this
+feat of the ouzel, she ran directly up the falls (which, though not
+high, were exceedingly lively), being half the time entirely under
+water, and exactly as much at her ease as if no water were there; though
+how she could stand in the rapid current, not to speak of walking
+straight up against it, I could not understand.
+
+Often she threw herself into the stream, and let it carry her down, like
+a duck, a foot or two, while she looked intently on the bottom, then
+simply walked up out of it on to a stone. I could see that her plumage
+was not in the least wet; a drop or two often rested on her back when
+she came out, but it rolled off in a moment. She never even shook
+herself. The food she brought to that eager youngling every few minutes
+looked like minute worms, doubtless some insect larvæ.
+
+Several times this hard-working mother plunged into the brook where it
+was shallow, ran or walked down it, half under water, and stopped on the
+very brink of the lower fall, where one would think she could not even
+stand, much less turn back and run up stream, which she did freely. This
+looked to me almost as difficult as for a man to stand on the brink of
+Niagara, with the water roaring and tumbling around him. Now and then
+the bird ran or flew up, against the current, and entirely under water,
+so that I could see her only as a dark-colored moving object, and then
+came out all fresh and dry beside the baby, with a mouthful of food. I
+should hardly dare to tell this, for fear of raising doubts of my
+accuracy, if the same thing had not been seen and reported by others
+before me. Her crowning action was to stand with one foot on each of two
+stones in the middle and most uproarious part of the little fall, lean
+far over, and deliberately pick something from a third stone.
+
+All this was no show performance, even no frolic, on the part of the
+ouzel,--it was simply her every-day manner of providing for the needs of
+that infant; and when she considered the duty discharged for the time,
+she took her departure, very probably going at once to the care of a
+second youngster who awaited her coming in some other niche in the
+rocks.
+
+Finding himself alone again, and no more dainties coming his way, the
+young dipper turned for entertainment to the swift-running streamlet. He
+went down to the edge, stepping easily, never hopping; but when the
+shallow edge of the water ran over his pretty white toes, he hastily
+scampered back, as if afraid to venture farther. The clever little rogue
+was only coquetting, however, for when he did at last plunge in he
+showed himself very much at home. He easily crossed a turbulent bit of
+the brook, and when he was carried down a little he scrambled without
+trouble up on a stone. All the time, too, he was peering about after
+food; and in fact it was plain that his begging was a mere pretense,--he
+was perfectly well able to look out for himself. Through the whole of
+these scenes not one of the birds, old or young, had paid the slightest
+attention to me, though I was not ten feet from them.
+
+During the time I had been so absorbed in my delightful study of
+domestic life in the ouzel family, the other interesting resident of the
+cañon--the elusive cañon wren--had been forgotten. Now, as I noticed
+that the day was waning, I thought of him again, and, tearing myself
+away from the enticing picture, leaving the pretty baby to his own
+amusements, I returned to the famous Pillars, and planted myself before
+my rock, resolved to stay there till the bird appeared.
+
+No note came to encourage me, but, gazing steadily upward, after a time
+I noticed something that looked like a fly running along the wall.
+Bringing my glass to my eyes, I found that it was a bird, and one of the
+white-throated family I so longed to see. She--for her silence and her
+ways proclaimed her sex--was running about where appeared to be nothing
+but perpendicular rock, flirting her tail after the manner of her race,
+as happy and as unconcerned as if several thousand feet of sheer cliff
+did not stretch between her and the brook at its foot. Her movements
+were jerky and wren-like, and every few minutes she flitted into a tiny
+crevice that seemed, from my point of view, hardly large enough to admit
+even her minute form. She was dressed like the sweet singer of
+yesterday, and the door she entered so familiarly was the same I had
+seen him interested in. I guessed that she was his mate.
+
+The bird seemed to be gathering from the rock something which she
+constantly carried into the hole. Possibly there were nestlings in that
+snug and inaccessible home. To discover if my conjectures were true, I
+redoubled my vigilance, though it was neck-breaking work, for so narrow
+was the cañon at that point that I could not get far enough away for a
+more level view.
+
+Sometimes the bustling little wren flew to the top of the wall, about
+twenty feet above her front door, as it looked to me (it may have been
+ten times that). Over the edge she instantly disappeared, but in a few
+minutes returned to her occupation on the rock. Upon the earth beneath
+her sky parlor she seemed never to turn her eyes, and I began to fear
+that I should get no nearer view of the shy cliff-dweller.
+
+Finally, however, the caprice seized the tantalizing creature of
+descending to the level of mortals, and the brook. Suddenly, while I
+looked, she flung herself off her perch, and fell--down--down--down--
+disappearing at last behind a clump of weeds at the bottom. Was she
+killed? Had she been shot by some noiseless air-gun? What had become
+of the tiny wren? I sprang to my feet, and hurried as near as the
+intervening stream would allow, when lo! there she was, lively and fussy
+as ever, running about at the foot of the cliff, searching, searching
+all the time, ever and anon jumping up and pulling from the rock
+something that clung to it.
+
+When the industrious bird had filled her beak with material that stuck
+out on both sides, which I concluded to be some kind of rock moss, she
+started back. Not up the face of that blank wall, loaded as she was,
+but by a strange path that she knew well, up which I watched her wending
+her way to her proper level. This was a cleft between two solid bodies
+of rock, where, it would seem, the two walls, in settling together for
+their lifelong union, had broken and crumbled, and formed between them a
+sort of crack, filled with unattached bowlders, with crevices and
+passages, sometimes perpendicular, sometimes horizontal. Around and
+through these was a zigzag road to the top, evidently as familiar to
+that atom of a bird as Broadway is to some of her fellow-creatures, and
+more easily traversed, for she had it all to herself.
+
+The wren flew about three feet to the first step of her upward passage,
+then ran and clambered nearly all the rest of the way, darting behind
+jutting rocks and coming out the other side, occasionally flying a foot
+or two; now pausing as if for an observation, jerking her tail upright
+and letting it drop back, wren-fashion, then starting afresh, and so
+going on till she reached the level of her nest, when she flew across
+the (apparent) forty or fifty feet, directly into the crevice. In a
+minute she came out, and without an instant's pause flung herself down
+again.
+
+I watched this curious process very closely. The wren seemed to close
+her wings; certainly she did not use them, nor were they in the least
+spread that I could detect. She came to the ground as if she were a
+stone, as quickly and as directly as a stone would have fallen; but just
+before touching the ground she spread her wings, and alighted lightly on
+her feet. Then she fell to her labor of collecting what I suppose was
+nesting material, and in a few minutes started up again by the
+roundabout road to the top. Two hours or more, with gradually stiffening
+neck, I spent with the wren, while she worked constantly and silently,
+and not once during all that time did the singer appear.
+
+What the scattering parties of tourists, who from time to time passed
+me, thought of a silent personage sitting in the cañon alone, staring
+intently up at a blank wall of rock, I did not inquire. Perhaps that she
+was a verse-writer seeking inspiration; more likely, however, a harmless
+lunatic musing over her own fancies.
+
+I know well what I thought of them, from the glimpses that came to me as
+I sat there; some climbing over the sharp-edged rocks, in tight boots,
+delicate kid gloves, and immaculate traveling costumes, and panting for
+breath in the seven thousand feet altitude; others uncomfortably seated
+on the backs of the scraggy little burros, one of whom was so interested
+in my proceedings that he walked directly up and thrust his long,
+inquiring ears into my very face, spite of the resistance of his rider,
+forcing me to rise and decline closer acquaintance. One of the
+melancholy procession was loaded with a heavy camera, another equipped
+with a butterfly net; this one bent under the weight of a big basket of
+luncheon, and that one was burdened with satchels and wraps and
+umbrellas. All were laboriously trying to enjoy themselves, but not one
+lingered to look at the wonder and the beauty of the surroundings. I
+pitied them, one and all, feeling obliged, as no doubt they did, to "see
+the sights;" tramping the lovely cañon to-day, glancing neither to right
+nor left; whirling through the Garden of the Gods to-morrow; painfully
+climbing the next day the burro track to the Grave, the sacred point
+where
+
+ "Upon the wind-blown mountain spot
+ Chosen and loved as best by her,
+ Watched over by near sun and star,
+ Encompassed by wide skies, she sleeps."
+
+Alas that one cannot quote with truth the remaining lines!
+
+ "And not one jarring murmur creeps
+ Up from the plain her rest to mar."
+
+For now, at the end of the toilsome passage, that place which should be
+sacred to loving memories and tender thoughts, is desecrated by placards
+and picnickers, defaced by advertisements, strewn with the
+wrapping-paper, tin cans, and bottles with which the modern
+globe-trotter marks his path through the beautiful and sacred scenes in
+nature.[1]
+
+In this uncomfortable way the majority of summer tourists spend day
+after day, and week after week; going home tired out, with no new idea
+gained, but happy to be able to say they have been here and there,
+beheld this cañon, dined on that mountain, drank champagne in such a
+pass, and struggled for breath on top of "the Peak." Their eyes may
+indeed have passed over these scenes, but they have not _seen_ one
+thing.
+
+Far wiser is he (and more especially she) who seeks out a corner obscure
+enough to escape the eyes of the "procession," settles himself in it,
+and spends fruitful and delightful days alone with nature; never hasting
+nor rushing; seeing and studying the wonders at hand, but avoiding
+"parties" and "excursions;" valuing more a thorough knowledge of one
+cañon than a glimpse of fifty; caring more to appreciate the beauties of
+one mountain than to scramble over a whole range; getting into such
+perfect harmony with nature that it is as if he had come into possession
+of a new life; and from such an experience returning to his home
+refreshed and invigorated in mind and body.
+
+Such were my reflections as the sun went down, and I felt, as I passed
+out through the gate, that I ought to double my entrance fee, so much
+had my life been enriched by that perfect day alone in Cheyenne Cañon.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 1: Since the above was written, I am glad to learn that,
+because of this vandalism, the remains of "H. H." have been removed to
+the cemetery at Colorado Springs.]
+
+
+
+
+IN THE MIDDLE COUNTRY.
+
+
+
+
+ For all the woods are shrill with stress of song,
+   Where soft wings flutter down to new-built nests,
+ And turbulent sweet sounds are heard day long,
+   As of innumerable marriage feasts.
+
+ CHARLES LOTIN HILDRETH.
+
+
+
+
+VIII.
+
+AT FOUR O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING.
+
+
+Four o'clock in the morning is the magical hour of the day. I do not
+offer this sentiment as original, nor have I the slightest hope of
+converting any one to my opinion; I merely state the fact.
+
+For years I had known it perfectly well; and fortified by my knowledge,
+and bristling with good resolutions, I went out every June determined to
+rise at that unnatural hour. Nothing is easier than to get up at four
+o'clock--the night before; but when morning comes, the point of view is
+changed, and all the arguments that arise in the mind are on the other
+side; sleep is the one thing desirable. The case appeared hopeless.
+Appeals from Philip drunk (with sleep) to Philip sober did not seem to
+avail; for whatever the latter decreed, the former would surely disobey.
+
+But last June I found my spur; last summer I learned to get up with
+eagerness, and stay up with delight. This was effected by means of an
+alarm, set by the evening's wakefulness, that had no mercy on the
+morning's sleepiness. The secret is--a present interest. What may be
+going on somewhere out of sight and hearing in the world is a matter of
+perfect indifference; what is heard and seen at the moment is an
+argument that no one can resist.
+
+I got my hint by the accident of some shelled corn being left on the
+ground before my window, and so attracting a four o'clock party,
+consisting of blackbirds, blue jays, and doves. I noticed the corn, but
+did not think of the pleasure it would give me, until the next morning,
+when I was awakened about four o'clock by loud and excited talk in
+blackbird tones, and hurried to the window, to find that I had half the
+birds of the neighborhood before me.
+
+Most in number, and most noisy, were the common blackbirds, who just at
+that time were feeding their young in a grove of evergreens back of the
+house, where they had set up their nurseries in a crowd, as is their
+custom. It is impossible to take this bird seriously, he is so
+irresistibly ludicrous. His manners always suggest to me the peculiar
+drollery of the negro; one of the old-fashioned sort, as we read of him,
+and I promised myself some amusement from the study of him at short
+range; I was not disappointed.
+
+My greeting as I took my seat at the open window, unfortunately without
+blinds to screen me, was most comical. A big pompous fellow turned his
+wicked-looking white eye upon me, drew himself into a queer humped-up
+position, with all his feathers on end, and apparently by a strong
+effort _squeezed_ out a husky and squeaky, yet loud cry of two notes,
+which sounded exactly like "Squee-gee!"
+
+I was so astounded that I laughed in his face; at which he repeated it
+with added emphasis, then turned his back on me, as unworthy of notice
+away up in my window, and gave his undivided attention to a specially
+large grain of corn which had been unearthed by a meek-looking neighbor,
+and appropriated by him, in the most lordly manner. His bearing at the
+moment was superb and stately in a degree of which only a bird who walks
+is capable; one cannot be dignified who is obliged to hop.
+
+I thought his greeting was a personal one to show contempt--which it did
+emphatically--to the human race in general, and to me in particular, but
+I found later that it was the ordinary blackbird way of being offensive;
+it was equivalent to "Get out!" or "Shut up!" or some other of the curt
+and rude expressions in use by bigger folk than blackbirds.
+
+If a bird alighted too near one of these arrogant fellows on the ground,
+he was met with the same expletive, and if he was about the same size
+he "talked back." The number and variety of utterances at their command
+was astonishing; I was always being surprised with a new one. Now a
+blackbird would fly across the lawn, making a noise exactly like a boy's
+tin trumpet, and repeating it as long as he was within hearing,
+regarding it, seemingly, as an exceptionally great feat. Again one would
+seize a kernel of corn, burst out with a convulsive cry, as if he were
+choking to death, and fly off with his prize, in imminent danger of his
+life, as I could not but feel.
+
+The second morning a youngster came with his papa to the feast, and he
+was droller, if possible, than his elders. He followed his parent
+around, with head lowered and mouth wide open, fairly bawling in a loud
+yet husky tone.
+
+The young blackbird does not appear in the glossy suit of his parents.
+His coat is rusty in hue, and his eye is dark, as is proper in youth. He
+is not at all backward in speaking his mind, and his sole desire at this
+period of his life being food, he demands it with an energy and
+persistence that usually insures success.
+
+In making close acquaintance with them, one cannot help longing to
+prescribe to the whole blackbird family something to clear their
+bronchial tubes; every tone is husky, and the student involuntarily
+clears his own throat as he listens.
+
+I was surprised to find the blackbirds so beautiful. When the sun was
+near setting, and struck across the grass its level rays, they were
+really exquisite; their heads a brilliant metallic blue, and all back of
+that rich bronze or purple, all over as glossy as satin. The little
+dames are somewhat smaller, and a shade less finely dressed than their
+bumptious mates; but that does not make them meek--far from it! and they
+are not behind their partners in eccentric freaks. Sometimes one would
+apparently attempt a joke by starting to fly, and passing so near the
+head of one of the dignitaries on the ground that he would involuntarily
+start and "duck" ingloriously. On one occasion a pair were working
+peaceably together at the corn, when she flirted a bit of dirt so that
+it flew toward him. He dashed furiously at her. She gave one hop which
+took her about a foot away, and then it appeared that she coveted a
+kernel of corn that was near him when the offense was given, for she
+instantly jumped back and pounced upon it as if she expected to be
+annihilated. He ran after her and drove her off, but she kept her prize.
+
+Eating one of those hard grains was no joke to anybody without teeth,
+and it was a serious affair to one of the blackbirds. He took it into
+his beak, dropped both head and tail, and gave his mind to the cracking
+of the sweet morsel. At this time he particularly disliked to be
+disturbed, and the only time I saw one rude to a youngster was when
+struggling with this difficulty. While feeding the nestlings, they broke
+the kernels into bits, picked up all the pieces, filling the beak the
+whole length, and then flew off with them.
+
+But they were not always allowed to keep the whole kernel. They were
+generally attended while on the ground by a little party of thieves,
+ready and waiting to snatch any morsel that was dropped. These were, of
+course, the English sparrows. They could not break corn, but they liked
+it for all that, so they used their wits to secure it, and of sharpness
+these street birds have no lack. The moment a blackbird alighted on the
+grass, a sparrow or two came down beside him, and lingered around,
+watching eagerly. Whenever a crumb dropped, one rushed in and snatched
+it, and instantly flew from the wrath to come.
+
+The sparrows had not been at this long before some of the wise
+blackbirds saw through it, and resented it with proper spirit. One of
+them would turn savagely after the sparrow who followed him, and the
+knowing rascal always took his departure. It was amusing to see a
+blackbird working seriously on a grain, all his faculties absorbed in
+the solemn question whether he should succeed in cracking his nut, while
+two or three feathered pilferers stood as near as they dared, anxiously
+waiting till the great work should be accomplished, the hard shell
+should yield, and some bits should fall.
+
+About five days after the feast was spread, the young came out in force,
+often two of them following one adult about on the grass, running after
+him so closely that he could hardly get a chance to break up the kernel;
+indeed, he often had to fly to a tree to prepare the mouthfuls for them.
+The young blackbird has not the slightest repose of manner; nor, for
+that matter, has the old one either. The grown-ups treated the young
+well, almost always; they never "squee-gee'd" at them, never touched
+them in any way, notwithstanding they were so insistent in begging that
+they would chase an adult bird across the grass, calling madly all the
+time, and fairly force him to fly away to get rid of them.
+
+Once two young ones got possession of the only spot where corn was left,
+and so tormented their elders who came that they had to dash in and
+snatch a kernel when they wanted one. One of the old ones danced around
+these two babies in a little circle a foot in diameter, the infants
+turning as he moved, and ever presenting open beaks to him. It was one
+of the funniest exhibitions I ever saw. After going around half a dozen
+times, the baffled blackbird flew away without a taste.
+
+When the two had driven every one else off the ground by their
+importunities, one of them plucked up spirit to try managing the corn
+for himself. Like a little man he stopped bawling, and began exercising
+his strength on the sweet grain. Upon this his neighbor, instead of
+following his example, began to beg of him! fluttering his wings,
+putting up his beak, and almost pulling the corn out of the mouth of the
+poor little fellow struggling with his first kernel!
+
+Sometimes a young one drove his parent all over a tree with his
+supplications. Higher and higher would go the persecuted, with his
+tormentor scrambling, and half flying after, till the elder absolutely
+flew away, much put out.
+
+Long before this time the corn had been used up. But I could not bear to
+lose my morning entertainment, for all these things took place between
+four and six A. M.--so I made a trip to the village, and bought
+a bag of the much desired dainty, some handfuls of which I scattered
+every night after birds were abed, ready for the sunrise show.
+Blackbirds were not the only guests at the feast; there were the
+doves,--mourning, or wood-doves,--who dropped to the grass, serene as a
+summer morning, walking around in their small red boots, with mincing
+steps and fussy little bows. Blue jays, too, came in plenty, selected
+each his grain and flew away with it. Robins, seeing all the excitement,
+came over from their regular hunting-ground, but never finding anything
+so attractive as worms, they soon left.
+
+The corn feast wound up with a droll excitement. One day a child from
+the house took her doll out in the grass to play, set it up against a
+tree trunk, and left it there. It had long light hair which stood out
+around the head, and it did look rather uncanny, but it was amusing to
+see the consternation it caused. Blue jays came to trees near by, and
+talked in low tones to each other; then one after another swooped down
+toward it; then they all squawked at it, and finding this of no avail,
+they left in a body.
+
+The robins approached cautiously, two of them, calling constantly, "he!
+he! he!" One was determined not to be afraid, and came nearer and
+nearer, till within about a foot of the strange object and behind it,
+when suddenly he started as though shot, jumped back, and both flew in a
+panic.
+
+Soon after this a red-headed woodpecker alighted on the trunk of the
+elm, preparatory to helping himself to a grain of corn. The moment his
+eyes fell upon madam of the fluffy hair, he burst out with a loud, rapid
+woodpecker "chitter," gradually growing higher in key and louder in
+tone. The blue jay flew down from the nest across the yard, and another
+came from behind the house; both perched near and stared at him, and
+then began to talk in low tones. A robin came hastily over and gazed at
+the usually silent red-head, and apparently it was to all as strange a
+performance as it was to me, or possibly they recognized that it was a
+cry of warning against danger.
+
+After he had us all aroused, the bird suddenly fell to silence, and
+resumed his ordinary manner, but he did not go after corn. I suppose the
+harangue was addressed to the doll.
+
+That was the last scene in the first act of the corn feast, for the
+blackbirds had become so numerous and so noisy that they made morning
+hideous to the whole household, and I stopped the supplies for several
+days, till these birds ceased to expect anything, and so came no more,
+and then I spread a fresh breakfast-table for more interesting guests,
+whose manners and customs I studied for weeks.
+
+I was invariably startled wide awake on these mornings by a bird note,
+and sprang up, to see at one glance that
+
+ "Day had awakened all things that be,
+ The lark and the thrush, and the swallow free,"
+
+and that my party was already assembled; one or two cardinals--or
+redbirds, as they are often called--on the grass, with the usual
+attendance of English sparrows, and the red-headed woodpecker in the
+elm, surveying the lawn, and considering which of the trespassers he
+should fall upon. It was the work of one minute to get into my wraps and
+seat myself, with opera glass, at the wide-open window.
+
+My first discovery made, however, during the blackbird reign, was that
+four o'clock is the most lovely part of the day. All the dust of human
+affairs having settled during the hours of sleep, the air is fresh and
+sweet, as if just made; and generally, just before sunrise, the foliage
+is at perfect rest,--the repose of night still lingering, the world of
+nature as well as of men still sleeping.
+
+The first thing one naturally looks for, as birds begin to waken, is a
+morning chorus of song. True bird-lovers, indeed, long for it with a
+longing that cannot be told. But alas, every year the chorus is
+withdrawing more and more to the woods, every year it is harder to find
+a place where English sparrows are not in possession; and it is one of
+the most grievous sins of that bird that he spoils the song, even when
+he does not succeed in driving out the singer. A running accompaniment
+of harsh and interminable squawks overpowers the music of meadow-lark
+and robin, and the glorious song of the thrush is fairly murdered by it.
+One could almost forgive the sparrow his other crimes, if he would only
+lie abed in the morning; if he would occasionally listen, and not
+forever break the peace of the opening day with his vulgar brawling. But
+the subject of English sparrows is maddening to a lover of native birds;
+let us not defile the magic hour by considering it.
+
+The most obvious resident of the neighborhood, at four o'clock in the
+morning, was always the golden-winged woodpecker, or flicker. Though he
+scorned the breakfast I offered, having no vegetarian proclivities, he
+did not refuse me his presence. I found him a character, and an amusing
+study, and I never saw his tribe so numerous and so much at home.
+
+Though largest in size of my four o'clock birds, and most fully
+represented (always excepting the English sparrows), the golden-wing was
+not in command. The autocrat of the hour, the reigning power, was quite
+a different personage, although belonging to the woodpecker family. It
+was a red-headed woodpecker who assumed to own the lawn and be master of
+the feast. This individual was marked by a defect in plumage, and had
+been a regular caller since the morning of my arrival. During the
+blackbird supremacy over the corn supply he had been hardly more than a
+spectator, coming to the trunk of the elm and surveying the assembly of
+blue jays, doves, blackbirds, and sparrows with interest, as one looks
+down upon a herd with whom he has nothing in common. But when those
+birds departed, and the visitors were of a different character, mostly
+cardinals, with an occasional blue jay, he at once took the place he
+felt belonged to him--that of dictator.
+
+The Virginia cardinal, a genuine F. F. V., and a regular attendant at my
+corn breakfast, was a subject of special study with me; indeed, it was
+largely on his account that I had set up my tent in that part of the
+world. I had all my life known him as a tenant of cages, and it struck
+me at first as very odd to see him flying about freely, like other wild
+birds. No one, it seemed to me, ever looked so out of place as this
+fellow of elegant manners, aristocratic crest, and brilliant dress,
+hopping about on the ground with his exaggerated little hops, tail held
+stiffly up out of harm's way, and uttering sharp "tsips." One could not
+help the feeling that he was altogether too fine for this common
+work-a-day existence; that he was intended for show; and that a gilded
+cage was his proper abiding-place, with a retinue of human servants to
+minister to his comfort. Yet he was modest and unassuming, and appeared
+really to enjoy his life of hard work; varying his struggles with a
+kernel of hard corn on the ground, where his color shone out like a
+flower against the green, with a rest on a spruce-tree, where
+
+ "Like a living jewel he sits and sings;"
+
+and when he had finished his frugal meal, departing, if nothing hurried
+him, with a graceful, loitering flight, in which each wing-beat seemed
+to carry him but a few inches forward, and leave his body poised, an
+infinitesimal second for another beat. With much noise of fluttering
+wings he would start for some point, but appear not to care much whether
+he got there. He was never in haste unless there was something to hurry
+him, in which he differed greatly from some of the fidgety, restless
+personages I have known among the feathered folk.
+
+The woodpecker's way of making himself disagreeable to this
+distinguished guest, was to keep watch from his tree (an elm overlooking
+the supply of corn) till he came to eat, and then fly down, aiming for
+exactly the spot occupied by the bird on the ground. No one, however
+brave, could help "getting out from under," when he saw this tricolored
+whirlwind descending upon him. The cardinal always jumped aside, then
+drew himself up, crest erect, tail held at an angle of forty-five
+degrees, and faced the woodpecker, calm, but prepared to stand up for
+his right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of his breakfast. Sometimes
+they had a little set-to, with beaks not more than three inches apart,
+the woodpecker making feints of rushing upon his _vis-à-vis_, and the
+cardinal jumping up ready to clinch, if a fight became necessary. It
+never went quite so far as that, though they glared at each other, and
+the cardinal uttered a little whispered "ha!" every time he sprang up.
+
+The Virginian's deliberate manner of eating made peace important to him.
+He took a grain of hard corn in his mouth, lengthwise; then working his
+sharp-edged beak, he soon succeeded in cutting the shell of the kernel
+through its whole length. From this he went on turning it with his
+tongue, and still cutting with his beak, till the whole shell rolled out
+of the side of his mouth in one long piece, completely cleared from its
+savory contents.
+
+The red-head, on the contrary, took his grain of corn to a branch, or
+sometimes to the trunk of a tree, where he sought a suitable crevice in
+the bark or in a crotch, placed his kernel, hammered it well in till
+firm and safe, and then proceeded to pick off pieces and eat them
+daintily, one by one. Sometimes he left a kernel there, and I saw how
+firmly it was wedged in, when the English sparrow discovered his store,
+fell upon it, and dug it out. It was a good deal of work for a
+strong-billed, persistent sparrow to dislodge a grain thus placed. But
+of course he never gave up till he could carry it off, probably because
+he saw that some one valued it; for since he was unable to crack a grain
+that was whole, it must have been useless to him. Sometimes the
+woodpecker wedged the kernel into a crevice in the bark of the trunk,
+then broke it up, and packed the pieces away in other niches; and I have
+seen an English sparrow go carefully over the trunk, picking out and
+eating these tidbits. That, or something else, has taught sparrows to
+climb tree trunks, which they do, in the neighborhood I speak of, with
+as much ease as a woodpecker. I have repeatedly seen them go the whole
+length of a tall elm trunk; proceeding by little hops, aided by the
+wings, and using the tail for support almost as handily as a woodpecker
+himself.
+
+The red-head's assumption of being monarch of all he surveyed did not
+end with the breakfast-table; he seemed to consider himself guardian and
+protector of the whole place. One evening I was drawn far down on the
+lawn by a peculiar cry of his. It began with a singular performance
+which I have already described, a loud, rapid "chit-it-it-it-it,"
+increasing in volume and rising in pitch, as though he were working
+himself up to some deed of desperation. In a few minutes, however, he
+appeared to get his feelings under control, and dropped to a single-note
+cry, often repeated. It differed widely from his loud call, "wok! wok!
+wok!" still more from the husky tones of his conversation with others of
+his kind; neither was it like the war-cries with which he intimated to
+another bird that he was not invited to breakfast. I thought there must
+be trouble brewing, especially as mingled with it was an occasional
+excited "pe-auk!" of a flicker. When I reached the spot, I found a
+curious party, consisting of two doves and three flickers, assembled on
+one small tree, with the woodpecker on an upper branch, as though
+addressing his remarks to them.
+
+As I drew near the scene of the excitement, the doves flew, and then the
+golden-wings; but the red-head held his ground, though he stopped his
+cries when he saw help coming. In vain I looked about for the cause of
+the row; everything was serene. It was a beautiful quiet evening, and
+not a child, nor a dog, nor anything in sight to make trouble. The tree
+stood quite by itself, in the midst of grass that knew not the clatter
+of the lawn-mower.
+
+I stood still and waited; and I had my reward, for after a few minutes'
+silence I saw a pair of ears, and then a head, cautiously lifted above
+the grass, about fifteen feet from the tree. The mystery was solved; it
+was a cat, whom all birds know as a creature who will bear watching when
+prowling around the haunts of bird families. I am fond of pussy, but I
+deprecate her taste for game, as I do that of some other hunters, wiser
+if not better than she. I invited her to leave this place, where she
+plainly was unwelcome, by an emphatic "scat!" and a stick tossed her
+way. She instantly dropped into the grass and was lost to view; and as
+the woodpecker, whose eyes were sharper and his position better than
+mine, said no more, I concluded she had taken the hint and departed.
+
+
+
+
+IX.
+
+THE LITTLE REDBIRDS.
+
+
+When the little redbirds began to visit the lawn there were exciting
+times. At first they ventured only to the trees overlooking it; and the
+gayly dressed father who had them in charge reminded me of nothing so
+much as a fussy young mother. He was alert to the tips of his toes, and
+excited, as if the whole world was thirsting for the life of those
+frowzy-headed youngsters in the maple. His manner intimated that nobody
+ever had birdlings before; indeed, that there never had been, or could
+be, just such a production as that young family behind the leaves. While
+they were there, he flirted his tail, jerked himself around, crest
+standing sharply up, and in every way showed his sense of importance and
+responsibility.
+
+As for the young ones, after they had been hopping about the branches a
+week or so, and papa had grown less madly anxious if one looked at them,
+they appeared bright and spirited, dressed in the subdued and tasteful
+hues of their mother, with pert little crests and dark beaks. They were
+not allowed on the grass, and they waited patiently on the tree while
+their provider shelled a kernel and took it up to them. The cardinal
+baby I found to be a self-respecting individual, who generally waits in
+patience his parents' pleasure, though he is not too often fed. He is
+not bumptious nor self-assertive, like many others; he rarely teases,
+and is altogether a well-mannered and proper young person. After a
+while, as the youngsters learned strength and speed on the wing, they
+came to the table with the grown-ups, and then I saw there were three
+spruce young redbirds, all under the care of their gorgeous papa.
+
+No sooner did they appear on the ground than trouble began with the
+English-sparrow tribe. The grievance of these birds was that they could
+not manage the tough kernels. They were just as hungry as anybody, and
+just as well-disposed toward corn, but they had not sufficient strength
+of beak to break it. They did not, however, go without corn, for all
+that. Their game was the not uncommon one of availing themselves of the
+labor of others; they invited themselves to everybody's breakfast-table,
+though, to be sure, they had to watch their chances in order to secure a
+morsel, and escape the wrath of the owner thereof.
+
+The cardinal was at first a specially easy victim to this plot. He took
+the whole matter most solemnly, and was so absorbed in the work, that if
+a bit dropped, in the process of separating it from the shell, as often
+happened, he did not concern himself about it till he had finished what
+he had in his mouth, and then he turned one great eye on the ground, for
+the fragments which had long before been snatched by sparrows and gone
+down sparrow throats. The surprise and the solemn stare with which he
+"could hardly believe his eyes" were exceedingly droll. After a while he
+saw through their little game, and took to watching, and when a sparrow
+appeared too much interested in his operations, he made a feint of going
+for him, which warned the gamin that he would better look out for
+himself.
+
+It did not take these sharp fellows long to discover that the young
+redbird was the easier prey, and soon every youngster on the ground was
+attended by a sparrow or two, ready to seize upon any fragment that
+fell. The parent's way of feeding was to shell a kernel and then give it
+to one of the little ones, who broke it up and ate it. From waiting for
+fallen bits, the sparrows, never being repulsed, grew bolder, and
+finally went so far as actually to snatch the corn out of the young
+cardinals' beaks. Again and again did I see this performance: a sparrow
+grab and run (or fly), leaving the baby astonished and dazed, looking
+as if he did not know exactly what had happened, but sure he was in some
+way bereaved.
+
+One day, while the cardinal family were eating on the grass, the mother
+of the brood came to a tree near by. At once her gallant spouse flew up
+there and offered her the mouthful he had just prepared, then returned
+to his duties. She was rarely seen on the lawn, and I judged that she
+was sitting again.
+
+Sometimes, when the youngsters were alone on the ground, I heard a
+little snatch of song, two or three notes, a musical word or two of very
+sweet quality. The woodpecker, autocrat though he assumed to be, did not
+at first interfere with the young birds; but as they became more and
+more independent and grown up, he began to consider them fair game, and
+to come down on them with a rush that scattered them; not far, however;
+they were brave little fellows.
+
+At last, after four weeks of close attention, the cardinal made up his
+mind that his young folk were babies no longer, and that they were able
+to feed themselves. I was interested to see his manner of intimating to
+his young hopefuls that they had reached their majority. When one begged
+of him, in his gentle way, the parent turned suddenly and gave him a
+slight push. The urchin understood, and moved a little farther off; but
+perhaps the next time he asked he would be fed. They learned the lesson,
+however, and in less than two days from the first hint they became
+almost entirely independent.
+
+One morning the whole family happened to meet at table. The mother came
+first, and then the three young ones, all of whom were trying their best
+to feed themselves. At last came their "natural provider;" and one of
+the juveniles, who found the grains almost unmanageable, could not help
+begging of him. He gently but firmly drove the pleader away, as if he
+said, "My son, you are big enough to feed yourself." The little one
+turned, but did not go; he stood with his back toward his parent, and
+wings still fluttering. Then papa flew to a low branch of the
+spruce-tree, and instantly the infant followed him, still begging with
+quivering wings. Suddenly the elder turned, and I expected to see him
+annihilate that beggar, but, to my surprise, he fed him! He could not
+hold out against him! He had been playing the stern parent, but could
+not keep it up. It was a very pretty and very human-looking performance.
+
+A day or two after the family had learned to take care of themselves,
+the original pair, the parents of the pretty brood, came and went
+together to the field, while the younglings appeared sometimes in a
+little flock, and sometimes one alone; and from that time they were to
+be rated as grown-up and educated cardinals. A brighter or prettier trio
+I have not seen. I am almost positive there was but one family of
+cardinals on the place; and if I am right, those youngsters had been
+four weeks out of the nest before they took charge of their own food
+supply. From what I have seen in the case of other young birds, I have
+no doubt that is the fact.
+
+
+
+
+X.
+
+THE CARDINAL'S NEST.
+
+
+While I had been studying four o'clock manners, grave and gay, other
+things had happened. Most delightful, perhaps, was my acquaintance with
+a cardinal family at home. From the first I had looked for a nest, and
+had suffered two or three disappointments. One pair flaunted their
+intentions by appearing on a tree before my window, "tsipping" with all
+their might; she with her beak full of hay from the lawn below; he,
+eager and devoted, assisting by his presence. The important and
+consequential manner of a bird with building material in mouth is
+amusing. She has no doubt that what she is about to do is the very most
+momentous fact in the "Sublime Now" (as some college youth has it). Of
+course I dropped everything and tried to follow the pair, at a distance
+great enough not to disturb them, yet to keep in sight at least the
+direction they took, for they are shy birds, and do not like to be spied
+upon. But I could not have gauged my distance properly; for, though I
+thought I knew the exact cedar-tree she had chosen, I found, to my
+dismay and regret afterward, that no sign of a nest was there, or
+thereabout.
+
+Another pair went farther, and held out even more delusive hopes; they
+actually built a nest in a neighbor's yard, the family in the house
+maintaining an appearance of the utmost indifference, so as not to alarm
+the birds till they were committed to that nest. For so little does
+madam regard the labor of building, and so fickle is she in her fancies,
+that she thinks nothing of preparing at least two nests before she
+settles on one. The nest was made on a big branch of cedar, perhaps
+seven feet from the ground,--a rough affair, as this bird always makes.
+In it she even placed an egg, and then, for some undiscovered reason, it
+was abandoned, and they took their domestic joys and sorrows elsewhere.
+
+But now, at last, word came to me of an occupied nest to be seen at a
+certain house, and I started at once for it. It was up a shady country
+lane, with a meadow-lark field on one side, and a bobolink meadow on the
+other. The lark mounted the fence, and delivered his strange sputtering
+cry,--the first I had ever heard from him (or her, for I believe this is
+the female's utterance). But the dear little bobolink soared around my
+head, and let fall his happy trills; then suddenly, as Lowell
+delightfully pictures him,--
+
+ "Remembering duty, in mid-quaver stops,
+   Just ere he sweeps o'er rapture's tremulous brink,
+ And 'twixt the winrows most demurely drops,
+   A decorous bird of business, who provides
+   For his brown mate and fledglings six besides,
+ And looks from right to left, a farmer mid his crops."
+
+Nothing less attractive than a cardinal family could draw me away from
+these rival allurements, but I went on.
+
+The cardinal's bower was the prettiest of the summer, built in a
+climbing rose which ran riot over a trellis beside a kitchen door. The
+vine was loaded with buds just beginning to unfold their green wraps to
+flood the place with beauty and fragrance, and the nest was so carefully
+tucked away behind the leaves that it could not be seen from the front.
+Whether from confidence in the two or three residents of the cottage, or
+because the house was alone so many hours of the day,--the occupants
+being students, and absent most of the time,--the birds had taken no
+account of a window which opened almost behind them. From that window
+one could look into, and touch, if he desired, the little family. But no
+one who lived there did desire (though I wish to record that one was a
+boy of twelve or fourteen, who had been taught respect for the lives
+even of birds), and these birds became so accustomed to their human
+observers that they paid no attention to them.
+
+The female cardinal is so dainty in looks and manner, so delicate in all
+her ways, that one naturally expects her to build at least a neat and
+comely nest, and I was surprised to see a rough-looking affair, similar
+to the one already mentioned. This might be, in her case, because it was
+the third nest she had built that summer. One had been used for the
+first brood. The second had been seized and appropriated to their own
+use by another pair of birds. (As this was told me, and I cannot vouch
+for it, I shall not name the alleged thief.) This, the third, was made
+of twigs and fibres of bark,--or what looked like that,--and was
+strongly stayed to the rose stems, the largest of which was not bigger
+than my little finger, and most of them much smaller.
+
+On my second visit I was invited into the kitchen to see the family in
+the rosebush. It appeared that this was "coming-off" day, and one little
+cardinal had already taken his fate in his hands when I arrived, soon
+after breakfast. He had progressed on the journey of life about one
+foot; and a mere dot of a fellow he looked beside his parents, with a
+downy fuzz on his head, which surrounded it like a halo, and no sign of
+a crest. The three nestlings still at home were very restless,
+crowding, and almost pushing each other out. They could well spare their
+elder brother, for before he left he had walked all over them at his
+pleasure; and how he could help it in those close quarters I do not see.
+
+While I looked on, papa came with provisions. At one time the food
+consisted of green worms about twice as large as a common knitting
+needle. Three or four of them he held crosswise of his beak, and gave
+one to each nestling. The next course was a big white grub, which he did
+not divide, but gave to one, who had considerable difficulty in
+swallowing it.
+
+I said the birds did not notice the family, but they very quickly
+recognized me as a stranger. They stood and glared at me in the cardinal
+way, and uttered some sharp remonstrance; but business was pressing, and
+I was unobtrusive, so they concluded to ignore me.
+
+The advent of the first redbird baby seemed to give much pleasure, for
+the head of the family sang a good deal in the intervals of feeding; and
+both of the pair appeared very happy over it, often alighting beside the
+wanderer, evidently to encourage him, for they did not always feed. The
+youngster, after an hour, perhaps, flew about ten feet to a peach-tree,
+where he struggled violently, and nearly fell before he secured a hold
+on a twig. Both parents flew to his assistance, but he did not fall, and
+soon after he flew to a grape trellis, and, with a little clambering, to
+a stem of the vine, where he seemed pleased to stay,--perhaps because
+this overlooked the garden whence came all his food.
+
+I stayed two or three hours with the little family, and then left them;
+and when I appeared the next morning all were gone from the nest. I
+heard the gentle cries of young redbirds all around, but did not try to
+look them up, both because I did not want to worry the parents, and
+because I had already made acquaintance with young cardinals in my four
+o'clock studies.
+
+The place this discerning pair of birds had selected in which to
+establish themselves was one of the most charming nooks in the vicinity.
+Kept free from English sparrows (by persistently destroying their
+nests), and having but a small and quiet family, it was the delight of
+cardinals and catbirds. Without taking pains to look for them, one might
+see the nests of two catbirds, two wood doves, a robin or two, and
+others; and there were beside, thickets, the delight of many birds, and
+a row of spruces so close that a whole flock might have nested there in
+security. In that spot "the quaintly discontinuous lays" of the catbird
+were in perfection; one song especially was the best I ever heard,
+being louder and more clear than catbirds usually sing.
+
+As I turned to leave the grounds, the relieved parent, who had not
+relished my interest in his little folk, mounted a branch, and,
+
+ "Like a pomegranate flower
+ In the dark foliage of the cedar-tree,
+ Shone out and sang for me."
+
+And thus I left him.
+
+
+
+
+XI.
+
+LITTLE BOY BLUE.
+
+ "The crested blue jay flitting swift."
+
+
+To know the little boy blue in his domestic life had been my desire for
+years. In vain did I search far and wide for a nest, till it began to
+look almost as if the bird intentionally avoided me. I went to New
+England, and blue jays disappeared as if by magic; I turned my steps to
+the Rocky Mountains, and the whole tribe betook itself to the
+inaccessible hills. In despair I abandoned the search, and set up my
+tent in the middle country, without a thought of the bonny blue bird.
+One June morning I seated myself by my window, which looked out upon a
+goodly stretch of lawn dotted with trees of many kinds, and behold the
+long-desired object right before my eyes!
+
+The blue jay himself pointed it out to me; unconsciously, however, for
+he did not notice me in my distant window. From the ground, where I was
+looking at him, he flew directly to a pine-tree about thirty feet high,
+and there, near the top, sat his mate on her nest. He leaned over her
+tenderly; she fluttered her wings and opened her mouth, and he dropped
+into it the tidbit he had brought. Then she stepped to a branch on one
+side, and he proceeded to attend to the wants of the young family, too
+small as yet to appear above the edge.
+
+The pine-tree, which from this moment became of absorbing interest, was
+so far from my window that the birds never thought of me as an observer,
+and yet so near that with my glass I could see them perfectly. It was
+also exactly before a thick-foliaged maple, that formed a background
+against which I could watch the life of the nest, wherever the sunlight
+fell, and whatever the condition of the sky; so happily was placed my
+blue jay household.
+
+I observed at once that the jay was very gallant and attentive to his
+spouse. The first mouthful was for her, even when babies grew clamorous,
+and she took her share of the work of feeding. Nor did he omit this
+little politeness when they went to the nest together, both presumably
+with food for the nestlings. She was a devoted mother, brooding her
+bantlings for hours every day, till they were so big that it was hard to
+crowd them back into the cradle; and he was an equally faithful father,
+working from four o'clock in the morning till after dusk, a good deal
+of the time feeding the whole family. I acquired a new respect for
+_Cyanocitta cristata_.
+
+I had not watched the blue jays long before I was struck with the
+peculiar character of the feathered world about me, the strange absence
+of small birds. The neighbors were blackbirds (purple grackles),
+Carolina doves, golden-winged and red-headed woodpeckers, robins and
+cardinal grosbeaks, and of course English sparrows,--all large birds,
+able to hold their own by force of arms, as it were, except the
+foreigner, who maintained his position by impudence and union, a mob
+being his weapon of offense and defense. Beside him no small bird lived
+in the vicinity. No vireo hung there her dainty cup, while her mate
+preached his interminable sermons from the trees about; no phœbe
+shouted his woes to an unsympathizing world; no sweet-voiced goldfinch
+poured out his joyous soul; not a song-sparrow tuned his little lay
+within our borders. Unseen of men, but no doubt sharply defined to
+clearer senses than ours, was a line barring them out.
+
+Who was responsible for this state of things? Could it be the one pair
+of jays in the pine, or the colony of blackbirds the other side of the
+house? Should we characterize it as a blue jay neighborhood or a
+blackbird neighborhood? The place was well policed, certainly; robins
+and blue jays united in that work, though their relations with each
+other bore the character of an armed neutrality, always ready for a few
+hot words and a little bluster, but never really coming to blows. We
+never had the pleasure of seeing a stranger among us. We might hear him
+approaching, nearer and nearer, till, just as the eager listener fancied
+he might alight in sight, there would burst upon the air the screech of
+a jay or the war-cry of a robin, accompanied by the precipitate flight
+of the whole clan, and away would go the stranger in a most sensational
+manner, followed by outcries and clamor enough to drive off an army of
+feathered brigands. This neighborhood, if the accounts of his character
+are to be credited, should be the congenial home of the
+kingbird,--tyrant flycatcher he is named; but as a matter of fact, not
+only were the smaller flycatchers conspicuous by their absence, but the
+king himself was never seen, and the flying tribes of the insect world,
+so far as dull-eyed mortals could see, grew and flourished.
+
+Close scrutiny of every movement of wings, however, revealed one thing,
+namely, that any small bird who appeared within our precincts was
+instantly, without hesitation, and equally without unusual noise or
+special publicity, driven out by the English sparrow; and I became
+convinced that he, and he alone, was responsible for the presence of
+none but large birds, who could defy him.
+
+One of the prettiest sights about the pine-tree homestead was the way
+the jay went up to it. He never imitated the easy style of his mate, who
+simply flew to a branch below the three that held her treasure, and
+hopped up the last step. Not he; not so would his knightly soul mount to
+the castle of his sweetheart and his babies. He alighted much lower,
+often at the foot of the tree, and passed jauntily up the winding way
+that led to them, hopping from branch to branch, pausing on each, and
+circling the trunk as he went; now showing his trim violet-blue coat,
+now his demure Quaker-drab vest and black necklace; and so he ascended
+his spiral stair.
+
+There is nothing demure about the blue jay, let me hasten to say, except
+his vest; there is no pretension about him. He does not go around with
+the meek manners of the dove, and then let his angry passions rise, in
+spite of his reputation, as does that "meek and gentle" fellow-creature
+on occasion. The blue jay takes his life with the utmost seriousness,
+however it may strike a looker-on. While his helpmeet is on the nest, it
+is, according to the blue jay code, his duty, as well as it is plainly
+his pleasure, to provide her with food, which consequently he does;
+later, it is his province not only to feed, but to protect the family,
+which also he accomplishes with much noise and bluster. Before the young
+are out comes his hardest task, keeping the secret of the nest, which
+obliges him to control his naturally boisterous tendencies; but even in
+this he is successful, as I saw in the case of a bird whose mate was
+sitting in an apple-tree close beside a house. There, he was the soul of
+discretion, and so subdued in manner that one might be in the vicinity
+all day and never suspect the presence of either. All the comings and
+goings took place in silence, over the top of the tree, and I have
+watched the nest an hour at a time without being able to see a sign of
+its occupancy, except the one thing a sitting bird cannot hide, the
+tail. And, by the way, how providential--from the bird student's point
+of view--that birds have tails! They can, it is true, be narrowed to the
+width of one feather and laid against a convenient twig, but they cannot
+be wholly suppressed, nor drawn down out of sight into the nest with the
+rest of the body.
+
+When the young blue jays begin to speak for themselves, and their
+vigilant protector feels that the precious secret can no longer be kept,
+then he arouses the neighborhood with the announcement that here is a
+nest he is bound to protect with his life; that he is engaged in
+performing his most solemn duty, and will not be disturbed. His air is
+that so familiar in bigger folk, of daring the whole world to "knock a
+chip off his shoulder," and he goes about with an appearance of
+important business on hand very droll to see.
+
+The bearing of the mother of the pine-tree brood was somewhat different
+from that of her mate, and by their manners only could the pair be
+distinguished. Whatever may be Nature's reason for dressing the sexes
+unlike each other in the feathered world,--which I will leave for the
+wise heads to settle,--it is certainly an immense advantage to the
+looker-on in birddom. When a pair are facsimiles of each other, as are
+the jays, it requires the closest observation to tell them apart;
+indeed, unless there is some defect in plumage, which is not uncommon,
+it is necessary to penetrate their personal characteristics, to become
+familiar with their idiosyncrasies of habit and manner. In the pine-tree
+family, the mother had neither the presence of mind nor the bluster of
+the partner of her joys. When I came too near the nest tree, she greeted
+me with a plaintive cry, a sort of "craw! craw!" at the same time
+"jouncing" herself violently, thus protesting against my intrusion;
+while he saluted me with squawks that made the welkin ring. Neither of
+them paid any attention to me, so long as I remained upon a stationary
+bench not far from their tree; they were used to seeing people in that
+place, and did not mind them. It was the unexpected that they resented.
+Having established our habits, birds in general insist that we shall
+govern ourselves by them, and not depart from our accustomed orbit.
+
+On near acquaintance, I found the jay possessed of a vocabulary more
+copious than that of any other bird I know, though the flicker does not
+lack variety of expression. When some aspiring scientist is ready to
+study the language of birds, I advise him to experiment with the blue
+jay. He is exceedingly voluble, always ready to talk, and not in the
+least backward in exhibiting his accomplishments. The low-toned,
+plaintive sounding conversation of the jays with each other, not only
+beside the nest, but when flying together or apart, or in brief
+interviews in the lilac bush, pleased me especially, because it was
+exactly the same prattle that a pet blue jay was accustomed to address
+to me; and it confirmed what I had always believed from his manner, that
+it was his most loving and intimate expression, the tone in which he
+addresses his best beloved.
+
+Beside the well-known squawk, which Thoreau aptly calls "the brazen
+trump of the impatient jay," the shouts and calls and war-cries of the
+bird can hardly be numbered, and I have no doubt each has its definite
+meaning. More rarely may be heard a clear and musical two-note cry,
+sounding like "ke-lo! ke-lo!" This seems to be something special in the
+jay language, for not only is it peculiar and quite unlike every other
+utterance, but I never saw the bird when he delivered it, and I was long
+in tracing it home to him. Aside from the cries of war and victory, jays
+have a great variety of notes of distress; they can put more anguish and
+despair into their tones than any other living creature of my
+acquaintance. Some, indeed, are so moving that the sympathetic hearer is
+sure that, at the very least, the mother's offspring are being murdered
+before her eyes; and on rushing out, prepared to risk his life in their
+defense, he finds, perhaps, that a child has strayed near the tree, or
+something equally dreadful has occurred. Jays have no idea of relative
+values; they could not make more ado over a heart-breaking calamity than
+they do over a slight annoyance. Some of their cries, notably that of
+the jay baby, sound like the wail of a human infant. As to one curious
+utterance in the jay _répertoire_, I could not quite make up my mind
+whether it was a real call to arms, or intended as a joke on the
+neighborhood. When a bird, without visible provocation, suddenly burst
+out with this loud two-note call, instantly every feathered individual
+was on the alert,--sprang to arms, as it were. Blue jays joined in,
+robins hurried to the tops of the tallest trees and added their excited
+notes, with jerking wings and tail, and at the second or third
+repetition the whole party precipitated itself as one bird--upon what?
+Nothing that I could discover.
+
+
+
+
+XII.
+
+STORY OF THE NESTLINGS.
+
+
+While I was studying the manners and customs of the bird in blue, babies
+were growing up in the pine-tree nest. Five days after I began to
+observe, I saw little heads above the edge. On the sixth day they began,
+as mothers say, to "take notice," stirring about in a lively way,
+clambering up into sight, and fluttering their draperies over the edge.
+Now came busy and hungry times in the jay family; the mother added her
+forces, and both parents worked industriously from morning till night.
+
+On the seventh day I was up early, as usual, and, also as usual, my
+first act was to admire the view from my window. I fancied it was the
+most beautiful in the early morning, when the sun, behind the rampart of
+locust and other trees, threw the yard into deep shade, painting a
+thousand shadow pictures on the grass; but at still noon, when every
+perfect tree stood on its own shadow, openings looked dark and
+mysterious, and a bird was lost in the depths, then I was sure it was
+never so lovely; again at night, when wrapped in darkness, and all
+silent except the subdued whisper of the pine, with its
+
+     "Sound of the Sea,
+     O mournful tree,
+ In thy boughs forever clinging,"
+
+I knew it could not be surpassed. I was up early, as I said, when the
+dove was cooing to his mate in the distance, and before human noises had
+begun, and then I heard the baby cry from the pine-tree,--a whispered
+jay squawk, constantly repeated.
+
+On this day the first nestling mounted the edge of his high nursery, and
+fluttered his wings when food approached. Every night after that it grew
+more and more difficult to settle the household in bed, for everybody
+wanted to be on top; and no sooner would one arrange himself to his mind
+than some "under one," not relishing his crushed position, would
+struggle out, step over his brothers and sisters, and take his place on
+top, and then the whole thing would have to be done over. I think that
+mamma had often to put a peremptory end to these difficulties by sitting
+down on them, for frequently it was a very turbulent-looking nest when
+she calmly placed herself upon it.
+
+Often, in those days, I wished I could put myself on a level with that
+little castle in the air, and look into it, filled to the brim with
+beauty as I knew it was. But I had not long to wait, for speedily it
+became too full, and ran over into the outside world. On the eighth day
+one ambitious youngster stepped upon the branch beside the nest and
+shook himself out, and on the ninth came the plunge into the wide, wide
+world. While I was at breakfast he made his first effort, and on my
+return I saw him on a branch about a foot below the nest, the last step
+on papa's winding stair. Here he beat his wings and plumed himself
+vigorously, rejoicing, no doubt, in his freedom and in plenty of room.
+Again and again he nearly lost his balance, in his violent attempts to
+dress his beautiful plumage, and remove the last remnant of nest
+mussiness. But he did not fall, and at last he began to look about him.
+One cannot but wonder what he thought when he
+
+ "First opened wondering eyes and found
+ A world of green leaves all around,"
+
+looking down upon us from his high perch, complete to the little black
+necklace, and lacking only length of tail of being as big as his
+parents.
+
+After half an hour of restless putting to rights, the little jay sat
+down patiently to wait for whatever might come to him. The wind got up
+and shook him well, but he rocked safely on his airy seat. Then some one
+approached. He leaned over with mouth open, and across the yard I heard
+his coaxing voice. But alas! though he was on the very threshold, the
+food-bearer omitted that step, and passed him by. Then the little one
+looked up wistfully, apparently conscious of being at a disadvantage.
+Did he regret the nest privileges he had abandoned? Should he retrace
+his steps and be a nestling? That the thought passed through his head
+was indicated by his movements. He raised himself on his legs, turned
+his face to his old home, and started up, even stepped one small twig
+nearer. But perish the thought! he would not go back! He settled himself
+again on his seat.
+
+All things come in time to him who can wait, and the next provision
+stopped at the little wanderer. His father alighted beside him and fed
+him two mouthfuls. Thus fortified, his ambition was roused, and his
+desire to see more, to do more. He began to jump about on his perch,
+facing first this way, then that; he crept to the outer end of the
+branch he was on, and was lost to view behind a thick clump of pine
+needles. In a few minutes he returned, considered other branches near,
+and, after some study, did really go to the nearest one. Then, step by
+step, very deliberately, he mounted the winding stair of his father,
+using, however, every little twig that the elder had vaulted over at a
+bound. Finally he reached the branch opposite his birthplace, only the
+tree-trunk between. The trunk was small, home was invitingly near, he
+was tired; the temptation was too great, and in a minute he was cuddled
+down with his brothers, having been on a journey of an hour. In the
+nest, all this time, there had been a hurry and skurry of dressing, as
+though the house were to be vacated, and no one wished to be late. After
+a rest and probably a nap, the ambitious young jay took a longer trip:
+he flew to the next tree, and, I believe, returned no more.
+
+The next day was spent by all the nestlings in hopping about the three
+branches on which their home was built, making beautiful pictures of
+themselves every moment; but whenever the bringer of supplies drew near,
+each little one hastened to scramble back to the nest, to be ready for
+his share. The last day in the old home had now arrived. One by one the
+birdlings flew to the maple, and turned their backs on their native tree
+forever; and that night the "mournful tree" was entirely deserted.
+
+The exit was not accomplished without its excitement. After tea, as I
+was congratulating myself that they were all safely out in the world,
+without accident, suddenly there arose a terrible outcry, robin and blue
+jay voices in chorus. I looked over to the scene of the fray, and saw a
+young jay on the ground, and the parents frantic with anxiety.
+Naturally, my first impulse was to go to their aid, and I started; but I
+was saluted with a volley of squawks that warned me not to interfere. I
+retired meekly, leaving the birds to deal with the difficulty as they
+best could, while from afar I watched the little fellow as he scrambled
+around in the grass. He tried to fly, but could not rise more than two
+feet. Both the elders were with him, but seemed unable to help him, and
+night was coming on. I resolved, finally, to "take my life in my hands,"
+brave those unreasoning parents, and place the infant out of the way of
+cats and boys.
+
+As I reached the doorstep I saw that the youngster had begun to climb
+the trunk of a locust-tree. I stood in amazement and saw that baby climb
+six feet straight up the trunk. He did it by flying a few inches,
+clinging to the bark and resting, then flying a few inches more. I
+watched, breathless, till he got nearly to the lowest branch, when alas!
+his strength or his courage gave out, and he fell back to the ground.
+But he pulled himself together, and after a few minutes more of
+struggling through the grass he came to the trunk of the maple next his
+native pine. Up this he went in the same way, till he reached a branch,
+where I saw him sitting with all the dignity of a young jay (old jays
+have no dignity). While he was wrestling with fate and his life was in
+the balance, the parents had kept near him and perfectly silent, unless
+some one came near, when they filled the air with squawks, and appeared
+so savage that I honestly believe they would have attacked any one who
+had tried to lend a hand.
+
+But still the little blue-coat had not learned sufficient modesty of
+endeavor, for the next morning he found himself again in the grass. He
+tried climbing, but unfortunately selected a tree with branches higher
+than he could hold out to reach; so he fell back to the ground. Then
+came the inexorable demands of breakfast, with which no one who has been
+up since four o'clock will decline to comply. On my return, the
+straggler was mounted on a post that held a tennis net, three or four
+feet from the ground. One of the old birds was on the rope close by him,
+and there I left them. Once more I saw him fall, but I concluded that
+since he had learned to climb, and the parents would not accept my
+assistance any way, he must take care of himself. I suppose he was the
+youngest of the brood, who could not help imitating his elders, but was
+not strong enough to do as they did. On the following day he was able to
+keep his place, and he came to the ground no more.
+
+From that day I saw, and, what was more evident, heard the jay babies
+constantly, though they wandered far from the place of their birth.
+Their voices waxed stronger day by day; from morning to night they
+called vigorously; and very lovely they looked as they sat on the
+branches in their brand-new fluffy suits, with their tails a little
+spread, and showing the snowy borderings beautifully. Twenty-two days
+after they bade farewell to the old home before my window they were
+still crying for food, still following their hard-working parents, and,
+though flying with great ease, never coming to the ground (that I could
+see), and apparently having not the smallest notion of looking out for
+themselves.
+
+
+
+
+XIII.
+
+BLUE JAY MANNERS.
+
+
+Early in my acquaintance with the jay family, wishing to induce the
+birds of the vicinity to show themselves, I procured a quantity of
+shelled corn, and scattered a few handfuls under my window every night.
+This gave me opportunity to note, among other things, the jay's way of
+conducting himself on the ground, and his table manners. To eat a kernel
+of dry corn, he flew with it to a small branch, placed it between his
+feet (the latter of course being close together), and, holding it thus,
+drew back his head and delivered a blow with that pickaxe beak of his
+that would have broken a toe if he had missed by the shadow of an inch
+the grain for which it was intended. I was always nervous when I saw him
+do it, for I expected an accident, but none ever happened that I know
+of. When the babies grew clamorous all over the place, the jay used to
+fill his beak with the whole kernels. Eight were his limit, and those
+kept the mouth open, with one sticking out at the tip. Thus loaded he
+flew off, but was back in two minutes for another supply. The
+red-headed woodpecker, who claimed to own the corn-field, seemed to
+think this a little grasping, and protested against such a wholesale
+performance; but the overworked jay simply jumped to one side when he
+came at him, and went right on picking up corn. When he had time to
+spare from his arduous duties, he sometimes indulged his passion for
+burying things by carrying a grain off on the lawn with an air of most
+important business, and driving it into the ground, hammering it well
+down out of sight.
+
+The blue jay's manner of getting over the ground was peculiar, and
+especially his way of leaving it. He proceeded by high hops, bounding up
+from each like a rubber ball; and when ready to fly he hopped farther
+and bounded higher each time, till it seemed as if he were too high to
+return, and so took to his wings. That is exactly the way it looked to
+an observer; for there is a lightness, an airiness of bearing about this
+apparently heavy bird impossible to describe, but familiar to those who
+have watched him.
+
+Some time after the blue jay family had taken to roaming about the
+grounds, I had a pleasing little interview with one of them in the
+raspberry patch. This was a favorite resort of the neighboring birds,
+where I often betook myself to see who came to the feast. This morning
+I was sitting quietly under a spruce-tree, when three blue jays came
+flying toward me with noise and outcries, evidently in excitement over
+something. The one leading the party had in his beak a white object,
+like a piece of bread, and was uttering low, complaining cries as he
+flew; he passed on, and the second followed him; but the third seemed
+struck by my appearance, and probably felt it his duty to inquire into
+my business, for he alighted on a tree before me, not ten feet from
+where I sat. He began in the regular way, by greeting me with a squawk;
+for, like some of his bigger (and wiser?) fellow-creatures, he assumed
+that a stranger must be a suspicious personage, and an unusual position
+must mean mischief. I was very comfortable, and I thought I would see if
+I could not fool him into thinking me a scarecrow, companion to those
+adorning the "patch" at that moment. I sat motionless, not using my
+glass, but looking him squarely in the eyes. This seemed to impress him;
+he ceased squawking, and hopped a twig nearer, stopped, turned one
+calmly observant eye on me, then quickly changed to the other, as if to
+see if the first had not deceived him. Still I did not move, and he was
+plainly puzzled to make me out. He came nearer and nearer, and I moved
+only my eyes to keep them on his. All this time he did not utter a
+sound, but studied me as closely, and to all appearances as carefully,
+as ever I had studied him. Obviously he was in doubt what manner of
+creature it was, so like the human race, yet so unaccountably quiet. He
+tried to be unconcerned, while still not releasing me from strict
+surveillance; he dressed his feathers a little, uttering a soft whisper
+to himself, as if he said, "Well, I never!" then looked me over again
+more carefully than before. This pantomime went on for half an hour or
+more; and no one who had looked for that length of time into the eyes of
+a blue jay could doubt his intelligence, or that he had his thoughts and
+his well-defined opinions, that he had studied his observer very much as
+she had studied him, and that she had not fooled him in the least.
+
+The little boy blue is one of the birds suffering under a bad name whom
+I have wished to know better, to see if perchance something might be
+done to clear up his reputation a bit. I am not able to say that he
+never steals the eggs of other birds, though during nearly a month of
+hard work, when, if ever, a few eggs would have been a welcome addition
+to his resources, and sparrows were sitting in scores on the place, I
+did not see or hear anything of the sort. I have heard of his destroying
+the nest, and presumably eating the eggs or young of the English
+sparrow, but the hundred or two who raised their broods and squawked
+from morning to night in the immediate vicinity of the pine-tree
+household never intimated that they were disturbed, and never showed
+hostility to their neighbors in blue. Moreover, there is undoubtedly
+something to be said on the jay's side. Even if he does indulge in these
+little eccentricities, what is he but a "collector"? And though he does
+not claim to be working "in the interest of science," which bigger
+collectors invariably do, he is working in the interest of life, and
+life is more than science. Even a blue jay's life is to him as precious
+as ours to us, and who shall say that it is not as useful as many of
+ours in the great plan?
+
+The only indications of hostilities that I observed in four weeks' close
+study, at the most aggressive time of bird life, nesting-time, I shall
+relate exactly as I saw them, and the record will be found a very modest
+one. In this case, certainly, the jay was no more offensive than the
+meekest bird that has a nest to defend, and far less belligerent than
+robins and many others. On one occasion a strange blue jay flew up to
+the nest in the pine. I could not discover that he had any evil
+intention, except just to see what was going on, but one of the pair
+flew at him with loud cries, which I heard for some time after the two
+had disappeared in the distance, and when our bird returned, he perched
+on an evergreen, bowing and "jouncing" violently, his manner plainly
+defying the enemy to "try it again." At another time I observed a savage
+fight, or what looked like it, between two jays. I happened not to see
+the beginning, for I was particularly struck that morning with the
+behavior of a bouquet of nasturtiums which stood in a vase on my table.
+I never was fond of these flowers, and I noticed then for the first time
+how very self-willed and obstinate they were. No matter how nicely they
+were arranged, it would not be an hour before the whole bunch was in
+disorder, every blossom turning the way it preferred, and no two looking
+in the same direction. I thought, when I first observed this, that I
+must be mistaken, and I took them out and rearranged them as I
+considered best; but the result was always the same, and I began to feel
+that they knew altogether too much for their station in the vegetable
+world. I was trying to see if I could discover any method in their
+movements, when I was startled by a flashing vision of blue down under
+the locusts, and, on looking closely, saw two jays flying up like
+quarrelsome cocks,--only not together, but alternately, so that one was
+in the air all the time. They flew three feet high, at least, all their
+feathers on end, and looking more like shapeless masses of blue feathers
+than like birds. They did not pause or rest till one seemed to get the
+other down. I could not see from my window well enough to be positive,
+but both were in the grass together, and only one in sight, who stood
+perfectly quiet. He appeared to be holding the other down, for
+occasionally there would be a stir below, and renewed vigilance on the
+part of the one I could see. Several minutes passed. I became very
+uneasy. Was he killing him? I could stand it no longer, so I ran down.
+But my coming was a diversion, and both flew. When I reached the place,
+one had disappeared, and the other was hopping around the tree in great
+excitement, holding in his beak a fluffy white feather about the size of
+a jay's breast feather. I did not see the act, and I cannot absolutely
+declare it, but I have no doubt that he pulled that feather from the
+breast of his foe as he held him down; how many more with it I could not
+tell, for I did not think of looking until it was too late.
+
+Again one day, somewhat later, when blue jay and catbird babies were
+rather numerous, I saw a blue jay dive into a lilac bush much frequented
+by catbirds, young and old together. Instantly there arose a great cry
+of distress, as though some one were hurt, and a rustling of leaves,
+proclaiming that a chase, if not a fight, was in progress. I hurried
+downstairs, and as I appeared the jay flew, with two catbirds after him,
+still crying in a way I had never heard before. I expected nothing less
+than to find a young catbird injured, but I found nothing. Whether the
+blue jay really had touched one, or it was a mere false alarm on the
+part of the very excitable catbirds, I could not tell. This is the only
+thing I have seen in the jay that might have been an interference with
+another bird's rights; and the catbirds made such a row when I came near
+their babies that I strongly suspect the only guilt of the jay was
+alighting in the lilac they had made their headquarters.
+
+The little boy blue in the apple-tree, already spoken of, did not get
+his family off with so little adventure as his pine-tree neighbor. The
+youngling of this nest came to the ground and stayed there. The people
+of the house returned him to the tree several times, but every time he
+fell again. Three or four days he wandered about the neighborhood, the
+parents rousing the country with their uproar, and terrorizing the
+household cat to such a point of meekness that no sooner did a jay begin
+to squawk than he ran to the door and begged to come in. At last, out of
+mercy, the family took the little fellow into the house, when they saw
+that he was not quite right in some way. One side seemed to be nearly
+useless; one foot did not hold on; one wing was weak; and his breathing
+seemed to be one-sided. The family, seeing that he could not take care
+of himself, decided to adopt him. He took kindly to human care and human
+food, and before the end of a week had made himself very much at home.
+He knew his food provider, and the moment she entered the room he rose
+on his weak little legs, fluttered his wings violently, and presented a
+gaping mouth with the jay baby cry issuing therefrom. Nothing was ever
+more droll than this sight. He was an intelligent youngster, knew what
+he wanted, and when he had had enough. He would eat bread up to a
+certain point, but after that he demanded cake or a berry, and his
+favorite food was an egg. He was exceedingly curious about all his
+surroundings, examined everything with great care, and delighted to look
+out of the window. He selected his own sleeping-place,--the upper one of
+a set of bookshelves,--and refused to change; and he watched the
+movements of a wounded woodcock as he ran around the floor with as much
+interest as did the people. Under human care he grew rapidly stronger,
+learned to fly more readily and to use his weak side; and every day he
+was allowed to fly about in the trees for hours. Once or twice, when
+left out, he returned to the house for food and care; but at last came a
+day when he returned no more. No doubt he was taken in charge again by
+his parents, who, it was probable, had not left the neighborhood.
+
+After July came in, and baby blue jays could hardly be distinguished
+from their parents, my studies took me away from the place nearly all
+day, and I lost sight of the family whose acquaintance had made my June
+so delightful.
+
+
+
+
+XIV.
+
+THE GREAT CAROLINIAN.
+
+
+All through June of that summer I studied the birds in the spacious
+inclosure around my "Inn of Rest." But as that month drew near its end,
+
+ "The happy birds that change their sky
+ To build and brood, that live their lives
+ From land to land,"
+
+almost disappeared. Blue jay babies wandered far off, where I could hear
+them it is true, but where--owing to the despair into which my
+appearance threw the whole jay family--I rarely saw them; orchard and
+Baltimore orioles had learned to fly, and carried their ceaseless cries
+far beyond my hearing; catbirds and cardinals, doves and golden-wings,
+all had raised their broods and betaken themselves wherever their fancy
+or food drew them, certainly without the bounds of my daily walks. It
+was evident that I must seek fresh fields, or remove my quarters to a
+more northerly region, where the sun is less ardent and the birds less
+in haste with their nesting.
+
+Accordingly I sought a companion who should also be a guide, and turned
+my steps to the only promising place in the vicinity, a deep ravine,
+through which ran a little stream that was called a river, and dignified
+with a river's name, yet rippled and babbled, and conducted itself
+precisely like a brook.
+
+The Glen, as it was called, was a unique possession for a common
+work-a-day village in the midst of a good farming country. Long ago
+would its stately trees have been destroyed, its streamlet set to
+turning wheels, and Nature forced to express herself on those many
+acres, in corn and potatoes, instead of her own graceful and varied
+selection of greenery; or, mayhap, its underbrush cut out, its slopes
+sodded, its springs buried in pipes and put to use, and the whole
+"improved" into dull insipidity,--all this, but for the will of one man
+who held the title to the grounds, and rated it so highly, that, though
+willing to sell, no one could come up to his terms. Happy delusion! that
+blessed the whole neighborhood with an enchanting bit of nature
+untouched by art. Long may he live to keep the deeds in his possession,
+and the grounds in their own wild beauty.
+
+The place was surrounded by bristling barbed fences, and trespassers
+were pointedly warned off, so when one had paid for the privilege, and
+entered the grounds, he was supposed to be safe from intrusion, except
+of others who had also bought the right. The part easily accessible to
+hotel and railroad station was the scene of constant picnics, for which
+the State is famous, but that portion which lay near my place of study
+was usually left to the lonely kingfisher--and the cows. There the shy
+wood dwellers set up their households, and many familiar upland birds
+came with their fledglings; that was the land of promise for
+bird-lovers, and there one of them decided to study.
+
+We began with the most virtuous resolves. We would come at five o'clock
+in the morning; we would catch the birds at their breakfast. We did; it
+was a lovely morning after a heavy rain, on which we set out to explore
+the ravine for birds. The storm in passing had taken the breeze with it,
+and not a twig had stirred since. Every leaf and grass blade was loaded
+with rain-drops. Walking in the grass was like wading in a stream; to
+touch a bush was to evoke a shower. But though our shoes were wet
+through, and our garments well sprinkled, before we reached the barbed
+fence, over or under or through or around which we must pass to our
+goal, we would not be discouraged; we went on.
+
+As to the fence, let me, in passing, give my fellow drapery-bearers a
+hint. Carry a light shawl, or even a yard of muslin, to lay across the
+wire you can step over (thus covering the mischievous barbs), while a
+good friend holds up with strong hand the next wire, and you slip
+through. Thus you may pass this cruel device of man without accident.
+
+Having circumvented the fence, the next task was to descend the steep
+sides of the ravine. The difficulty was, not to get down, for that could
+be done almost anywhere, but to go right side up; to land on the feet
+and not on the head was the test of sure-footedness and climbing
+ability. We conquered that obstacle, cautiously creeping down rocky
+steps, and over slippery soil, steadying ourselves by bushes, clasping
+small tree-trunks, scrambling over big ones that lay prone upon the
+ground, and thus we safely reached the level of the stream. Then we
+passed along more easily, stooping under low trees, crossing the beds of
+tiny brooks, encircling clumps of shrubbery (and catching the night's
+cobwebs on our faces), till we reached a fallen tree-trunk that seemed
+made for resting. There we seated ourselves, to breathe, and to see who
+lived in the place.
+
+One of the residents proclaimed himself at once,
+
+                     "To left and right
+ The cuckoo told his name to all the hills,"--
+
+and in a moment we saw him, busy with his breakfast. His manner of
+hunting was interesting; he stood perfectly still on a branch, his beak
+pointed upward, but his head so turned that one eye looked downward.
+When something attracted him, he almost fell off his perch, seized the
+morsel as he passed, alighted on a lower branch, and at once began
+looking around again. There was no frivolity, no flitting about like a
+little bird; his conduct was grave and dignified, and he was absolutely
+silent, except when at rare intervals he mounted a branch and uttered
+his call, or song, if one might so call it. He managed his long tail
+with grace and expression, holding it a little spread as he moved about,
+thus showing the white tips and "corners."
+
+While we were absorbed in cuckoo affairs the sun peeped over the trees,
+and the place was transfigured. Everything, as I said, was charged with
+water, and looking against the sun, some drops hanging from the tip of a
+leaf glowed red as rubies, others shone out blue as sapphires, while
+here and there one scintillated with many colors like a diamond, now
+flashing red, and now yellow or blue.
+
+               "The humblest weed
+ Wore its own coronal, and gayly bold
+ Waved jeweled sceptre."
+
+In that spot we sat an hour, and saw many birds, with whom it was
+evidently a favorite hunting-ground. But no one seemed to live there;
+every one appeared to be passing through; and realizing as we did, that
+it was late in the season, our search for nests in use was rather
+half-hearted anyway. As our breakfast-time drew near we decided to go
+home, having found nothing we cared to study. Just as we were taking
+leave of the spot I heard, nearly at my back, a gentle scolding cry, and
+glancing around, my eyes fell upon two small birds running down the
+trunk of a walnut sapling. A few inches above the ground one of the pair
+disappeared, and the other, still scolding, flew away. I hastened to the
+spot--and there I found my great Carolinian.
+
+The nest was made in a natural cavity in the side of a stump six or
+eight inches in diameter and a foot high. It seemed to be of moss,
+completely roofed over, and stooping nearer its level I saw the bird,
+looking flattened as if she had been crushed, but returning my gaze,
+bravely resolved to live or die with her brood. I noted her color, and
+the peculiar irregular line over her eye, and then I left her, though I
+did not know who she was. Nothing would have been easier than to put my
+hand over her door and catch her, but nothing would have induced me to
+do so--if I never knew her name. Time enough for formal introductions
+later in our acquaintance, I thought, and if it happened that we never
+met again, what did I care how she was named in the books?
+
+I did not at first even suspect her identity, for who would expect to
+find the great Carolina wren a personage of less than six inches! even
+though he were somewhat familiar with the vagaries of name-givers, who
+call one bird after the cat, whom he in no way resembles, and another
+after the bull, to whom the likeness is, if possible, still less. What
+was certain was that the nest belonged to wrens, and was admirably
+placed for study; and what I instantly resolved was to improve my
+acquaintance with the owners thereof.
+
+The little opening in the woods, which became the Wren's Court, when
+their rank was discovered, was a most attractive place, shaded enough to
+be pleasant, while yet leaving a goodly stretch of blue sky in sight,
+bounded on one side by immense forest trees--walnut, butternut, oak, and
+others--which looked as if they had stood there for generations; on the
+other side, the babbling stream, up and down which the kingfisher flew
+and clattered all day. One way out led to the thicket where a
+wood-thrush was sitting in a low tree, and the other, by the Path
+Difficult, up to the world above. The seat, across the court from the
+nest, had plainly been arranged by some kind fate on purpose for us. It
+was the trunk of a tree, which in falling failed to quite reach the
+ground, and so had bleached and dried, and it was shaded and screened
+from observation by vigorous saplings which had sprung up about it. The
+whole was indeed an ideal nook, well worthy to be named after its
+distinguished residents.
+
+Thoreau was right in his assertion that one may see all the birds of a
+neighborhood by simply waiting patiently in one place, and into that
+charming spot came "sooner or later" every bird I had seen in my
+wanderings up and down the ravine. There sang the scarlet tanager every
+morning through July, gleaming among the leaves of the tallest trees,
+his olive-clad spouse nowhere to be seen, presumably occupied with
+domestic affairs. There the Acadian flycatcher pursued his calling,
+fluttering his wings and uttering a sweet little murmur when he
+alighted. Into that retired corner came the cries of flicker and blue
+jay from the high ground beyond. On the edge sang the indigo-bird and
+the wood-pewee, and cardinal and wood-thrush song formed the chorus to
+all the varied notes that we heard.
+
+Upon our entrance the next morning, my first glance at the nest was one
+of dismay--the material seemed to be pulled out a little. Had it been
+robbed! had some vagabond squirrel thrust lawless paws into the little
+home! I looked closely; no, there sat, or rather there lay the little
+mother. But she did not relish this second call. She flew, fluttering
+and trailing on the ground, as if hurt, hoping, of course, to attract us
+away from her nest. Seeing that of no avail, however, which she quickly
+did, she retreated to a low branch, threw back her head, and uttered a
+soft "chur-r-r," again and again repeated, doubtless to her mate. But
+that personage did not make his appearance, and we examined the nest.
+There were five eggs, white, very thickly and evenly specked with fine
+dots of dark color. An end of one that stuck up was plain white, perhaps
+the others were the same; we did not inquire too closely, for what did
+we care for eggs, except as the cradles of the future birds?
+
+Very soon we retired to our seat across the court and became quiet, to
+wait for what might come. Suddenly, with almost startling effect,
+
+ "A bird broke forth and sung
+ And trilled and quavered and shook his throat."
+
+It was a new voice to us, loud and clear, and the song, consisting of
+three clauses, sounded like "Whit-e-ar! Whit-e-ar! Whit-e-ar!" then a
+pause, and the same repeated, and so on indefinitely. It came nearer and
+still nearer, and in a moment we saw the bird, a tiny creature,
+red-brown on the back, light below--the image of the little sitter in
+the stump, as we remarked with delight; we hoped he was her mate. He did
+not seem inclined to go to the nest, but stayed on a twig of a dead
+branch which hung from a large tree near by.
+
+While the stranger was pouring out his rhapsody, head thrown back, tail
+hanging straight down, and wings slightly drooped, I noticed a movement
+by the nest, and fixed my eyes upon that. The little dame had stolen out
+of her place, and now began the ascent of the sapling which started out
+one side of her small stump. Up the trunk she went with perfect ease,
+running a few steps, and then pausing a moment before she took the next
+half-dozen. She did not go bobbing up like a woodpecker, nor did she
+steady herself with her tail, like that frequenter of tree-trunks; she
+simply ran up that almost perpendicular stick as a fly runs up the wall.
+Meanwhile her mate, if that he were, kept up his ringing song, till she
+reached the top of the sapling, perhaps seven or eight feet high, and
+flew over near him. In an instant the song ceased, and the next moment
+two small birds flew over our heads, and we heard chatting and
+churring, and then silence.
+
+Without this hint from the wren we should rarely have seen her leave the
+nest; we should naturally have watched for wings, and none might come or
+go, while she was using her feet instead. She returned in the same way;
+flying to the top, or part way up her sapling, she ran down to her nest
+as glibly as she had run up. The walnut-trunk was the ladder which led
+to the outside world. This pretty little scene was many times repeated,
+in the days that we spent before the castle of our Carolinians; the male
+announcing himself afar with songs, and approaching gradually, while his
+mate listened to the notes that had wooed her, and now again coaxed her
+away from her sitting, for a short outing with him. Sometimes, though
+rarely, she came out without this inducement, but during her sitting
+days she usually went only upon his invitation.
+
+Before many days we had fully identified the pair. The song had puzzled
+me at first, for though extraordinary in volume for a bird of his size,
+and possessing that indefinable wren quality, that abandon and
+unexpectedness, as if it were that instant inspired, it had yet few
+notes, and I missed the exquisite tremolo that makes the song of the
+winter-wren so bewitching. But I "studied him up," and learned that his
+finest and most characteristic song is uttered in the spring only. After
+nesting has begun, he gives merely these musical calls, which, though
+delightful, do not compare--say the books--with his ante-nuptial
+performance. I was too late for that, but I was glad and thankful for
+these.
+
+Moreover, the wren varied his songs as the days went on. There were from
+two to five notes in a clause, never more, and commonly but three. This
+clause he repeated again and again during the whole of one visit; but
+the next time he came he had a new one, which likewise he kept to while
+he stayed. Again, when, some days later, he took part in feeding, he
+frequently changed the song as he left the nest. Struck by the variety
+he gave to his few notes, after some days I began to take them down in
+syllables as they expressed themselves to my ear, for they were sharp
+and distinct. Of course, these syllables resemble his sound about as a
+dried flower resembles the living blossom, but they serve the same
+purpose, to reproduce them in memory. In that way I recorded in three
+days eighteen different arrangements of his notes. Doubtless there were
+many more; indeed, he seemed to delight in inventing new combinations,
+and his taste evidently agreed with mine, for when he succeeded in
+evolving a particularly charming one, he did not easily change it. One
+that specially pleased me I put down as "Shame-ber-ee!" and this was his
+favorite, too, for after the day he began it, he sang it oftener than
+any other. It had a peculiarly joyous ring, the second note being a
+third below the first, and the third fully an octave higher than the
+second. I believe he had just then struck upon it, his enjoyment of it
+was so plain to see.
+
+The Wren's Court was a distracting spot to study one pair of small
+birds. So many others came about, and always, it seemed, in some crisis
+in wren affairs, when I dared not take my eyes from my glass, lest I
+lose the sequence of events. There appeared sometimes to be a thousand
+whispering, squealing, and smacking titmice in the trees over my head,
+and a whole regiment of great-crested flycatchers and others on one
+side. I was glad I was familiar with all the flicker noises, or I should
+have been driven wild at these moments, so many, so various, and so
+peculiar were their utterances; likewise thankful that I knew the row
+made by the jay on the bank above was not a sign of dire distress, but
+simply the tragic manner of the family.
+
+Again, when the wind blew, it was impossible to see the little folk
+that chattered and whispered and "dee-dee'd" overhead, and though we
+were absolutely certain a party of tufted tits and chickadees and black
+and white creepers, who always seemed to travel in company, were
+frolicking about, we could not distinguish them from the dancing and
+fluttering leaves.
+
+When the day was favorable, and the wren had gone his way, foraging in
+silence over the low ground at our back, and an old stump that stood
+there, and the sitter had settled herself in her nest for another half
+hour, we could look about at whoever happened to be there. Thus I made
+further acquaintance with the great-crested flycatcher. Hitherto I had
+known these birds only as they travel through a neighborhood not their
+own, appearing on the tops of trees, and crying out in martial tones for
+the inhabitants to bring on their fighters, a challenge to all whom it
+may concern. It was a revelation, then, to see them quietly at home like
+other birds, setting up claims to a tree, driving strangers away from
+it, and spending their time about its foot, seeking food near the
+ground, and indulging in frolics or fights, whichever they might be,
+with squealing cries and a rushing flight around their tree. In the
+latter part of our study, the great-crest babies were out, noisy little
+fellows, who insisted on being fed as peremptorily as their elders
+demand their rights and privileges.
+
+To make the place still more maddening for study, the birds seemed to
+sweep through the woods in waves. For a long time not a peep would be
+heard, not a feather would stir; then all at once
+
+ "The air would throb with wings,"
+
+and birds would pour in from all sides, half a dozen at a time, making
+us want to look six ways at once, and rendering it impossible to confine
+ourselves to one. Then, after half an hour of this superabundance, one
+by one would slip out, and by the time we began to realize it, we were
+alone again.
+
+We had watched the wren for nine days when there came an interruption.
+It happened thus: A little farther up the glen we had another study, a
+wood-thrush nest in a low tree, and every day, either coming or going,
+we were accustomed to spend an hour watching that. Our place of
+observation was a hidden nook in a pile of rocks, where we were entirely
+concealed by thick trees, through which, by a judicious thinning out of
+twigs and leaves, we had made peepholes, for the thrush mamma would not
+tolerate us in her sight. To reach our seats and not alarm the
+suspicious little dame, we always entered from the back, slowly and
+cautiously climbed the rocks by a rude path which already existed, and
+slipped in under cover of our leafy screen.
+
+On the morning of the tenth day we entered the ravine from the upper
+end, and made our first call upon the thrush. We had been seated in
+silence for ten or fifteen minutes, and I was beginning to get uneasy
+because no bird came to the nest, when a diversion occurred that drove
+thrush affairs out of our minds. We heard footsteps! It must be
+remembered that we were alone in this solitary place, far from a house,
+and naturally we listened eagerly. The steps drew nearer, and then we
+heard loud breathing. We exchanged glances of relief--it was a cow! But
+while we were congratulating ourselves began a crashing of branches, a
+fiercer breathing, a rush, and a low bellow!
+
+This was no meek cow! we turned pale,--at any rate we felt pale,--but we
+tried to encourage each other by suggesting in hurried whispers that he
+surely would not see us. Alas! the next instant he broke through the
+bushes, and to our horror started at once up our path to the rocks; in a
+moment he would be upon us! We rose hastily, prepared to sell our lives
+dearly, when, as suddenly as he had come, he turned and rushed back.
+Whether the sight of us was too much for his philosophy, or whether he
+had gone for reinforcements, we did not inquire. We instantly lost our
+interest in birds and birds' nests; we gathered up our belongings and
+fled, not stopping to breathe till we had put the barbiest of barbed
+wire fences between us and the foe.
+
+Once outside, however, we paused to consider: To give up our study was
+not to be thought of; to go every day in fear and dread was equally
+intolerable. I wrote to the authorities of whom I had purchased the
+right to enter the place. They promptly denied the existence of any such
+animal on the premises. I replied to the effect that "seeing is
+believing," but they reaffirmed their former statement, assuring me that
+there were none but harmless cows in the glen. I did not want to waste
+time in an unprofitable correspondence, and I did want to see the wrens,
+and at last a bright thought came,--I would hire an escort, a country
+boy used to cattle, and warranted not afraid of them. I inquired into
+the question of day's wages, I looked about among the college students
+who were working their way to an education, and I found an ideal
+protector,--an intelligent and very agreeable young man, brought up on a
+farm, and just graduated, who was studying up mathematics preparatory to
+school-teaching in the fall. The bargain was soon made, and the next
+morning we started again for the glen, our guardian armed with his
+geometry and a big club. Three days, however, had been occupied in
+perfecting this arrangement, and I approached the spot with anxiety;
+indeed, I am always concerned till I see the whole family I am watching,
+after only a night's interval, and know they have survived the many
+perils which constantly threaten bird-life, both night and day.
+
+
+
+
+XV.
+
+THE WRENLINGS APPEAR.
+
+
+The moment we entered the court I saw there was news. My eyes being
+attracted by a little commotion on a dogwood-tree, I saw a saucy tufted
+titmouse chasing with cries one of the wrens who had food in its beak.
+With most birds this proclaims the arrival of the young family as
+plainly as if a banner had been hung on the castle walls. Whether the
+tit was after the food, or trying to drive the wren off his own ground,
+we could not tell, nor did we much care; the important fact was that
+babies were out in the walnut-tree cottage. The food bearer went to the
+nest, and in a moment came up the ladder, so joyous and full of song
+that he could not wait to get off his own tree, but burst into a
+triumphant ringing "Whit-e-ar!" that must have told his news to all the
+world--who had ears to hear.
+
+The mother did not at once give up her brooding, nor did I wonder when I
+peeped into the nest while she was off with her spouse, and saw what
+appeared to be five big mouths with a small bag of skin attached to
+each. Nothing else could be seen. She sat an hour at a time, and then
+her mate would come and call her off for a rest and a change, while he
+skipped down the ladder and fed the bairns. His way in this matter, as
+in everything else, was characteristic. He never went to the nest till
+he had called her off by his song. It was not till several days later,
+when she had given up brooding, that I ever saw the pair meet at the
+nest, and then it seemed to be accidental, and one of them always left
+immediately.
+
+During the first few days the young parents came and went as of old, by
+way of the ladder, and I learned to know them apart by their way of
+mounting that airy flight of steps. He was more pert in manner, held his
+head and tail more jauntily, though he rarely pointed his tail to the
+sky, as do some of the wren family. He went lightly up in a dancing
+style which she entirely lacked, sometimes jumping to a small shoot that
+grew up quite near the walnut, and running up that as easily as he did
+the tree. Her ascent was of a business character; she was on duty, head
+and tail level with her body, no airs whatever. He was so full of
+happiness in these early days that frequently he could not take time to
+go to the top, but, having reached a height of two or three feet, he
+flew, and at once burst into rapturous song, even sang while flying
+over to the next tree. From this time they almost abandoned the ladder
+they had been so fond of, and flew directly to the nest from the ground,
+where they got all their food. This change was not because they were
+hard worked; I never saw birds who took family cares more easily. At the
+expiration of three days the mother brooded no more, and indeed it would
+have troubled her to find a place for herself, the nest was so full.
+
+Every morning on entering the court I called at the nest, and always
+found five yellow beaks turned to the front. On the third day the heads
+were covered with slate-colored down; on the fourth, wing-feathers began
+to show among the heads, but the body was still perfectly bare; on the
+fifth, the eyes opened on the green world about them,--they were then
+certainly five days old, and may have been seven; owing to our
+unfortunate absence at the critical time I cannot be sure. On the
+seventh day the red-brown of the back began to show, and the white of
+the breast made itself visible, while the heads began to look feathery
+instead of fuzzy. Even then, however, they took no notice when I put my
+finger on them.
+
+Long before this time the manner of the parents had changed. In the
+first place, they were more busy; foraging industriously on the ground,
+coming within ten or fifteen feet of us, without appearing to see us at
+all. In fact they had, after the first day, paid no attention to us, for
+we never had disturbed them, never went to the nest till sure that both
+were away, and kept still and quiet in our somewhat distant seat.
+
+About this time they began to show more anxiety in their manner. The
+first exhibition was on the fourth day since we knew the young were
+hatched (and let me say that I _believe_ they were just out of the shell
+the morning that we found the father feeding). On this fourth day the
+singer perched near the nest-tree, three or four feet from the ground,
+and began a very loud wren "dear-r-r-r! dear-r-r-r! dear-r-r-r!"
+constantly repeated. He jerked himself about with great apparent
+excitement, looking always on the ground as if he saw an enemy there. We
+thought it might be a cat we had seen prowling about, but on examination
+no cat was there. Gradually his tone grew lower and lower, and he calmed
+down so far as a wren can calm, though he did not cease his cries. I did
+not know he could be still so long, but I learned more about wren
+possibilities in that line somewhat later.
+
+During this performance his mate came with food in her beak, and
+evidently saw nothing alarming, for she went to the nest with it. Still
+he stood gazing on the ground. Sometimes he flew down and returned at
+once, then began moving off, a little at a time, still crying, exactly
+as though he were following some one who went slowly. The call, when
+low, was very sweet and tender; very mournful too, and we got much
+wrought up over it, wishing--as bird students so often do--that we could
+do something to help. He was roused at last by the intrusion of a bird
+into his domain, and his discomfiture of this foe seemed to dispel his
+unhappy state of mind, for he at once broke out in joyous song, to our
+great relief. That was not the last exhibition of the wren's
+idiosyncrasy; he repeated it day after day, and finally he went so far
+as to interpolate low "dear-r-r's" into his sweetest songs. Perhaps that
+was his conception of his duty as protector to the family; if so, he was
+certainly faithful in doing it. It was ludicrously like the attitude of
+some people under similar circumstances.
+
+While the young father was manifesting his anxiety in this way, the
+mother showed hers in another; she took to watching, hardly leaving the
+place at all. When she had her babies well fed for the moment, she went
+up the trunk a little, in a loitering way that I had never seen her
+indulge in before,--and a loitering wren is a curiosity. It was plain
+that she simply wished to pass away the time. She stepped from the
+trunk upon a twig on one side, stayed a little while, then passed to one
+on the other side, lingered a few moments, and so she went on. When she
+arrived at the height of two feet she perched on a small dead twig, and
+remained a long time--certainly twenty minutes--absolutely motionless.
+It was hard to see her, and if I had not watched her progress from the
+first, I should not have suspected her presence. A leaf would hide her,
+even the crossing of two twigs was ample screen, and when she was still
+it was hopeless to look for her. The only way we were able to keep track
+of either of the pair was by their incessant motions.
+
+The Great Carolinian had a peculiar custom which showed that his coming
+with song was a ceremony he would not dispense with. He would often
+start off singing, gradually withdraw till fifty or seventy-five feet
+away, singing at every pause, and then, if one watched him closely, he
+might see him stop, drop to the ground, and hunt about in silence. When
+he was ready to come again, he would fly quietly a little way off, and
+then begin his singing and approaching, as if he had been a mile away.
+He never sang when on the ground after food, but so soon as he finished
+eating, he flew to a perch at least two feet high, generally between six
+and ten, and sometimes as high as twenty feet, and sang.
+
+After a day or two of the wren's singular uneasiness, we discovered at
+least one object of his concern. It was a chipmunk, whom we had often
+noticed perched on the highest point of the little ledge of rocks near
+the nest. He seemed to be attending strictly to his own affairs, but
+after a good deal of "dear-r-r"-ing, the wren flew furiously at him,
+almost, if not quite, hitting him, and doing it again and again. The
+little beast did not relish this treatment and ran off, the bird
+following and repeating the assault. This was undoubtedly the foe that
+he had been troubled about all the time.
+
+On the tenth or eleventh day of their lives (as I believe) I examined
+the babies in the nest a little more closely than before. I even touched
+them with my finger on head and beak. They looked sleepily at me, but
+did not resent it. If the mother were somewhat bigger, I should suspect
+her of giving them "soothing syrup," for they had exactly the appearance
+of being drugged. They were not overfed; I never saw youngsters so much
+let alone. The parents had nothing like the work of the robin, oriole,
+or blue jay. They came two or three times, and then left for half an
+hour or more, yet the younglings were never impatient for food.
+
+The morning that the young wrens had reached the age of twelve days
+(that we knew of) was the 22d of July, and the weather was intensely
+warm. On the 21st we had watched all day to see them go, sure that they
+were perfectly well able. Obviously it is the policy of this family to
+prepare for a life of extraordinary activity by an infancy of unusual
+stillness. Never were youngsters so perfectly indifferent to all the
+world. In storm or sunshine, in daylight or darkness, they lay there
+motionless, caring only for food, and even that showed itself only by
+the fact that all mouths were toward the front. The under one of the
+pile seemed entirely contented to be at the bottom, and the top ones not
+to exult in their position; in fact, so far as any show of interest in
+life was concerned, they might have been a nestful of wooden babies.
+
+On this morning, as we dragged ourselves wearily over the hot road to
+the ravine, we resolved that no handful of wrenlings should force us
+over that road again. Go off this day they should, if--as my comrade
+remarked--"we had to raise them by hand." My first call was at the nest,
+indifferent whether parents were there or not, for I had become
+desperate. There they lay, lazily blinking at me, and filling the nest
+overfull. The singer came rushing down a branch, bristled up,
+blustering, and calling "Dear-r-r-r!" at me, and I hoped he would be
+induced to hurry up his very leisurely brood.
+
+We took our usual seats and waited. Both parents remained near the
+homestead, and little singing was indulged in; this morning there was
+serious business on hand, as any one could see. We were desirous of
+seeing the first sign of movement, so we resolved to cut away the last
+few leaves that hid the entrance to the nest. We had not done it before,
+partly not to annoy the birds, and partly not to have them too easily
+discovered by prowlers.
+
+Miss R---- went to the stump, and cut away half a dozen leaves and twigs
+directly before their door. The young ones looked at her, but did not
+move. Then, as I had asked her to do, she pointed a parasol directly at
+the spot, so that I, in my distant seat, might locate the nest exactly.
+This seemed to be the last straw that the birdlings could endure; two of
+them flew off. One went five or six feet away, the other to the ground
+close by. Then she came away, and we waited again. In a moment two more
+ventured out and alighted on twigs near the nest. Then the mother came
+home, and acted as surprised as though she had never expected to have
+them depart. She went from a twig beside the tree to the nest, and back,
+about a dozen times, as if she really could not believe her eyes.
+
+Anxious to see everything that went on, we moved our seats nearer, but
+this so disconcerted the pair that we did not stay long. It was long
+enough to hear the wren baby-cry, a low insect-like noise, and to see
+something that surprised and no less disgusted me, namely, every one of
+those babies hurry back to the tree, climb the trunk, and scramble back
+into the nest!--the whole exit to be begun again! It could not be their
+dislike of the "cold, cold world," for a cold world would be a luxury
+that morning.
+
+Of any one who would go back into that crowded nest, with the
+thermometer on the rampage as it was then, I had my opinion, and I began
+to think I didn't care much about wrens anyway; we stayed, however, as a
+matter of habit, and I suppose they all had a nap after their tremendous
+exertion. But they manifestly got an idea into their heads at last, a
+taste of life. After a proper amount of consideration, one of the
+nestlings took courage to move again, and went so far as a twig that
+grew beside the door, looked around on the world from that post for a
+while, then hopped to another, and so on till he encircled the home
+stump. But when he came again in sight of that delectable nest, he could
+not resist it, and again he added himself to the pile of birds within.
+This youth was apparently as well feathered as his parents, and, except
+in length of tail, looked exactly like them; many a bird baby starts
+bravely out in life not half so well prepared for it as this little
+wren.
+
+After nearly three hours of waiting, we made up our minds that these
+young folk must be out some time during the day, unless they had decided
+to take up permanent quarters in that hole in the stump, and what was
+more to the point, that the weather was too warm to await their very
+deliberate movements. So we left them, to get off the best way they
+could without us, or to stay there all their lives, if they so desired.
+
+The nest, which at first was exceedingly picturesque--and I had resolved
+to bring it away, with the stump that held it--was now so demolished
+that I no longer coveted it. The last and sweetest song of the wren,
+"Shame-ber-ee!" rang out joyously as we turned our faces to the north,
+and bade a long farewell to the Great Carolinians.
+
+
+
+
+XVI.
+
+THE APPLE-TREE NEST.
+
+ All day long in the elm, on their swaying perches swinging,
+   New-fledged orioles utter their restless, querulous notes.
+
+ HARRIET PRESCOTT SPOFFORD.
+
+
+The little folk let out the secret, as little folk often do, and after
+they had called attention to it, I was surprised that I had not myself
+seen the pretty hammock swinging high up in the apple boughs.
+
+It was, however, in a part of the grounds I did not often visit, partly
+because the trees close by, which formed a belt across the back of the
+place, grew so near together that not a breath of air could penetrate,
+and it was intolerable in the hot June days, and partly because my
+appearance there always created a panic. So seldom did a human being
+visit that neglected spot, that the birds did not look for guests, and a
+general stampede followed the approach of one.
+
+On the eventful day of my happy discovery I was returning from my daily
+call upon a blue jay who had set up her home in an apple-tree in a
+neighbor's yard. The moment I entered the grounds I noticed a great
+outcry. It was loud; it was incessant; and it was of many voices.
+Following the sound, I started across the unmown field,
+
+ "Through the bending grasses,
+   Tall and lushy green,
+ All alive with tiny things,
+ Stirring feet and whirring wings
+   Just an instant seen,"
+
+and soon came in sight of the nest near the topmost twig of an old
+apple-tree.
+
+It was about noon of a bright, sunny day, and I could see only that the
+nest was straw-color, apparently run over with little ones, and both the
+parents were industriously feeding. The cries suggested the persistence
+of young orioles, but it was not a Baltimore's swinging cradle, and the
+old birds were so shy, coming from behind the leaves, every one of which
+turned itself into a reflector for the sunlight, that I could not
+identify them.
+
+Later in the day I paid them another visit, and finding a better post of
+observation under the shade of a sweet-briar bush, I saw at once they
+were orchard orioles, and that the young ones were climbing to the edge
+of the nest; I had nearly been too late!
+
+Four o'clock was the unearthly hour at which I rose next morning to
+pursue my acquaintance with the little family in the apple-tree, fearful
+lest they should get the start of me. The youngsters were calling
+vociferously, and both parents were very busy attending to their wants
+and trying to stop their mouths, when I planted my seat before their
+castle in the air, and proceeded to inquire into their manners and
+customs. My call was, as usual, not received with favor. The mother,
+after administering the mouthful she had brought, alighted on a twig
+beside the nest and gave me a "piece of her mind." I admitted my bad
+manners, but I could not tear myself away. The anxious papa, very
+gorgeous in his chestnut and black suit, scenting danger to the little
+brood in the presence of the bird-student with her glass, at once
+abandoned the business of feeding, and devoted himself to the protection
+of his family,--which indeed was his plain duty. His way of doing this
+was to take his position on the tallest tree in the vicinity, and fill
+the serene morning air with his cry of distress, a two-note utterance,
+with a pathetic inflection which could not fail to arouse the sympathy
+of all who heard it. It was not excited or angry, but it proclaimed that
+here was distress and danger, and it had the effect of making me ashamed
+of annoying him. But I hardened my heart, as I often have to do in my
+study, and kept my seat. Occasionally he returned to the lower part of
+his own tree, to see if the monster had been scared or shamed away, but
+finding me stationary, he returned to his post and resumed his mournful
+cry.
+
+At length the happy thought came to me that I might select a position a
+little less conspicuous, yet still within sight, so I moved my seat
+farther off, away back under a low-branched apple-tree, where a redbird
+came around with sharp "tsip's" to ascertain my business, and a catbird
+behind the briar-bush entertained me with delicious song. The oriole
+accepted my retirement as a compromise, and returned to his domestic
+duties, coming, as was natural and easiest, on my side of the tree. His
+habit was to cling to the side of the nest, showing his black and
+red-gold against it, while his mate alighted on the edge, and was seen a
+little above it. After feeding, both perched on neighboring twigs and
+looked about for a moment before the next food-hunting trip. I thought
+the father of the family exhibited an air of resignation, as if he
+concluded that, since the babies made so much noise, there was no use in
+trying longer to preserve the secret.
+
+As a matter of fact, both our orioles need a good stock of patience as
+well as of resignation, for the infants of both are unceasing in their
+cries, and fertile in inventing variations in manner and inflection,
+that would deceive those most familiar with them. Two or three times in
+the weeks that followed, I rushed out of the house to find some very
+distressed bird, who, I was sure, from the cries, must be impaled alive
+on a butcher-bird's meat-hook, or undergoing torture at the hands--or
+beak of somebody. It was rather dangerous going out at that time (just
+at dusk), for it was the chosen hour for young men and maidens, of whom
+there were several, to wander about under the trees. Often, before I
+gave up going out at that hour, my glass, turned to follow a flitting
+wing, would bring before my startled gaze a pair of sentimental young
+persons, who doubtless thought I was spying upon them. My only safety
+was in directing my glass into the trees, where nothing but wings could
+be sentimental, and if a bird flitted below the level of branches, to
+consider him lost. On following up the cry, I always found a young
+oriole and a hard-worked father feeding him. The voice did not even
+suggest an oriole to me, until I had been deceived two or three times
+and understood it.
+
+The young ones of the orchard oriole's nest lived up to the traditions
+of the family by being inveterate cry-babies, and making so much noise
+they could be heard far around. Sometimes their mother addressed them
+in a similar tone to their own, but the father resigned himself to the
+inevitable, and fed with dogged perseverance.
+
+The apple-tree nest looked in the morning sun of a bright flax color,
+and two of the young were mounted on the edge, dressing their yellow
+satin breasts, and gleaming in the sunshine like gold.
+
+A Baltimore oriole, passing over, seemed to be attracted by a familiar
+quality of sound, for he came down, alighted about a foot from the nest,
+and looked with interest upon the charming family scene. The protector
+of the pretty brood was near, but he kept his seat, and made no
+objections to the friendly call. Indeed, he flew away while the guest
+was still there, and having satisfied his curiosity, the Baltimore also
+departed upon his own business.
+
+When the sun appeared over the tree-tops, he came armed with all his
+terrors. The breeze dwindled and died; the very leaves hung lifeless on
+the trees, and though, knowing that
+
+ "Somewhere the wind is blowing,
+   Though here where I gasp and sigh
+ Not a breath of air is stirring,
+   Not a cloud in the burning sky,"
+
+the memory might comfort me, it did not in the slightest degree make me
+comfortable--I wilted, and retired before it. How the birds could
+endure it and carry on their work, I could not understand.
+
+At noon I ventured out over the burning grass. The first youngster had
+left the nest, and was shouting from a tree perhaps twenty feet beyond
+the native apple. The others were fluttering on the edge, crying as
+usual. As is the customary domestic arrangement with many birds, the
+moment the first one flew, the father stopped coming to the nest, and
+devoted himself to the straggler, which was a little hard on the mother
+that hot day, for she had four to feed.
+
+While I looked on, the second infant mustered up courage to start on the
+journey of life. A tall twig led from the nest straight up into the air,
+and this was the ladder he mounted. Step by step he climbed one
+leaf-stem after another, with several pauses to cry and to eat, and at
+last reached the topmost point, where he turned his face to the west,
+and took his first survey of the kingdoms of the earth. A brother
+nestling was close behind him, and the pretty pair, seeing no more steps
+above them, rested a while from their labors. In the mean time the first
+young oriole had gone farther into the trees, and papa with him.
+
+The little dame worked without ceasing, though it must have been an
+anxious time, with nestlings all stirring abroad. I noticed that she
+fed oftenest the birdlings who were out, whether to strengthen them for
+further effort, or to offer an inducement to those in the nest to come
+up higher where food was to be had, she did not tell. I observed, also,
+that when she came home she did not, as before, alight on the level of
+the little ones, but above them. Perhaps this was to coax them upward;
+at any rate, it had that effect: they stretched up and mounted the next
+stem above, and so they kept on ascending. About three o'clock I was
+again obliged to surrender to the power of the sun, and retire for a
+season to a place he could not enter, the house.
+
+Some hours passed before I made my next call, and I found that oriole
+matters had not rested, if I had; the two nestlings had taken flight to
+the tree the first one had chosen, and three were on the top twig above
+the nest, which latter swung empty and deserted. Mamma was feeding the
+three in her own tree, while papa attended as usual to the outsiders,
+and found leisure to drop in a song now and then.
+
+While I watched, number three took his life in his hands (as it were)
+and launched out upon the air. He reached a tree not so far away as his
+brothers had chosen, and his mother sought him out and fed him there.
+But he did not seem to be satisfied with his achievement, or possibly
+he found the position rather lonely; at any rate, the next use of his
+wings was to return to his native apple, to the lower part. During this
+visit, the mother of the little brood, seeing, I suppose, her labors
+growing lighter, indulged herself and delighted me with a scrap of song,
+very sweet, as the song of the female oriole always is.
+
+It was with forebodings that I approached the tree the next morning,
+foreboding speedily confirmed--the whole family was gone! Either I had
+not stayed late enough or I had not got up early enough to see the
+flitting; that song, then, meant something--it was my good-by.
+
+Indeed it turned out to be my farewell, as I thought, for the whole
+tribe seemed to have vanished. Usually it is not difficult to hunt up a
+little bird family in its wanderings, during the month following its
+leaving the nest, but this one I could neither see nor hear, and I was
+very sure those oriole babies had not so soon outgrown their crying;
+they must have been struck dumb or left the place.
+
+Nearly three weeks later I was wandering about in what was called the
+glen, half a mile or more from where the apple-tree babies had first
+seen the light. It was a wild spot, a ravine, through which ran a
+stream, where many wood-birds sang and nested. On approaching a
+linden-tree loaded with blossoms, and humming with swarms of bees, I was
+saluted with a burst of loud song, interspersed with scolding. No one
+but an orchard oriole could so mix things, and sure enough! there he
+was, scrambling over the flowers. Something he found to his taste,
+whether the blossoms or the insects, I could not decide. On waiting a
+little, I heard the young oriole cry, much subdued since nesting days,
+and the tender "ye-ep" of the parent. The whole family was evidently
+there together, and I was very glad to see them once more.
+
+The nest, which I had brought down, was a beautiful structure, made, I
+think, of very fine excelsior of a bright straw-color. It was suspended
+in an upright fork of four twigs, and lashed securely to three of them,
+while a few lines were passed around the fourth. Though it was in a
+fork, it did not rest on it, but was suspended three inches above it, a
+genuine hanging nest. It was three inches deep and wide, but drawn in
+about the top to a width of not more than two inches, with a bit of
+cotton and two small feathers for bedding. How five babies could grow up
+in that little cup is a problem. The material was woven closely
+together, and in addition stitched through and through, up and down, to
+make a firm structure. Around and against it hung still six apples,
+defrauded of their manifest destiny, and remaining the size of
+hickory-nuts. Three twigs that ran up were cut off, but the fourth was
+left, the tallest, the one sustaining the burden of the nest, and upon
+which the young birds, one after another, had mounted to take their
+first flight.
+
+This pretty hammock, in its setting of leaves and apples, still swinging
+from the apple boughs, I brought home as a souvenir of a charming bird
+study.
+
+
+
+
+XVII.
+
+CEDAR-TREE LITTLE FOLK.
+
+ 'T is there that the wild dove has her nest,
+   And whenever the branches stir,
+ She presses closer the eggs to her breast,
+   And her mate looks down on her.
+
+ CLARE BEATRICE COFFEY.
+
+
+One of the voices that helped to make my June musical, and one more
+constantly heard than any other, was that of the
+
+ "Mourning dove who grieves and grieves,
+ And lost! lost! lost! still seems to say,"
+
+as the poet has it.
+
+Now, while I dearly love the poets, and always long to enrich my plain
+prose with gems from their verse, it is sometimes a little embarrassing,
+because one is obliged to disagree with them. If they would only look a
+little into the ways of birds, and not assert, in language so musical
+that one can hardly resist it, that
+
+ "The birds come back to last year's nests,"
+
+when rarely was a self-respecting bird known to shirk the labor of
+building anew for every family; or sing, with Sill,
+
+ "He has lost his last year's love, I know,"
+
+when he did not know any such thing; and add,
+
+ "A thrush forgets in a year,"
+
+which I call a libel on one of our most intelligent birds; or cry, with
+another singer,
+
+ "O voiceless swallow,"
+
+when not one of the whole tribe is defrauded of a voice, and at least
+one is an exquisite singer; or accuse the nightingale of the superfluous
+idiocy of holding his (though they always say her) breast to a thorn as
+he sings, as if he were so foolish as to imitate some forms of human
+self-torture,--if they would only be a little more sure of their facts,
+what a comfort it would be to those who love both poets and birds!
+
+No bird in our country is more persistently misrepresented by our sweet
+singers than the Carolina or wood dove--mourning dove, as he is
+popularly called; and in this case they are not to be blamed, for prose
+writers, even natural history writers, are quite as bad.
+
+"His song consists," says one, "of four notes: the first seems to be
+uttered with an inspiration of the breath, as if the afflicted creature
+were just recovering its voice from the last convulsive sob of distress,
+and followed by three long, deep, and mournful moanings, that no person
+of sensibility can listen to without sympathy." "The solemn voice of
+sorrow," another writer calls it. All this is mere sentimentality, pure
+imagination; and if the writers could sit, as I have, under the tree
+when the bird was singing, they would change their opinion, though they
+would thereby lose a pretty and attractive sentiment for their verse. I
+believe there is
+
+ "No beast or bird in earth or sky,
+ Whose voice doth not with gladness thrill,"
+
+though it may not so express itself to our senses. Certainly the coo of
+the dove is anything but sad when heard very near. It has a rich,
+far-off sound, expressing deep serenity, and a happiness beyond words.
+
+First in the morning, and last at night, all through June, came to me
+the song of the dove. As early as four o'clock his notes began, and
+then, if I got up to look out on the lawn, where I had spread breakfast
+for him and other feathered friends, I would see him walking about with
+dainty steps on his pretty red toes, looking the pink of propriety in
+his Quaker garb, his satin vest smooth as if it had been ironed down,
+and quite worthy his reputed character for meekness and gentleness.
+
+But I wanted to see the dove far from the "madding crowd" of blackbirds,
+blue jays, and red-heads, who, as well as himself, took corn for
+breakfast, and I set out to look him up. At first the whole family
+seemed to consist of the young, just flying about, sometimes accompanied
+by their mother. Apparently the fathers of the race were all off in the
+cooing business.
+
+So early as the second of June I came upon my first pair of young doves,
+two charming little creatures, sitting placidly side by side. Grave,
+indeed, and very much grown-up looked these drab-coated little folk,
+silent and motionless, returning my gaze with an innocent openness that,
+it seemed to me, must disarm their most bitter enemy. When I came upon
+such a pair, as I frequently did, on the low branch of an apple-tree or
+a limb of their native cedar, I stopped instantly to look at them. Not
+an eyelid of the youngsters would move; if a head were turned as they
+heard me coming, it would remain at precisely that angle as long as I
+had patience to stay. They were invariably sitting down with the
+appearance of being prepared to stay all day, and almost always side by
+side, though looking in different directions, and one was always larger
+than the other. A lovely and picturesque group they never failed to
+make, and as for any show of hunger or impatience, one could hardly
+imagine they ever felt either. In every way they were a violent
+contrast to all their neighbors, the boisterous blue jays, lively
+catbirds, blustering robins, and vulgar-mannered blackbirds.
+
+Sometimes I chanced upon a mother sitting by her youngling, and although
+when I found her alone she always flew, beside her little charge she was
+dignified and calm in bearing, and looked at me with fearless eyes,
+relying, as it appeared, upon absolute stillness, and the resemblance of
+her color to the branches, to escape observation; a ruse which must
+generally be successful.
+
+The nest, the remains of which I often saw on the tree where I found an
+infant, was the merest apology, hardly more than a platform, just enough
+to hold the pair of eggs which they are said always to contain. Indeed,
+no baby but a serene dove, with the repose of thirty generations behind
+it, could stay in it till his wings grew. As it is, he must be forced to
+perch, whether ready or not, for the structure cannot hold together
+long. The wonder is that the eggs do not roll out before they are
+hatched.
+
+Several things made the bird an interesting subject for study; his
+reputation for meekness, his alleged silence,--except at wooing
+time,--and the halo of melancholy with which the poets have invested
+him. I resolved to make acquaintance with my gentle neighbor, and I
+sought and found a favorite retreat of the silent family. This was a
+grove away down in the southeast corner of the grounds, little visited
+by people, and beloved by birds of several kinds. Till June was half
+over, the high grass, that I could not bear to trample, prevented
+exploration in that direction, but as soon as it was cut I made a trip
+to the little grove, and found it a sort of doves' headquarters, and
+there, in many hours of daily study, I learned to know him a little, and
+respect him a good deal.
+
+It was a delightful spot the doves had chosen to live in, and so
+frequented by birds that whichever way I turned my face, in two minutes
+I wished I had turned it the other, or that I had eyes in the back of my
+head. With reason, too, for the residents skipped around behind me, and
+all the interesting things went on at my back. I could hear the flit of
+wings, low, mysterious sounds, whispering, gentle complaints and
+hushings, but if I turned--lo! the scene shifted, and the drama of life
+was still enacted out of my sight. Yet I managed, in spite of this
+difficulty, to learn several things I did not know before.
+
+No one attends to his own business more strictly than the dove. On the
+ground, where he came for corn, he seemed to see no other bird, and paid
+not the slightest heed to me in my window, but went about his own
+affairs in the most matter-of-fact way. Yet I cannot agree with the
+common opinion, which has made his name a synonym for all that is meek
+and gentle. He has a will of his own, and a "mild but firm" way of
+securing it. Sometimes, when all were busy at the corn, one of my
+Quaker-clad guests would take a notion, for what reason I could not
+discover, that some other dove must not stay, and he would drive him (or
+her) off. He was not rude or blustering, like the robin, nor did he make
+offensive remarks, after the manner of a blackbird; he simply signified
+his intention of having his neighbor go, and go he did, _nolens volens_.
+
+It was droll to see how this "meek and gentle" fellow met blackbird
+impudence. If one of the sable gentry came down too near a dove, the
+latter gave a little hop and rustled his feathers, but did not move one
+step away. For some occult reason the blackbird seemed to respect this
+mild protest, and did not interfere again.
+
+Would one suspect so solemn a personage of joking? yet what else could
+this little scene mean? A blackbird was on the ground eating, when a
+dove flew down and hovered over him as though about to alight upon him.
+It evidently impressed the blackbird exactly as it did me, for he
+scrambled out from under, very hastily. But the dove had no intention
+of the sort; he came calmly down on one side.
+
+The first dove baby who accompanied its parent to the ground to be fed
+was the model of propriety one would expect from the demure infant
+already mentioned. He stood crouching to the ground in silence,
+fluttering his wings a little, but making no sound, either of begging,
+or when fed. A blackbird came to investigate this youngster, so
+different from his importunate offspring, upon which both doves flew.
+
+There is a unique quality claimed for the dove: that with the exception
+of the well-known coo in nesting time he is absolutely silent, and that
+the noise which accompanies his flight is the result of a peculiar
+formation of the wing that causes a whistle. Of this I had strong
+doubts. I could not believe that a bird who has so much to say for
+himself during wooing and nesting time could be utterly silent the rest
+of the year; nor, indeed, do I believe that any living creature, so
+highly organized as the feathered tribes, can be entirely without
+expression.
+
+I thought I would experiment a little, and one day, observing that a
+young dove spent most of his time alone on a certain cedar-tree, where a
+badly used-up nest showed that he had probably been hatched, or feeding
+on the ground near it, I resolved to see if I could draw him out. I
+passed him six times a day, going and coming from my meals, and I always
+stopped to look at him--a scrutiny which he bore unmoved, in dove
+fashion. So one morning, when I stood three feet from him, I began a
+very low whistle to him. He was at once interested, and after about
+three calls he answered me, very low, it is true, but still
+unmistakably. Though he replied, however, it appeared to make him
+uneasy, for while he had been in the habit of submitting to my staring
+without being in any way disconcerted, he now began to fidget about. He
+stood up, changed his place, flew to a higher branch, and in a few
+moments to the next tree; all the time, however, answering my calls.
+
+I was greatly interested in my new acquaintance, and the next day I
+renewed my advances. As before, he answered, looking bright and eager,
+as I had never seen one of his kind look, and after three or four
+replies he became uneasy, as on the previous day, and in a moment he
+flew. But I was surprised and startled by his starting straight for me.
+I thought he would certainly alight on me, and such, I firmly believe,
+was his inclination, but he apparently did not quite dare trust me, so
+he passed over by a very few inches, and perched on the tree I was
+under. Then--still replying to me--he flew to the ground not six feet
+from me, and step by step, slowly moved away perhaps fifteen feet, when
+he turned and flew back to his own tree beside me. I was pleased to
+notice that the voice of this talkative dovekin was of the same quality
+as the "whistling" said to be of the wings, when a dove flies.
+
+The last interview I had with the dear baby, I found him sitting with
+his back toward me, but the instant I whistled he turned around to face
+me, and seated himself again. He replied to me, and fluttered his wings
+slightly, yet he soon became restless, as usual. He did not fly,
+however, and he answered louder than he had done previously, but I found
+that my call must be just right to elicit a response. I might whistle
+all day and he would pay no attention, till I uttered a two-note call,
+the second note a third above the first and the two slurred together. I
+was delighted to find that even a dove, and a baby at that, could "talk
+back." He was unique in other ways; for example, in being content to
+pass his days in, and around, his own tree. I do not believe he had ever
+been farther than a small group of cedars, ten feet from his own. I
+always found him there, though he could fly perfectly well. This
+interview was, I regret to say, the last; the next morning my little
+friend was nowhere to be seen. Perhaps mamma thought he was getting too
+friendly with one of a race capable of eating a baby dove.
+
+After this episode in my dove acquaintance, I was more than ever
+interested in getting at the mode of expression in the family, and I
+listened on every occasion. One day two doves alighted over my head when
+I was sitting perfectly still, and I distinctly heard very low talk,
+like that of my lost baby; there was, in addition, a note or two like
+the coo, but exceedingly low. I could not have heard a sound ten feet
+from the tree, nor if I had been stirring myself. I observed also that a
+dove can fly in perfect silence; and, moreover, that the whistle of the
+wings sometimes continues after the bird has become still. I heard the
+regular coo--the whole four-note performance--both in a whisper and in
+the ordinary tone, and the latter, though right over my head, sounded a
+mile away. At the end of my month's study I was convinced that the dove
+is far from being a silent bird; on the contrary, he is quite a talker,
+with the "low, sweet voice" so much desired in other quarters. And
+further, that the whistling is not produced wholly (if at all) by the
+wings, and it is a gross injustice to assert that he is not capable of
+expressing himself at all times and seasons.
+
+
+
+
+BESIDE THE GREAT SALT LAKE.
+
+
+
+
+ Up!--If thou knew'st who calls
+ To twilight parks of beach and pine
+ High o'er the river intervals,
+ Above the plowman's highest line,
+ Over the owner's farthest walls!
+ Up! where the airy citadel
+ O'erlooks the surging landscape's swell!
+
+ EMERSON.
+
+
+
+
+XVIII.
+
+IN A PASTURE.
+
+
+The word "pasture," as used on the shore of the Great Salt Lake, conveys
+no true idea to one whose associations with that word have been formed
+in States east of the Rocky Mountains. Imagine an extensive inclosure on
+the side of a mountain, with its barren-looking soil strewn with rocks
+of all sizes, from a pebble to a bowlder, cut across by an irrigating
+ditch or a mountain brook, dotted here and there by sage bushes, and
+patches of oak-brush, and wild roses, and one has a picture of a Salt
+Lake pasture. Closely examined, it has other peculiarities. There is no
+half way in its growths, no shading off, so to speak, as elsewhere; not
+an isolated shrub, not a solitary tree, flourishes in the strange soil,
+but trees and shrubs crowd together as if for protection, and the clump,
+of whatever size or shape, ends abruptly, with the desert coming up to
+its very edge. Yet the soil, though it seems to be the driest and most
+unpromising of baked gray mud, needs nothing more than a little water,
+to clothe itself luxuriantly; the course of a brook or even an
+irrigating ditch, if permanent, is marked by a thick and varied border
+of greenery. What the poor creatures who wandered over those dreary
+wastes could find to eat was a problem to be solved only by close
+observation of their ways.
+
+"H. H." said some years ago that the magnificent yucca, the glory of the
+Colorado mesas, was being exterminated by wandering cows, who ate the
+buds as soon as they appeared. The cattle of Utah--or their owners--have
+a like crime to answer for; not only do they constantly feed upon
+rose-buds and leaves, notwithstanding the thorns, but they regale
+themselves upon nearly every flower-plant that shows its head; lupines
+were the chosen dainty of my friend's horse. The animals become expert
+at getting this unnatural food; it is curious to watch the deftness with
+which a cow will go through a currant or gooseberry bush, thrusting her
+head far down among the branches, and carefully picking off the tender
+leaves, while leaving the stems untouched, and the matter-of-course way
+in which she will bend over and pull down a tall sapling, to despoil it
+of its foliage.
+
+In a pasture such as I have described, on the western slope of one of
+the Rocky Mountains, desolate and forbidding though it looked, many
+hours of last summer's May and June "went their way," if not
+
+ "As softly as sweet dreams go down the night,"
+
+certainly with interest and pleasure to two bird-students whose ways I
+have sometimes chronicled.
+
+Most conspicuous, as we toiled upward toward our breezy pasture, was a
+bird whose chosen station was a fence--a wire fence at that. He was a
+tanager; not our brilliant beauty in scarlet and black, but one far more
+gorgeous and eccentric in costume, having, with the black wings and tail
+of our bird, a breast of shining yellow and a cap of crimson. His
+occupation on the sweet May mornings that he lingered with us, on his
+way up the mountains for the summer, was the familiar one of getting his
+living, and to that he gave his mind without reserve. Not once did he
+turn curious eyes upon us as we sauntered by or rested awhile to watch
+him. Eagerly his pretty head turned this way and that, but not for us;
+it was for the winged creatures of the air he looked, and when one that
+pleased his fancy fluttered by he dashed out and secured it, returning
+to a post or the fence just as absorbed and just as eager for the next
+one. Every time he alighted it was a few feet farther down the fence,
+and thus he worked his way out of our sight, without seeming aware of
+our existence.
+
+This was not stupidity on the part of the crimson-head, nor was it
+foolhardiness; it was simply trust in his guardian, for he had one,--one
+who watched every movement of ours with close attention, whose vigilance
+was never relaxed, and who appeared, when we saw her, to be above the
+need of food. A plain personage she was, clad in modest, dull
+yellow,--the female tanager. She was probably his mate; at any rate, she
+gradually followed him down the fence, keeping fifteen or twenty feet
+behind him, all the time with an eye on us, ready to give warning of the
+slightest aggressive movement on our part. It would be interesting to
+know how my lord behaves up in those sky-parlors where their summer
+homes are made. No doubt he is as tender and devoted as most of his race
+(all his race, I would say, if Mr. Torrey had not shaken our faith in
+the ruby-throat), and I have no doubt that the little red-heads in the
+nest will be well looked after and fed by their fly-catching papa.
+
+Far different from the cool unconcern of the crimson-headed tanager were
+the manners of another red-headed dweller on the mountain. The
+green-tailed towhee he is called in the books, though the red of his
+head is much more conspicuous than the green of his tail. In this bird
+the high-bred repose of his neighbor was replaced by the most fussy
+restlessness. When we surprised him on the lowest wire of the fence, he
+was terribly disconcerted, not to say thrown into a panic. He usually
+stood a moment, holding his long tail up in the air, flirted his wings,
+turned his body this way and that in great excitement, then hopped to
+the nearest bowlder, slipped down behind it, and ran off through the
+sage bushes like a mouse. More than this we were never able to see, and
+where he lived and how his spouse looked we do not know to this day.
+
+Most interesting of the birds that we saw on our daily way to the
+pasture were the gulls; great, beautiful, snowy creatures, who looked
+strangely out of place so far away from the seashore. Stranger, too,
+than their change of residence was their change of manners from the
+wild, unapproachable sea-birds, soaring and diving, and apparently
+spending their lives on wings such as the poet sings,--
+
+ "When I had wings, my brother,
+   Such wings were mine as thine;"
+
+and of whose lives he further says,--
+
+ "What place man may, we claim it,
+ But thine,--whose thought may name it?
+ Free birds live higher than freemen,
+ And gladlier ye than we."
+
+From this high place in our thoughts, from this realm of poetry and
+mystery, to come down almost to the tameness of the barnyard fowl is a
+marvelous transformation, and one is tempted to believe the solemn
+announcement of the Salt Lake prophet, that the Lord sent them to his
+chosen people.
+
+The occasion of this alleged special favor to the Latter Day Saints was
+the advent, about twenty years ago, of clouds of grasshoppers, before
+which the crops of the Western States and Territories were destroyed as
+by fire. It was then, in their hour of greatest need, when the food upon
+which depended a whole people was threatened, that these beautiful
+winged messengers appeared. In large flocks they came, from no one knows
+where, and settled, like so many sparrows, all over the land, devouring
+almost without ceasing the hosts of the foe. The crops were saved, and
+all Deseret rejoiced. Was it any wonder that a people trained to regard
+the head of their church as the direct representative of the Highest
+should believe these to be really birds of God, and should accordingly
+cherish them? Well would it be for themselves if other Christian peoples
+were equally believing, and protected and cherished other winged
+messengers, sent just as truly to protect their crops.
+
+The shrewd man who wielded the destinies of his people beside the Salt
+Lake secured the future usefulness of what they considered the
+miraculous visitation by fixing a penalty of five dollars upon the head
+of every gull in the Territory. And now, the birds having found
+congenial nesting-places on solitary islands in the lake, their
+descendants are so fearless and so tame that they habitually follow the
+plow like a flock of chickens, rising from almost under the feet of the
+indifferent horses and settling down at once in the furrow behind,
+seeking out and eating greedily all the worms and grubs and larvæ and
+mice and moles that the plow has disturbed in its passage. The Mormon
+cultivator has sense enough to appreciate such service, and no man or
+boy dreams of lifting a finger against his best friend.
+
+Extraordinary indeed was this sight to eyes accustomed to seeing every
+bird who attempts to render like service shot and snared and swept from
+the face of the earth. Our hearts warmed toward the "Sons of Zion," and
+our respect for their intelligence increased, as we hurried down to the
+field to see this latter-day wonder.
+
+Whether the birds distinguished between "saints" and sinners, or whether
+their confidence extended only to plow-boys, they would not let us come
+near them. But our glasses brought them close, and we had a very good
+study of them, finding exceeding interest in their ways: their quaint
+faces as they flew toward us; their dignified walk; their expression of
+disapproval, lifting the wings high above the back till they met; their
+queer and constant cries in the tone of a child who whines; and, above
+all, their use of the wonderful wings,--"half wing, half wave," Mrs.
+Spofford calls them.
+
+To rise from the earth upon these beautiful great arms, seemed to be not
+so easy as it looks. Some of the graceful birds lifted them, and ran a
+little before leaving the ground, and all of them left both legs
+hanging, and both feet jerking awkwardly at every wing-beat, for a few
+moments on starting, before they carefully drew each flesh-colored foot
+up into its feather pillow,
+
+ "And gray and silver up the dome
+   Of gray and silver skies went sailing,"
+
+in ever-widening circles, without moving a feather that we could
+perceive. It was charming to see how nicely they folded down their
+splendid wings on alighting, stretching each one out, and apparently
+straightening every feather before laying it into its place.
+
+Several hours this interesting flock accompanied the horses and man
+around the field, taking possession of each furrow as it was laid open,
+and chattering and eating as fast as they could; and the question
+occurred to me, if a field that is thoroughly gleaned over every spring
+furnishes so great a supply of creatures hurtful to vegetation, what
+must be the state of grounds which are carefully protected from such
+gleaning, on which no bird is allowed to forage?
+
+As noon approached, the hour when "birds their wise siesta take,"
+although the plow did not cease its monotonous round, the birds retired
+in a body to the still untouched middle of the field, and settled
+themselves for their "nooning," dusting themselves--their snowy
+plumes!--like hens on an ash heap, sitting about in knots like parties
+of ducks, preening and shaking themselves out, or going at once to
+sleep, according to their several tastes. Half an hour's rest sufficed
+for the more active spirits, and then they treated us, their patient
+observers, to an aërial exhibition. A large number, perhaps three
+quarters of the flock, rose in a body and began a spiral flight. Higher
+and higher they went, in wider and wider circles, till, against the
+white clouds, they looked like a swarm of midges, and against the blue
+the eye could not distinguish them. Then from out of the sky dropped one
+after another, leaving the soaring flock looking wonderfully ethereal
+and gauzy in the clear air, with the sun above him, almost like a spirit
+bird gliding motionless through the ether till he alighted at last
+quietly beside his fellows on the ground. In another half hour they were
+all behind the plow again, hard at work.
+
+When we had looked our fill, we straightway sought out and questioned
+some of the wise men among the "peculiar people." This is what we
+learned: that when plowing is over the birds retire to their home, an
+island in the lake, where, being eminently social birds, their nests are
+built in a community. Their beneficent service to mankind does not end
+with the plowing season, for when that is over they turn their attention
+to the fish that are brought into the lake by the fresh-water streams,
+at once strangled by its excess of salt, and their bodies washed up on
+the shore. What would become of the human residents if that animal
+deposit were left for the fierce sun to dispose of, may perhaps be
+imagined. The gull should, indeed, be a sacred bird in Utah.
+
+What drew us first to the pasture--which we came to at last--was our
+search for a magpie's nest. The home of this knowing fellow is the Rocky
+Mountain region, and, naturally, he was the first bird we thought of
+looking for. There would be no difficulty in finding nests, we thought,
+for we came upon magpies everywhere in our walks. Now one alighted on a
+fence-post a few yards ahead of us, earnestly regarding our approach,
+tilting upward his long, expressive tail, the black of his plumage
+shining with brilliant blue reflections, and the white fairly dazzling
+the eyes. Again we caught glimpses of two or three of the beautiful
+birds walking about on the ground, holding their precious tails well up
+from the earth, and gleaning industriously the insect life of the horse
+pasture. At one moment we were saluted from the top of a tall tree, or
+shrieked at by one passing over our heads, looking like an immense
+dragonfly against the sky. Magpie voices were heard from morning till
+night; strange, loud calls of "mag! mag!" were ever in our ears. "Oh,
+yes," we had said, "we must surely go out some morning and find a nest."
+
+First we inquired. Everybody knew where they built, in oak-brush or in
+apple-trees, but not a boy in that village knew where there was a nest.
+Oh, no, not one! A man confessed to the guilty secret, and, directed by
+him, we took a long walk through the village with its queer little
+houses, many of them having the two front doors which tell the tale of
+Mormondom within; up the long sidewalk, with a beautiful bounding
+mountain brook running down the gutter, as if it were a tame irrigating
+ditch, to a big gate in a "combination fence." What this latter might be
+we had wondered, but relied upon knowing it when we saw it,--and we did:
+it was a fence of laths held together by wires woven between them, and
+we recognized the fitness of the name instantly. Then on through the
+big gate, down a long lane where we ran the gauntlet of the family cows;
+over or under bars, where awaited us a tribe of colts with their anxious
+mammas; and at last to the tree and the nest. There our guide met us and
+climbed up to explore. Alas! the nest robber had anticipated us.
+
+Slowly we took our way home, resolved to ask no more help, but to seek
+for ourselves, for the nest that is _known_ is the nest that is robbed.
+So the next morning, armed with camp-chairs and alpenstocks,
+drinking-cups and notebooks, we started up the mountain, where we could
+at least find solitude, and the fresh air of the hills. We climbed till
+we were tired, and then, as was our custom, sat down to rest and
+breathe, and see who lived in that part of the world. Without thought of
+the height we had reached, we turned our backs to the mountain, rising
+bare and steep before us, and behold! the outlook struck us dumb.
+
+There at our feet lay the village, smothered in orchards and
+shade-trees, the locusts, just then huge bouquets of graceful bloom and
+delicious odor, buzzing with hundreds of bees and humming-birds; beyond
+was a stretch of cultivated fields in various shades of green and brown;
+and then the lake,--beautiful and wonderful Salt Lake,--glowing with
+exquisite colors, now hyacinth blue, changing in places to tender green
+or golden brown, again sparkling like a vast bed of diamonds. In the
+foreground lay Antelope Island, in hues of purple and bronze, with its
+chain of hills and graceful sky-line; and resting on the horizon beyond
+were the peaks of the grand Oquirrhs, capped with snow. Well might we
+forget our quest while gazing on this impressive scene, trying to fix
+its various features in our memories, to be an eternal possession.
+
+We were recalled to the business in hand by the sudden appearance on the
+top of a tree below us of one of the birds we sought. The branch bent
+and swayed as the heavy fellow settled upon it, and in a moment a
+comrade came, calling vigorously, and alighted on a neighboring branch.
+A few minutes they remained, with flirting tails, conversing in
+garrulous tones, then together they rose on broad wings, and passed
+away--away over the fields, almost out of sight, before they dropped
+into a patch of oak-brush. After them appeared others, and we sat there
+a long time, hoping to see at least one that had its home within our
+reach. But every bird that passed over turned its face to the mountains;
+some seemed to head for the dim Oquirrhs across the lake, while others
+disappeared over the top of the Wasatch behind us; not one paused in
+our neighborhood, excepting long enough to look at us, and express its
+opinion in loud and not very polite tones.
+
+It was then and there that we noticed our pasture; the entrance was
+beside us. Shall we go in? was always the question before an inclosure.
+We looked over the wall. It was plainly the abode of horses, meek
+work-a-day beings, who certainly would not resent our intrusion.
+Oak-brush was there in plenty, and that is the chosen home of the
+magpie. We hesitated; we started for the gate. It was held in place by a
+rope elaborately and securely tied in many knots; but we had learned
+something about the gates of this "promised land,"--that between the
+posts and the stone wall may usually be found space enough to slip
+through without disturbing the fastenings.
+
+In that country no one goes through a gate who can possibly go around
+it, and well is it indeed for the stranger and the wayfarer in "Zion"
+that such is the custom, for the idiosyncrasies of gates were endless;
+they agreed only in never fitting their place and never opening
+properly. If the gate was in one piece, it sagged so that it must be
+lifted; or it had lost one hinge, and fell over on the rash individual
+who loosened the fastenings; or it was about falling to pieces, and must
+be handled like a piece of choice bric-a-brac. If it had a latch, it
+was rusty or did not fit; and if it had not, it was fastened, either by
+a board slipped in to act as a bar and never known to be of proper size,
+or in some occult way which would require the skill of "the lady from
+Philadelphia" to undo. If it was of the fashion that opens in the
+middle, each individual gate had its particular "kink," which must be
+learned by the uninitiated before he--or, what is worse, she--could
+pass. Many were held together by a hoop or link of iron, dropped over
+the two end posts; but whether the gate must be pulled out or pushed in,
+and at exactly what angle it would consent to receive the link, was to
+be found out only by experience.
+
+But not all gates were so simple even as this: the ingenuity with which
+a variety of fastenings,--all to avoid the natural and obvious one of a
+hook and staple,--had been evolved in the rural mind was fairly
+startling. The energy and thought that had been bestowed upon this
+little matter of avoiding a gate-hook would have built a bridge across
+Salt Lake, or tunneled the Uintas for an irrigating ditch.
+
+Happily, we too had learned to "slip through," and we passed the gate
+with its rope puzzle, and the six or eight horses who pointed inquiring
+ears toward their unwonted visitors, and hastened to get under cover
+before the birds, if any lived there, should come home.
+
+The oak-brush, which we then approached, is a curious and interesting
+form of vegetation. It is a mass of oak-trees, all of the same age,
+growing as close as they can stand, with branches down to the ground. It
+looks as if each patch had sprung from a great fall of acorns from one
+tree, or perhaps were shoots from the roots of a perished tree. The
+clumps are more or less irregularly round, set down in a barren piece of
+ground, or among the sage bushes. At a distance, on the side of a
+mountain, they resemble patches of moss of varying shape. When two or
+three feet high, one is a thick, solid mat; when it reaches an altitude
+of six to eight feet, it is an impenetrable thicket; except, that is,
+when it happens to be in a pasture. Horses and cattle find such scanty
+pickings in the fields, that they nibble every green thing, even oak
+leaves, and so they clear the brush as high as they can reach. When
+therefore it is fifteen feet high, there is a thick roof the animals are
+not able to reach, and one may look through a patch to the light beyond.
+The stems and lower branches, though kept bare of leaves, are so close
+together and so intertwined and tangled, that forcing one's way through
+it is an impossibility. But the horses have made and kept open paths in
+every direction, and this turns it into a delightful grove, a cool
+retreat, which others appreciate as well as the makers.
+
+Selecting a favorable-looking clump of oak-brush, we attempted to get in
+without using the open horse paths, where we should be in plain sight.
+Melancholy was the result; hats pulled off, hair disheveled, garments
+torn, feet tripped, and wounds and scratches innumerable. Several
+minutes of hard work and stubborn endurance enabled us to penetrate not
+more than half a dozen feet, when we managed, in some sort of fashion,
+to sit down, on opposite sides of the grove. Then, relying upon our
+"protective coloring" (not evolved, but carefully selected in the
+shops), we subsided into silence, hoping not to be observed when the
+birds came home, for there was the nest before us.
+
+A wise and canny builder is Madam Mag, for though her home must be large
+to accommodate her size, and conspicuous because of the shallowness of
+the foliage above her, it is, in a way, a fortress, to despoil which the
+marauder must encounter a weapon not to be despised,--a stout beak,
+animated and impelled by indignant motherhood. The structure was made of
+sticks, and enormous in size; a half-bushel measure would hardly hold
+it. It was covered, as if to protect her, and it had two openings under
+the cover, toward either of which she could turn her face. It looked
+like a big, coarsely woven basket resting in a crotch up under the
+leaves, with a nearly close cover supported by a small branch above.
+The sitting bird could draw herself down out of sight, or she could
+defend herself and her brood, at either entrance.
+
+In my retreat, I had noted all these points before any sign of life
+appeared in the brush. Then there came a low cry of "mag! mag!" and the
+bird entered near the ground. She alighted on a dead branch, which swung
+back and forth, while she kept her balance with her beautiful tail. She
+did not appear to look around; apparently she had no suspicions and did
+not notice us, sitting motionless and breathless in our respective
+places. Her head was turned to the nest, and by easy stages and with
+many pauses, she made her way to it. I could not see that she had a
+companion, for I dared not stir so much as a finger; but while she moved
+about near the nest there came to the eager listeners on the ground low
+and tender utterances in the sweetest of voices,--whether one or two I
+know not,--and at last a song, a true melody, of a yearning, thrilling
+quality that few song-birds, if any, can excel. I was astounded! Who
+would suspect the harsh-voiced, screaming magpie of such notes! I am
+certain that the bird or birds had no suspicion of listeners to the home
+talk and song, for after we were discovered, we heard nothing of the
+sort.
+
+This little episode ended, madam slipped into her nest, and all became
+silent, she in her place and I in mine. If this state of things could
+only remain; if she would only accept me as a tree-trunk or a misshapen
+bowlder, and pay no attention to me, what a beautiful study I should
+have! Half an hour, perhaps more, passed without a sound, and then the
+silence was broken by magpie calls from without. The sitting bird left
+the nest and flew out of the grove, quite near the ground; I heard much
+talk and chatter in low tones outside, and they flew. I slipped out as
+quickly as possible, wishing indeed that I had wings as she had, and
+went home, encouraged to think I should really be able to study the
+magpie.
+
+But I did not know my bird. The next day, before I knew she was about,
+she discovered me, though it was plain that she hoped I had not
+discovered her. Instantly she became silent and wary, coming to her nest
+over the top of the trees, so quietly that I should not have known it
+except for her shadow on the leaves. No talk or song now fell upon my
+ear; calls outside were few and subdued. Everything was different from
+the natural unconsciousness of the previous day; the birds were on
+guard, and henceforth I should be under surveillance.
+
+From this moment I lost my pleasure in the study, for I feel little
+interest in the actions of a bird under the constraint of an unwelcome
+presence, or in the shadow of constant fear and dread. What I care to
+see is the natural life, the free, unstudied ways of birds who do not
+notice or are not disturbed by spectators. Nor have I any pleasure in
+going about the country staring into every tree, and poking into every
+bush, thrusting irreverent hands into the mysteries of other lives, and
+rudely tearing away the veils that others have drawn around their
+private affairs. That they are only birds does not signify to me; for me
+they are fellow-creatures; they have rights, which I am bound to
+respect.
+
+I prefer to make myself so little obvious, or so apparently harmless to
+a bird, that she will herself show me her nest, or at least the leafy
+screen behind which it is hidden. Then, if I take advantage of her
+absence to spy upon her treasures, it is as a friend only,--a friend who
+respects her desire for seclusion, who never lays profane hands upon
+them, and who shares the secret only with one equally reverent and
+loving. Naturally I do not find so many nests as do the vandals to whom
+nothing is sacred, but I enjoy what I do find, in a way it hath not
+entered into their hearts to conceive.
+
+In spite of my disinclination, we made one more call upon the magpie
+family, and this time we had a reception. This bird is intelligent and
+by no means a slave to habit; because he has behaved in a certain way
+once, there is no law, avian or divine, that compels him to repeat that
+conduct on the next occasion. Nor is it safe to generalize about him, or
+any other bird for that matter. One cannot say, "The magpie does thus
+and so," because each individual magpie has his own way of doing, and
+circumstances alter cases, with birds as well as with people.
+
+On this occasion we placed ourselves boldly, though very quietly, in the
+paths that run through the oak-brush. We had abandoned all attempt at
+concealment; we could hope only for tolerance. The birds readily
+understood; they appreciated that they were seen and watched, and their
+manners changed accordingly. The first one of the black-and-white gentry
+who entered the grove discovered my comrade, and announced the presence
+of the enemy by a loud cry, in what somebody has aptly called a
+"frontier tone of voice." Instantly another appeared and added his
+remarks; then another, and still another, till within five minutes there
+were ten or twelve excited magpies, shouting at the top of their voices,
+and hopping and flying about her head, coming ever nearer and nearer, as
+if they meditated a personal attack. I did not really fear it, but I
+kept close watch, while remaining motionless, in the hope that they
+would not notice me. Vain hope! nothing could escape those sharp eyes
+when once the bird was aroused. After they had said what they chose to
+my friend, who received the taunts and abuse of the infuriated mob in
+meek silence, lifting not her voice to reply, they turned the stream of
+their eloquence upon me.
+
+I was equally passive, for indeed I felt that they had a grievance. We
+have no right to expect birds to tell one human being from another, so
+long as we, with all our boasted intelligence, cannot tell one crow or
+one magpie from another; and all the week they had suffered persecution
+at the hands of the village boys. Young magpies, nestlings, were in
+nearly every house, and the birds had endured pillage, and doubtless
+some of them death. I did not blame the grieved parents for the
+reception they gave us; from their point of view we belonged to the
+enemy.
+
+After the storm had swept by, and while we sat there waiting to see if
+the birds would return, one of the horses of the pasture made his
+appearance on the side where I sat, now eating the top of a rosebush,
+now snipping off a flower plant that had succeeded in getting two leaves
+above the ground, but at every step coming nearer me. It was plain that
+he contemplated retiring to this shady grove, and, not so observing as
+the magpies, did not see that it was already occupied. When he was not
+more than ten feet away, I snatched off my sun hat and waved it before
+him, not wishing to make a noise. He stopped instantly, stared wildly
+for a moment, as if he had never seen such an apparition, then wheeled
+with a snort, flung out his heels in disrespect, and galloped off down
+the field.
+
+The incident was insignificant, but the result was curious. So long as
+we stayed in that bit of brush, not a horse attempted to enter, though
+they all browsed around outside. They avoided it as if it were haunted,
+or, as my comrade said, "filled with beckoning forms." Nor was that all;
+I have reason to think they never again entered that particular patch of
+brush, for, some weeks after we had abandoned the study of magpies and
+the pasture altogether, we found the spot transformed, as if by the wand
+of enchantment. From the burned-up desert outside we stepped at once
+into a miniature paradise, to our surprise, almost our consternation.
+Excepting the footpaths through it, it bore no appearance of having ever
+been a thoroughfare. Around the foot of every tree had grown up clumps
+of ferns or brakes, a yard high, luxuriant, graceful, and exquisite in
+form and color; and peeping out from under them were flowers, dainty
+wildings we had not before seen there. A bit of the tropics or a gem out
+of fairyland it looked to our sun and sand weary eyes. Outside were the
+burning sun of June, a withering hot wind, and yellow and dead
+vegetation; within was cool greenness and a mere rustle of leaves
+whispering of the gale. It was the loveliest bit of greenery we saw on
+the shores of the Great Salt Lake. It was marvelous; it was almost
+uncanny.
+
+Our daily trips to the pasture had ceased, and other birds and other
+nests had occupied our thoughts for a week or two, when we resolved to
+pay a last visit to our old haunts, to see if we could learn anything of
+the magpies. We went through the pasture, led by the voices of the birds
+away over to the farther side, and there, across another fenced pasture,
+we heard them plainly, calling and chattering and making much noise, but
+in different tones from any we had heard before. Evidently a magpie
+nursery had been established over there. We fancied we could distinguish
+maternal reproof and loving baby talk, beside the weaker voices of the
+young, and we went home rejoicing to believe, that in spite of nest
+robbers, and the fright we had given them, some young magpies were
+growing up to enliven the world another summer.
+
+
+
+
+XIX.
+
+THE SECRET OF THE WILD ROSE PATH.
+
+     "Shall I call thee Bird,
+ Or but a wandering Voice?"
+
+
+Wordsworth's lines are addressed to the cuckoo of the Old World, a bird
+of unenviable reputation, notorious for imposing his most sacred duties
+upon others; naturally, therefore, one who would not court observation,
+and whose ways would be somewhat mysterious. But the American
+representative of the family is a bird of different manners. Unlike his
+namesake across the water, our cuckoo never--or so rarely as practically
+to be never--shirks the labor of nest-building and raising a family. He
+has no reason to skulk, and though always a shy bird, he is no more so
+than several others, and in no sense is he a mystery.
+
+There is, however, one American bird for whom Wordsworth's verse might
+have been written; one whose chief aim seems to be, reversing our
+grandmothers' rule for little people, to be heard, and not seen. To be
+seen is, with this peculiar fellow, a misfortune, an accident, which he
+avoids with great care, while his voice rings out loud and clear above
+all others in the shrubbery. I refer to the yellow-breasted chat
+(_Icteria virens_), whose summer home is the warmer temperate regions of
+our country, from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast, and whose
+unbirdlike utterances prepare one to believe the stories told of his
+eccentric actions; this, for example, by Dr. Abbott:--
+
+ "Aloft in the sunny air he springs;
+     To his timid mate he calls;
+ With dangling legs and fluttering wings
+     On the tangled smilax falls;
+       He mutters, he shrieks--
+         A hopeless cry;
+       You think that he seeks
+         In peace to die,
+ But pity him not; 't is the ghostly chat,
+ An imp if there is one, be sure of that."
+
+I first knew the chat--if one may be said to know a creature so shy--in
+a spot I have elsewhere described, a deserted park at the foot of
+Cheyenne Mountain. I became familiar with his various calls and cries
+(one can hardly call them songs); I secured one or two fleeting glimpses
+of his graceful form; I sought and discovered the nest, which thereupon
+my Lady Chat promptly abandoned, though I had not laid a finger upon it;
+and last of all, I had the sorrow and shame of knowing that my
+curiosity had driven the pair from the neighborhood. This was the
+Western form of _Icteria_, differing from the Eastern only in a greater
+length of tail, which several of our Rocky Mountain birds affect, for
+the purpose, apparently, of puzzling the ornithologist.
+
+Two years after my unsuccessful attempt to cultivate friendly relations
+with "the ghostly chat," the middle of May found me on the shore of the
+Great Salt Lake, where I settled myself at the foot of the Wasatch
+Mountains, at that point bare, gray, and unattractive, showing miles of
+loose bowlders and great patches of sage-bush. In the monotonous
+stretches of this shrub, each plant of which looks exactly like every
+other, dwelt many shy birds, as well hidden as bobolinks in the meadow
+grass, or meadow-larks in the alfalfa.
+
+But on this mountain side no friendly cover existed from which I could
+spy out bird secrets. Whatever my position, and wherever I placed
+myself, I was as conspicuous as a tower in the middle of a plain; again,
+no shadow of protection was there from the too-ardent sun of Utah, which
+drew the vitality from my frame as it did the color from my gown; worse
+than these, the everywhere present rocks were the chosen haunts of the
+one enemy of a peaceful bird lover, the rattlesnake, and I hesitated to
+pursue the bird, because I invariably forgot to watch and listen for the
+reptile. Bird study under these conditions was impossible, but the place
+presented a phase of nature unfamiliar to me, and for a time so
+fascinating that every morning my steps turned of themselves "up the
+stony pathway to the hills."
+
+The companion of my walks, a fellow bird-student, was more than
+fascinated; she was enraptured. The odorous bush had associations for
+her; she reveled in it; she inhaled its fragrance as a delicious
+perfume; she filled her pockets with it; she lay for hours at a time on
+the ground, where she could bask in the sunshine, and see nothing but
+the gray leaves around her and the blue sky above.
+
+I can hardly tell what was the fascination for me. It was certainly not
+the view of the mountains, though mountains are beyond words in my
+affections. The truth is, the Rocky Mountains, many of them, need a
+certain distance to make them either picturesque or dignified. The range
+then daily before our eyes, the Wasatch, was, to dwellers at its feet,
+bleak, monotonous, and hopelessly prosaic. The lowest foothills, being
+near, hid the taller peaks, as a penny before the eye will hide a whole
+landscape.
+
+Let me not, however, be unjust to the mountains I love. There is a
+range which satisfies my soul, and will rest in my memory forever, a
+beautiful picture, or rather a whole gallery of pictures. I can shut my
+eyes and see it at this moment, as I have seen it a thousand times. In
+the early morning, when the level sun shines on its face, it is like one
+continuous mountain reaching across the whole western horizon; it has a
+broken and beautiful sky line; Pike's Peak looms up toward the middle,
+and lovely Cheyenne ends it in graceful slope on the south; lights and
+shadows play over it; its colors change with the changing sky or
+atmosphere,--sometimes blue as the heavens, sometimes misty as a dream;
+it is wonderfully beautiful then. But wait till the sun gets higher;
+look again at noon, or a little later. Behold the whole range has sprung
+into life, separated into individuals; gorges are cut where none had
+appeared; chasms come to light; cañons and all sorts of divisions are
+seen; foothills move forward to their proper places, and taller peaks
+turn at angles to each other; shapes and colors that one never suspected
+come out in the picture: the transformation is marvelous. But the sun
+moves on, the magical moment passes, each mountain slips back into line,
+and behold, you see again the morning's picture.
+
+Indulge me one moment, while I try to show you the last picture
+impressed upon my memory as the train bore me, unwilling, away. It was
+cloudy, a storm was coming up, and the whole range was in deep shadow,
+when suddenly through some rift in the clouds a burst of sunshine fell
+upon the "beloved mountain" Cheyenne, and upon it alone. In a moment it
+was a smiling picture,
+
+                                   "Glad
+ With light as with a garment it was clad;"
+
+all its inequalities, its divisions, its irregularities emphasized, its
+greens turned greener, its reds made more glowing,--an unequaled gem for
+a parting gift.
+
+To come back to Utah. One morning, on our way up to the heights, as we
+were passing a clump of oak-brush, a bird cry rang out. The voice was
+loud and clear, and the notes were of a peculiar character: first a
+"chack" two or three times repeated, then subdued barks like those of a
+distressed puppy, followed by hoarse "mews" and other sounds suggesting
+almost any creature rather than one in feathers. But with delight I
+recognized the chat; my enthusiasm instantly revived. I unfolded my camp
+chair, placed myself against a stone wall on the opposite side of the
+road, and became silent and motionless as the wall itself.
+
+My comrade, on the contrary, as was her custom, proceeded with equal
+promptness to follow the bird up, to hunt him out. She slipped between
+the barbed wires which, quite unnecessarily, one would suppose, defended
+the bleak pasture from outside encroachment, and passed out of sight
+down an obscure path that led into the brush where the bird was hidden.
+Though our ways differ, or rather, perhaps, _because_ our ways differ,
+we are able to study in company. Certainly this circumstance proved
+available in circumventing the wily chat, and that happened which had
+happened before: in fleeing from one who made herself obvious to him, he
+presented himself, an unsuspecting victim, to another who sat like a
+statue against the wall. To avoid his pursuer, the bird slipped through
+the thick foliage of the low oaks, and took his place on the outside, in
+full view of me, but looking through the branches at the movements
+within so intently that he never turned his eyes toward me. This gave me
+an opportunity to study his manners that is rare indeed, for a chat off
+his guard is something inconceivable.
+
+He shouted out his whole _répertoire_ (or so it seemed) with great
+vehemence, now "peeping" like a bird in the nest, then "chacking" like a
+blackbird, mewing as neatly as pussy herself, and varying these calls by
+the rattling of castanets and other indescribable sounds. His perch was
+half way down the bush; his trim olive-drab back and shining golden
+breast were in their spring glory, and he stood nearly upright as he
+sang, every moment stretching up to look for the invader behind the
+leaves. The instant she appeared outside, he vanished within, and I
+folded my chair and passed on. His disturber had not caught a glimpse of
+him.
+
+My next interview with a chat took place a day or two later. Between the
+cottage which was our temporary home and the next one was a narrow
+garden bordered by thick hedges, raspberry bushes down each side, and a
+mass of flowering shrubs next the street. From my seat within the house,
+a little back from the open window, I was startled by the voice of a
+chat close at hand. Looking cautiously out, I saw him in the garden,
+foraging about under cover of the bushes, near the ground, and there for
+some time I watched him. He had not the slightest repose of manner; the
+most ill-bred tramp in the English sparrow family was in that respect
+his superior, and the most nervous and excitable of wrens could not
+outdo him in posturing, jerking himself up, flirting his tail, and
+hopping from twig to twig. When musically inclined, he perched on the
+inner side of the bushes against the front fence, a foot or two above
+the ground, and within three feet of any one who might pass, but
+perfectly hidden.
+
+The performance of the chat was exceedingly droll; first a whistle,
+clear as an oriole note, followed by chacks that would deceive a
+red-wing himself, and then, oddest of all, the laugh of a feeble old
+man, a weak sort of "yah! yah! yah!" If I had not seen him in the act, I
+could not have believed the sound came from a bird's throat. He
+concluded with a low, almost whispered "chur-r-r," a sort of private
+chuckle over his unique exhibition. After a few minutes' singing he
+returned to his foraging on the ground, or over the lowest twigs of the
+bushes, all the time bubbling over with low joyous notes, his graceful
+head thrown up, and his beautiful golden throat swelling with the happy
+song. The listener and looker behind the screen was charmed to absolute
+quiet, and the bird so utterly unsuspicious of observers that he was
+perfectly natural and at his ease, hopping quickly from place to place,
+and apparently snatching his repast between notes.
+
+The chat's secret of invisibility was thus plainly revealed. It is not
+in his protective coloring, for though his back is modest of hue, his
+breast is conspicuously showy; nor is it in his size, for he is almost
+as large as an oriole; it is in his manners. The bird I was watching
+never approached the top of a shrub, but invariably perched a foot or
+more below it, and his movements, though quick, were silence itself. No
+rustle of leaves proclaimed his presence; indeed, he seemed to avoid
+leaves, using the outside twigs near the main stalk or trunk, where they
+are usually quite bare, and no flit of wing or tail gave warning of his
+change of position. There was a seemingly natural wariness and
+cautiousness in every movement and attitude, that I never saw equaled in
+feathers.
+
+Then, too, the clever fellow was so constantly on his guard and so alert
+that the least stir attracted his attention. Though inside the house, as
+I said, not near the window, and further veiled by screens, I had to
+remain as nearly motionless as possible, and use my glass with utmost
+caution. The smallest movement sent him into the bushes like a shot,--or
+rather, like a shadow, for the passage was always noiseless. Suspicion
+once aroused, the bird simply disappeared. One could not say of him, as
+of others, that he flew, for whether he used his wings, or melted away,
+or sank into the earth, it would be hard to tell. All I can be positive
+about is, that whereas one moment he was there, the next he was gone.
+
+After this exhibition of the character of the chat, his constant
+watchfulness, his distrust, his love of mystery, it may appear strange
+that I should try again to study him at home, to find his nest and see
+his family. But there is something so bewitching in his individuality,
+that, though I may be always baffled, I shall never be discouraged.
+Somewhat later, when it was evident that his spouse had arrived and
+domestic life had begun, and I became accustomed to hearing a chat in a
+certain place every day as I passed, I resolved to make one more effort
+to win his confidence, or, if not that, at least his tolerance.
+
+The chat medley for which I was always listening came invariably from
+one spot on my pathway up the mountain. It was the lower end of a large
+horse pasture, and near the entrance stood a small brick house, in which
+no doubt dwelt the owner, or care-taker, of the animals. The wide gate,
+in a common fashion of that country, opened in the middle, and was
+fastened by a link of iron which dropped over the two centre posts. The
+rattle of the iron as I touched it, on the morning I resolved to go in,
+brought to the door a woman. She was rather young, with hair cut close
+to her head, and wore a dark cotton gown, which was short and scant of
+skirt, and covered with a "checked apron." She was evidently at work,
+and was probably the mistress, since few in that "working-bee" village
+kept maids.
+
+I made my request to go into the pasture to look at the birds.
+
+"Why, certainly," she said, with a courtesy that I have found everywhere
+in Utah, though with a slow surprise growing in her face. "Come right
+in."
+
+I closed and fastened the gate, and started on past her. Three feet
+beyond the doorsteps I was brought to a standstill: the ground as far as
+I could see was water-soaked; it was like a saturated sponge. Utah is
+dominated by Irrigation; she is a slave to her water supply. One going
+there from the land of rains has much to learn of the possibilities and
+the inconveniences of water. I was always stumbling upon it in new
+combinations and unaccustomed places, and I never could get used to its
+vagaries. Books written in the interest of the Territory indulge in
+rhapsodies over the fact that every man is his own rain-maker; and I
+admit that the arrangement has its advantages--to the cultivator. But
+judging from the standpoint of an outsider, I should say that man is not
+an improvement upon the original providence which distributes the staff
+of life to plants elsewhere, spreading the vital fluid over the whole
+land, so evenly that every grass blade gets its due share; and as all
+parts are wet at once, so all are dry at the same time, and the surplus,
+if there be any, runs in well-appointed ways, with delight to both eye
+and ear. All this is changed when the office of Jupiter Pluvius devolves
+upon man; different indeed are his methods. A man turns a stream loose
+in a field or pasture, and it wanders whither it will over the ground.
+The grass hides it, and the walker, bird-student or botanist, steps
+splash into it without the slightest warning. This is always unpleasant,
+and is sometimes disastrous, as when one attempts to cross the edge of a
+field of some close-growing crop, and instantly sinks to the top of the
+shoes in the soft mud.
+
+On the morning spoken of, I stopped before the barrier, considering how
+I should pass it, when the woman showed me a narrow passage between the
+house and the stone wall, through which I could reach the higher ground
+at the back. I took this path, and in a moment was in the grove of young
+oaks which made her out-of-doors kitchen and yard. A fire was burning
+merrily in the stove, which stood under a tree; frying-pans and
+baking-tins, dippers and dishcloths, hung on the outer wall of her
+little house, and the whole had a camping-out air that was captivating,
+and possible only in a rainless land. I longed to linger and study this
+open-air housekeeping; if that woman had only been a bird!
+
+But I passed on through the oak-grove back yard, following a path the
+horses had made, till I reached an open place where I could overlook
+the lower land, filled with clumps of willows with their feet in the
+water, and rosebushes
+
+ "O'erburdened with their weight of flowers,
+   And drooping 'neath their own sweet scent."
+
+A bird was singing as I took my seat, a grosbeak,--perhaps the one who
+had entertained me in the field below, while I had waited hour after
+hour, for his calm-eyed mate to point out her nest. He sang there from
+the top of a tall tree, and she busied herself in the low bushes, but up
+to that time they had kept their secret well. He was a beautiful bird,
+in black and orange-brown and gold,--the black-headed grosbeak; and his
+song, besides being very pleasing, was interesting because it seemed
+hard to get out. It was as if he had conceived a brilliant and beautiful
+strain, and found himself unable to execute it. But if he felt the
+incompleteness of his performance as I did, he did not let it put an end
+to his endeavor. I sat there listening, and he came nearer, even to a
+low tree over my head; and as I had a glimpse or two of his mate in a
+tangle of willow and roses far out in the wet land, I concluded he was
+singing to her, and not to me. Now that he was so near, I heard more
+than I had before, certain low, sweet notes, plainly not intended for
+the public ear. This undertone song ended always in "sweet! sweet!
+sweet!" usually followed by a trill, and was far more effective than
+his state performances. Sometimes, after the "sweet" repeated half a
+dozen times, each note lower than the preceding one, he ended with a
+sort of purr of contentment.
+
+I became so absorbed in listening that I had almost forgotten the object
+of my search, but I was suddenly recalled by a loud voice at one side,
+and the lively genius of the place was on hand in his usual rôle.
+Indeed, he rather surpassed himself in mocking and taunting cries that
+morning, either because he wished, as my host, to entertain me, or, what
+was more probable, to reproach me for disturbing the serenity of his
+life. Whatever might have been his motive, he delighted me, as always,
+by the spirit and vigor with which he poured out his chacks and whistles
+and rattles and calls. Then I tried to locate him by following up the
+sound, picking my way through the bushes, and among the straggling arms
+of the irrigating stream. After some experiments, I discovered that he
+was most concerned when I came near an impenetrable tangle that skirted
+the lower end of the lot. I say "near:" it was near "as the crow flies,"
+but for one without wings it may have been half a mile; for between me
+and that spot was a great gulf fixed, the rallying point of the most
+erratic of wandering streamlets, and so given over to its vagaries that
+no bird-gazer, however enthusiastic, and indifferent to wet feet and
+draggled garments, dared attempt to pass. There I was forced to pause,
+while the bird flung out his notes as if in defiance, wilder, louder,
+and more vehement than ever.
+
+In that thicket, I said to myself, as I took my way home, behind that
+tangle, if I can manage to reach it, I shall find the home of the chat.
+The situation was discouraging, but I was not to be discouraged; to
+reach that stronghold I was resolved, if I had to dam up the irrigator,
+build a bridge, or fill up the quagmire.
+
+No such heroic treatment of the difficulty was demanded; my problem was
+very simply solved. As I entered the gate the next morning, my eyes fell
+upon an obscure footpath leading away from the house and the watery way
+beyond it, down through overhanging wild roses, and under the great
+tangle in which the chat had hidden. It looked mysterious, not to say
+forbidding, and, from the low drooping of the foliage above, it was
+plainly a horse path, not a human way. But it was undoubtedly the key to
+the secrets of the tangle, and I turned into it without hesitation.
+Stooping under the branches hanging low with their fragrant burden, and
+stopping every moment to loosen the hold of some hindering thorn, I
+followed in the footsteps of my four-footed pioneers till I reached the
+lower end of the marsh that had kept me from entering on the upper side.
+On its edge I placed my chair and seated myself.
+
+It was an ideal retreat; within call if help were needed, yet a solitude
+it was plain no human being, in that land where (according to the
+Prophet) every man, woman, and child is a working bee, ever invaded;
+
+                               "A leafy nook
+ Where wind never entered, nor branch ever shook,"
+
+known only to my equine friends and to me. I exulted in it! No
+discoverer of a new land, no stumbler upon a gold mine, was ever more
+exhilarated over his find than I over my solitary wild rose path.
+
+The tangle was composed of a varied growth. There seemed to have been
+originally a straggling row of low trees, chokecherry, peach, and
+willow, which had been surrounded, overwhelmed, and almost buried by a
+rich growth of shoots from their own roots, bound and cemented together
+by the luxuriant wild rose of the West, which grows profusely everywhere
+it can get a foothold, stealing up around and between the branches, till
+it overtops and fairly smothers in blossoms a fair-sized oak or other
+tree. Besides these were great ferns, or brakes, three or four feet
+high, which filled up the edges of the thicket, making it absolutely
+impervious to the eye, as well as to the foot of any straggler. Except
+in the obscure passages the horses kept open, no person could penetrate
+my jungle.
+
+I had hardly placed myself, and I had not noted half of these details,
+when it became evident that my presence disturbed somebody. A chat cried
+out excitedly, "chack! chack! whe-e-w!" whereupon there followed an
+angry squawk, so loud and so near that it startled me. I turned quickly,
+and saw madam herself, all ruffled as if from the nest. She was plainly
+as much startled as I was, but she scorned to flee. She perked up her
+tail till she looked like an exaggerated wren; she humped her shoulders;
+she turned this way and that, showing in every movement her anger at my
+intrusion; above all, she repeated at short intervals that squawk, like
+an enraged hen. Hearing a rustle of wings on the other side, I turned my
+eyes an instant, and when I looked again she had gone! She would not run
+while I looked at her, but she had the true chat instinct of keeping out
+of sight.
+
+She did not desert her grove, however. The canopy over my head, the roof
+to my retreat, was of green leaves, translucent, almost transparent. The
+sun was the sun of Utah; it cast strong shadows, and not a bird could
+move without my seeing it. I could see that she remained on guard,
+hopping and flying silently from one point of view to another, no doubt
+keeping close watch of me all the time.
+
+Meanwhile the chat himself had not for a moment ceased calling. For some
+time his voice would sound quite near; then it would draw off, growing
+more and more distant, as if he were tired of watching one who did
+absolutely nothing. But he never got far away before madam recalled him,
+sometimes by the squawk alone, sometimes preceding it by a single clear
+whistle, exactly in his own tone. At once, as if this were a
+signal,--which doubtless it was,--his cries redoubled in energy, and
+seemed to come nearer again.
+
+Above the restless demonstrations of the chats I could hear the clear,
+sweet song of the Western meadow-lark in the next field. Well indeed
+might his song be serene; the minstrel of the meadow knew perfectly well
+that his nest and nestlings were as safely hidden in the middle of the
+growing lucern as if in another planet; while the chat, on the contrary,
+was plainly conscious of the ease with which his homestead might be
+discovered. A ruthless destroyer, a nest-robbing boy, would have had the
+whole thing in his pocket days ago. Even I, if I had not preferred to
+have the owners show it to me: if I had not made excuses to myself, of
+the marsh, of bushes too low to go under; if I had not hated to take it
+by force, to frighten the little folk I wished to make friends
+with,--even I might have seen the nest long before that morning. Thus I
+meditated as, after waiting an hour or two, I started for home.
+
+Outside the gate I met my fellow-student, and we went on together. Our
+way lay beside an old orchard that we had often noticed in our walks.
+The trees were not far apart, and so overgrown that they formed a deep
+shade, like a heavy forest, which was most attractive when everything
+outside was baking in the June sun. It was nearly noon when we reached
+the gate, and looking into a place
+
+               "So curtained with trunks and boughs
+ That in hours when the ringdove coos to his spouse
+ The sun to its heart scarce a way could win,"
+
+we could not resist its inviting coolness; we went in.
+
+As soon as we were quiet, we noticed that there were more robins than we
+had heretofore seen in one neighborhood in that part of the world; for
+our familiar bird is by no means plentiful in the Rocky Mountain
+countries, where grassy lawns are rare, and his chosen food is not
+forthcoming. The old apple-trees seemed to be a favorite nesting-place,
+and before we had been there five minutes we saw that there were at
+least two nests within fifty feet of us, and a grosbeak singing his
+love song, so near that we had hopes of finding his home, also, in this
+secluded nook.
+
+The alighting of a bird low down on the trunk of a tree, perhaps twenty
+feet away, called the attention of my friend to a neighbor we had not
+counted upon, a large snake, with, as we noted with horror, the color
+and markings of the dreaded rattler. He had, as it seemed, started to
+climb one of the leaning trunks, and when he had reached a point where
+the trunk divided into two parts, his head about two feet up, and the
+lower part of his body still on the ground, had stopped, and now rested
+thus, motionless as the tree itself. It may be that it was the sudden
+presence of his hereditary enemy that held him apparently spellbound, or
+it is possible that this position served his own purposes better than
+any other. Our first impulse was to leave his lordship in undisputed
+possession of his shady retreat; but the second thought, which held us,
+was to see what sort of reception the robins would give him. There was a
+nest full of young on a neighboring tree, and it was the mother who had
+come down to interview the foe. Would she call her mate? Would the
+neighbors come to the rescue? Should we see a fight, such as we had read
+of? We decided to wait for the result.
+
+Strange to say, however, this little mother did not call for help. Not
+one of the loud, disturbed cries with which robins greet an innocent
+bird-student or a passing sparrow hawk was heard from her; though her
+kinsfolk sprinkled the orchard, she uttered not a sound. For a moment
+she seemed dazed; she stood motionless, staring at the invader as if
+uncertain whether he were alive. Then she appeared to be interested; she
+came a little nearer, still gazing into the face of her enemy, whose
+erect head and glittering eyes were turned toward her. We could not see
+that he made the slightest movement, while she hopped nearer and nearer;
+sometimes on one division of the trunk, and sometimes on the other, but
+always, with every hop, coming a little nearer. She did not act
+frightened nor at all anxious; she simply seemed interested, and
+inclined to close investigation. Was she fascinated? Were the old
+stories of snake power over birds true? Our interest was most intense;
+we did not take our eyes from her; nothing could have dragged us away
+then.
+
+Suddenly the bird flew to the ground, and, so quickly that we did not
+see the movement, the head of the snake was turned over toward her,
+proving that it was the bird, and not us, he was watching. Still she
+kept drawing nearer till she was not more than a foot from him, when our
+sympathy with the unfortunate creature, who apparently was unable to
+tear herself away, overcame our scientific curiosity. "Poor thing,
+she'll be killed! Let us drive her away!" we cried. We picked up small
+stones which we threw toward her; we threatened her with sticks; we
+"shooed" at her with demonstrations that would have quickly driven away
+a robin in possession of its senses. Not a step farther off did she
+move; she hopped one side to avoid our missiles, but instantly fluttered
+back to her doom. Meanwhile her mate appeared upon the scene, hovering
+anxiously about in the trees overhead, but not coming near the snake.
+
+By this time we had lost all interest in the question whether a snake
+can charm a bird to its destruction; we thought only of saving the
+little life in such danger. We looked around for help; my friend ran
+across the street to a house, hurriedly secured the help of a man with a
+heavy stick, and in two minutes the snake lay dead on the ground.
+
+The bird, at once relieved, flew hastily to her nest, showing no signs
+of mental aberration, or any other effect of the strain she had been
+under. The snake was what the man called a "bull snake," and so closely
+resembled the rattler in color and markings that, although its
+exterminator had killed many of the more famous reptiles, he could not
+tell, until it was stretched out in death, which of the two it was. This
+tragedy spoiled the old orchard for me, and never again did I enter its
+gates.
+
+Down the wild rose path I took my way the next morning. Silently and
+quickly I gained my seat of yesterday, hoping to surprise the chat
+family. No doubt my hope was vain; noiseless, indeed, and deft of
+movement must be the human being who could come upon this alert bird
+unawares. He greeted me with a new note, a single clear call, like "ho!"
+Then he proceeded to study me, coming cautiously nearer and nearer, as I
+could see out of the corner of my eye, while pretending to be closely
+occupied with my notebook. His loud notes had ceased, but it is not in
+chat nature to be utterly silent; many low sounds dropped from his beak
+as he approached. Sometimes it was a squawk, a gentle imitation of that
+which rang through the air from the mouth of his spouse; again it was a
+hoarse sort of mewing, followed by various indescribable sounds in the
+same undertone; and then he would suddenly take himself in hand, and be
+perfectly silent for half a minute.
+
+After a little, madam took up the matter, uttering her angry squawk, and
+breaking upon my silence almost like a pistol shot. At once I forgot her
+mate, and though he retired to a little distance and resumed his
+brilliant musical performance, I did not turn my head at his
+beguilements. She was the business partner of the firm whose movements I
+wished to follow. She must, sooner or later, go to her nest, while he
+might deceive me for days. Indeed, I strongly suspected him of that very
+thing, and whenever he became bolder in approaching, or louder and more
+vociferous of tongue, I was convinced that it was to cover her
+operations. I redoubled my vigilance in watching for her, keeping my
+eyes open for any slight stirring of a twig, tremble of a leaf, or quick
+shadow near the ground that should point her out as she skulked to her
+nest. I had already observed that whenever she uttered her squawks he
+instantly burst into energetic shouts and calls. I believed it a
+concerted action, with the intent of drawing my attention from her
+movements.
+
+On this day the disturbed little mother herself interviewed me. First
+she came silently under the green canopy, in plain sight, stood a moment
+before me, jerking up her beautiful long tail and letting it drop slowly
+back, and posing her mobile body in different positions; then suddenly
+flying close past me, she alighted on one side, and stared at me for
+half a dozen seconds. Then, evidently, she resolved to take me in hand.
+She assumed the rôle of deceiver, with all the wariness of her family;
+her object being, as I suppose, carefully to point out where her nest
+was _not_. She circled about me, taking no pains to avoid my gaze. Now
+she squawked on the right; then she acted "the anxious mother" on the
+left; this time it was from the clump of rosebushes in front that she
+rose hurriedly, as if that was her home; again it was from over my head,
+in the chokecherry-tree, that she bustled off, as if she had been
+"caught in the act." It was a brilliant, a wonderful performance, a
+thousand times more effective than trailing or any of the similar
+devices by which an uneasy bird mother draws attention from her brood.
+It was so well done that at each separate manœuvre I could hardly be
+convinced by my own eyes that the particular spot indicated did not
+conceal the little homestead I was seeking. Several times I rose
+triumphant, feeling sure that "now indeed I _do_ know where it is," and
+proceeded at once to the bush she had pointed out with so much simulated
+reluctance, parted the branches, and looked in, only to find myself
+deceived again. Her acting was marvelous. With just the properly
+anxious, uneasy manner, she would steal behind a clump of leaves into
+some retired spot admirably adapted for a chat's nest, and after a
+moment sneak out at the other side, and fly away near the ground,
+exactly as all bird-students have seen bird mothers do a thousand
+times.
+
+After this performance a silence fell upon the tangle and the solitary
+nook in which I sat,--and I meditated. It was the last day of my stay.
+Should I set up a search for that nest which I was sure was within
+reach? I could go over the whole in half an hour, examine every shrub
+and low tree and inch of ground in it, and doubtless I should find it.
+No; I do not care for a nest thus forced. The distress of parents, the
+panic of nestlings, give me no pleasure. I know how a chat's nest looks.
+I have seen one with its pinky-pearl eggs; why should I care to see
+another? I know how young birds look; I have seen dozens of them this
+very summer. Far better that I never lay eyes upon the nest than to do
+it at such cost.
+
+As I reached this conclusion, into the midst of my silence came the
+steady tramp of a horse. I knew the wild rose path was a favorite
+retreat from the sun, and it was very hot. The path was narrow; if a
+horse came in upon me, he could not turn round and retreat, nor was
+there room for him to pass me. Realizing all this in an instant, I
+snatched up my belongings, and hurried to get out before he should get
+in.
+
+When I emerged, the chat set up his loudest and most triumphant shouts.
+"Again we have fooled you," he seemed to say; "again we have thrown
+your poor human acuteness off the scent! We shall manage to bring up our
+babies in safety, in spite of you!"
+
+So indeed they might, even if I had seen them; but this, alas, I could
+not make him understand. So he treated me--his best friend--exactly as
+he treated the nest-robber and the bird-shooter.
+
+I shall never know whether that nest contained eggs or young birds; or
+whether perchance there was no nest at all, and I had been deceived from
+the first by the most artful and beguiling of birds. And through all
+this I had never once squarely seen the chat I had been following.
+
+ "Even yet thou art to me
+ No bird, but, an invisible thing,
+ A voice, a mystery."
+
+
+
+
+XX.
+
+ON THE LAWN.
+
+
+The first thing that strikes an Eastern bird-student in the Rocky
+Mountain region, as I have already said, is the absence of the birds he
+is familiar with. Instead of the chipping sparrow everywhere, one sees
+the lazuli-painted finch, or the Rocky Mountain bluebird; in place of
+the American robin's song, most common of sounds in country
+neighborhoods on the Atlantic side of the continent, is heard the silver
+bell of the towhee bunting, sometimes called marsh robin, or the harsh
+"chack" of Brewer's blackbird; the music that opens sleepy eyes at
+daybreak is not a chorus of robins and song-sparrows, but the ringing
+notes of the chewink, the clear-cut song of the Western meadow-lark, or
+the labored utterance of the black-headed grosbeak; it is not by the
+melancholy refrain of the whippoorwill or the heavenly hymns of thrushes
+that the approach of night is heralded, but by the cheery trill of the
+house wren or the dismal wail of the Western wood-pewee.
+
+Most of all does the bird-lover miss the thrushes from the feathered
+orchestra. Some of them may dwell in that part of the world,--the books
+affirm it, and I cannot deny it,--but this I know: one whose eye is
+untiring, and whose ear is open night and day to bird-notes, may spend
+May, June, July, yes, and even August, in the haunts of Rocky Mountain
+birds, and not once see or hear either of our choice singing thrushes.
+
+However the student may miss the birds he knows at home, he must rejoice
+in the absence of one,--the English sparrow. When one sees the charming
+purple finch and summer yellow-bird, nesting and singing in the streets
+of Denver, and the bewitching Arkansas goldfinch and the beautiful
+Western bluebird perfectly at home in Colorado Springs, he is reminded
+of what might be in the Eastern cities, if only the human race had not
+interfered with Nature's distribution of her feathered families. In
+Utah, indeed, we meet again the foreigner, for in that unfortunate
+Territory the man, wise in his own conceit, was found to introduce him,
+and Salt Lake, the city of their pride and glory, is as completely
+infested by the feathered tramp as New York itself. Happy is Colorado
+that great deserts form her borders, and that chains of mountains
+separate her from her neighbors; for, since the sparrow is as fond of
+the city as Dr. Johnson, it may be hoped that neither he, nor his
+children, nor his grandchildren, will ever cross the barriers.
+
+In Utah, as everywhere, the English sparrows are sharp-witted rogues,
+and they have discovered and taken possession of the most comfortable
+place for bird quarters to be found, for protection from the terrible
+heat of summer, and the wind and snow of winter; it is between the roof
+and the stone or adobe walls of the houses. Wherever the inequalities of
+the stones or the shrinkage of the wood has left an opening, and made
+penetration possible, there an English sparrow has established a
+permanent abode.
+
+The first bird I noticed in the quiet Mormon village where I settled
+myself to study was a little beauty in blue. I knew him instantly, for I
+had met him before in Colorado. He was dining luxuriously on the
+feathery seeds of a dandelion when I discovered him, and at no great
+distance was his olive-clad mate, similarly engaged. They were
+conversing cheerfully in low tones, and in a few minutes I suppose he
+called her attention to the superior quality of his dandelion; for she
+came to his side, and he at once flew to a neighboring bush and burst
+into song. It was a pretty little ditty, or rather a musical rattle on
+one note, resembling the song of the indigo bird, his near relative.
+
+The lazuli-painted finch should be called the blue-headed finch, for the
+exquisite blueness of his whole head, including throat, breast, and
+shoulders, as if he had been dipped so far into blue dye, is his
+distinguishing feature. The bluebird wears heaven's color; so does the
+jay, and likewise the indigo bird; but not one can boast the lovely and
+indescribable shade, with its silvery reflections, that adorns the
+lazuli. Across the breast, under the blue, is a broad band of chestnut,
+like the breast color of our bluebird, and back of that is white, while
+the wings and tail are dark. Altogether, he is charming to look upon.
+Who would not prefer him about the yard to the squawking house sparrow,
+or even the squabbling chippy?
+
+My catching the pair at dinner was not an accident; I soon found out
+that they lived there, and had settled upon a row of tall raspberry
+bushes that separated the garden from the lawn for their summer home.
+Madam was already at work collecting her building materials, and very
+soon the fragile walls of her pretty nest were formed in an upright
+crotch of the raspberries, about a foot below the top.
+
+Naturally, I was greatly interested in the fairy house building, and
+often inspected the work while the little dame was out of sight. One
+day, however, as I was about to part the branches to look in, I heard
+an anxious "phit," and glanced up to see the owner alight on the lowest
+limb of a peach-tree near by. Of course I turned away at once,
+pretending that I was just passing, and had no suspicion of her precious
+secret in the raspberries, and hoping that she would not mind. But she
+did mind, very seriously; she continued to stand on that branch with an
+aggrieved air, as if life were no longer worth living, now that her home
+was perhaps discovered. Without uttering a sound or moving a muscle, so
+far as I could see, she remained for half an hour before she accepted my
+taking a distant seat and turning my attention to dragonflies as an
+apology, and ventured to visit her nest again. After that I made very
+sure that she was engaged elsewhere before I paid my daily call.
+
+The dragonflies, by the way, were well worth looking at; indeed, they
+divided my interest with the birds. So many and such variety I never
+noticed elsewhere, and they acted exactly like fly-catching birds,
+staying an hour at a time on one perch, from which every now and then
+they sallied out, sweeping the air and returning to the perch they had
+left. Sometimes I saw four or five of them at once, resting on different
+dead twigs in the yard the other side of the lawn, and I have even seen
+one knock a fellow-dragonfly off a favorite perch and take it himself.
+
+They were very beautiful, too: some with wings of transparent white or
+light amber barred off by wide patches of rich dark brown or black;
+others, again, smaller, and all over blue as the lazuli's head; and a
+third of brilliant silver, which sparkled as it flew, as if covered with
+spangles. One alighted there with wings which seemed to be covered with
+a close and intricate design in the most brilliant gold thread. I went
+almost near enough to put my hand on him, and I never saw a more
+gorgeous creature; beside his beautiful wings his back was of old gold,
+coming down in scallops over the black and dark blue under part.
+
+In due time four lovely blue eggs filled the nest of the lazuli, and
+about the middle of June madam began to sit, and I had to be more
+careful than ever in timing my visits.
+
+Some birds approach their nest in a loitering, aimless sort of way, as
+if they had no particular business, in that quarter, and, if they see
+any cause for alarm, depart with an indifferent air that reveals nothing
+of their secret. Not thus the ingenuous lazuli. She showed her anxiety
+every moment; coming in the most businesslike way, and proclaiming her
+errand to the most careless observer, till I thought every boy on the
+street would know where her eggs were to be found. She had a very pretty
+way of going to the nest; indeed, all her manners were winning. She
+always alighted on the peach-tree branch, looked about on all sides,
+especially at me in my seat on the piazza, flirted her tail, uttered an
+anxious "phit," and then jumped off the limb and dived under the bushes
+near the ground. It is to be presumed that she ascended to her nest
+behind the leaves by hopping from twig to twig, though this I could
+never manage to see.
+
+And what of her gay little spouse all this time? Did he spend his days
+cheering her with music, as all the fathers of feathered families are
+fabled to do? Indeed he did not, and until I watched very closely, and
+saw him going about over the poplars in silence, I thought he had left
+the neighborhood. Once in the day he had a good singing time, about five
+o'clock in the morning, two hours before the sun rose over the
+mountains. If one happened to be awake then, he would hear the most
+rapturous song, delivered at the top of his voice, and continuing for a
+long time. But as it grew lighter, and the human world began to stir, he
+became quiet again, and, if he sang at all, he went so far from home
+that I did not hear him.
+
+But the wise little blue-head had not deserted; he was merely cautious.
+Every time that the little sitter went off for food she met him
+somewhere, and he came back with her. Occasionally he took a peep at the
+treasures himself, but he never entered by her roundabout way. He always
+flew directly in from above.
+
+Ten days passed away in this quiet manner, my attention divided between
+the birds, the dragonflies, and the clacking grasshopper, who went
+jerking himself about with a noise like a subdued lawn-mower, giving one
+the impression that his machinery was out of order.
+
+The tenth day of sitting we had a south wind. That does not seem very
+terrible, but a south wind on the shore of the Great Salt Lake is
+something to be dreaded.
+
+ "A wind that is dizzy with whirling play,
+ A dozen winds that have lost their way."
+
+It starts up suddenly, and comes with such force as to snap off the
+leaves of trees, and even the tender twigs of shrubs. As it waxes
+powerful it bends great trees, and tries the strength of roofs and
+chimneys. From the first breath it rolls up tremendous clouds of dust,
+that come and come, and never cease, long after it seems as if every
+particle in that rainless land must have been driven by. It is in the
+"Great Basin," and the south wind is the broom that sweeps it clean. Not
+only dust does the south wind bring, but heat, terrible and
+suffocating, like that of a fiery furnace. Before it the human and the
+vegetable worlds shrink and wither, and birds and beasts are little
+seen.
+
+Such a day was the birthday in the little nest in the raspberries, and
+on my usual morning call I found four featherless birdlings, with beaks
+already yawning for food. Every morning, of course, I looked at the
+babies, but it was not till the eighth day of their life that I found
+their eyes open. Before this they opened their mouths when I jarred the
+nest in parting the branches, thus showing they were not asleep, but did
+not open their eyes, and I was forced to conclude that they were not yet
+unclosed.
+
+Sometimes the daily visit was made under difficulties, and I was
+unpleasantly surprised when I stepped upon the grass of the little lawn
+that I was obliged to cross. The grass looked as usual; the evening
+before we had been sitting upon it. But all night a stream had been
+silently spreading itself upon it, and my hasty step was into water two
+or three inches deep, which swished up in a small fountain and filled a
+low shoe in an instant.
+
+This is one of the idiosyncrasies of irrigation, which it seemed I
+should never get accustomed to, and several times I was obliged to turn
+back for overshoes before I could pay my usual call. A lawn asoak is a
+curious sight, and always reminds me of Lanier's verses,
+
+                               "A thousand rivulets run
+ 'Twixt the roots of the soil; the blades of the marsh grass stir;
+     ... and the currents cease to run,
+     And the sea and the marsh are one."
+
+The morning the lazulis were ten days old, before I came out of the
+house, that happened which so often puts an end to a study of bird
+life,--the nest was torn out of place and destroyed, and the little
+family had disappeared. The particulars will never be known. Whether a
+nest-robbing boy or a hungry cat was the transgressor, and whether the
+nestlings were carried off or eaten, or had happily escaped, who can
+tell? I could only judge by the conduct of the birds themselves, and as
+they did not appear disturbed, and continued to carry food, it is to be
+presumed that part, if not all, of the brood was saved from the wreck of
+their home.
+
+Happily, to console me in my sorrow for this catastrophe, the lazuli was
+not the only bird to be seen on the lawn, though his was the only nest.
+I had for some time been greatly interested in the daily visits of a
+humming-bird, a little dame in green and white, who had taken possession
+of a honeysuckle vine beside the door, claiming the whole as her own,
+and driving away, with squeaky but fierce cries, any other of her race
+who ventured to sip from the coral cups so profusely offered.
+
+The season for humming-birds opened with the locust blossoms next door,
+which were for days a mass of blooms and buzzings, of birds and bees.
+But when the fragrant flowers began to fall and the ground was white
+with them, one bird settled herself on our honeysuckle, and there took
+her daily meals for a month. Being not six feet from where I sat for
+hours every day, I had the first good opportunity of my life to learn
+the ways of one of these queer little creatures in feathers.
+
+After long searching and much overhauling of the books, I made her out
+to be the female broad-tailed humming-bird, who is somewhat larger than
+the familiar ruby-throat of the East. Her mate, if she had one, never
+came to the vine; but whether she drove him away and discouraged him, or
+whether he had an independent source of supply, I never knew. She was
+the only one whose acquaintance I made, and in a month's watching I came
+to know her pretty well.
+
+In one way she differed strikingly from any humming-bird I have seen:
+she alighted, and rested frequently and for long periods. Droll enough
+it looked to see such an atom, such a mere pinch of feathers, conduct
+herself after the fashion of a big bird; to see her wipe that
+needle-like beak, and dress those infinitesimal feathers, combing out
+her head plumage with her minute black claws, running the same useful
+appendages through her long, gauzy-looking wings, and carefully removing
+the yellow pollen of the honeysuckle blooms which stuck to her face and
+throat. Her favorite perch was a tiny dead twig on the lowest branch of
+a poplar-tree, near the honeysuckle. There she spent a long time each
+day, sitting usually, though sometimes she stood on her little wiry
+legs.
+
+But though my humming friend might sit down, there was no repose about
+her; she was continually in motion. Her head turned from side to side,
+as regularly, and apparently as mechanically, as an elephant weaves his
+great head and trunk. Sometimes she turned her attention to me, and
+leaned far over, with her large, dark eyes fixed upon me with interest
+or curiosity. But never was there the least fear in her bearing; she
+evidently considered herself mistress of the place, and reproved me if I
+made the slightest movement, or spoke too much to a neighbor. If she
+happened to be engaged among her honey-pots when a movement was made,
+she instantly jerked herself back a foot or more from the vine, and
+stood upon nothing, as it were, motionless, except the wings, while she
+looked into the cause of the disturbance, and often expressed her
+disapproval of our behavior in squeaky cries.
+
+The toilet of this lilliputian in feathers, performed on her chosen twig
+as it often was, interested me greatly. As carefully as though she were
+a foot or two, instead of an inch or two long, did she clean and put in
+order every plume on her little body, and the work of polishing her beak
+was the great performance of the day. This member was plainly her pride
+and her joy; every part of it, down to the very tip, was scraped and
+rubbed by her claws, with the leg thrown over the wing, exactly as big
+birds do. It was astonishing to see what she could do with her leg. I
+have even seen her pause in mid-air and thrust one over her vibrating
+wing to scratch her head.
+
+Then when the pretty creature was all in beautiful order, her
+emerald-green back and white breast immaculate, when she had shaken
+herself out, and darted out and drawn back many times her long
+bristle-like tongue, she would sometimes hover along before the tips of
+the fence-stakes, which were like laths, held an inch apart by
+wires,--collecting, I suppose, the tiny spiders which were to be found
+there. She always returned to the honeysuckle, however, to finish her
+repast, opening and closing her tail as one flirts a fan, while the
+breeze made by her wings agitated the leaves for two feet around her.
+Should a blossom just ready to fall come off on her beak like a coral
+case, as it sometimes did, she was indignant indeed; she jerked herself
+back and flung it off with an air that was comical to see.
+
+When the hot wind blew, the little creature seemed to feel the
+discomfort that bigger ones did: she sat with open beak as though
+panting for breath; she flew around with legs hanging, and even alighted
+on a convenient leaf or cluster of flowers, while she rifled a blossom,
+standing with sturdy little legs far apart, while stretching up to reach
+the bloom she desired.
+
+Two statements of the books were not true in the case of this bird: she
+did not sit on a twig upright like an owl or a hawk, but held her body
+exactly as does a robin or sparrow; and she did fly backward and
+sideways, as well as forward.
+
+Toward the end of June my tiny visitor began to make longer intervals
+between her calls, and when she did appear she was always in too great
+haste to stop; she passed rapidly over half a dozen blossoms, and then
+flitted away. Past were the days of loitering about on poplar twigs or
+preening herself on the peach-tree. It was plain that she had set up a
+home for herself, and the mussy state of her once nicely kept breast
+feathers told the tale,--she had a nest somewhere. Vainly, however, did
+I try to track her home: she either took her way like an arrow across
+the garden to a row of very tall locusts, where a hundred humming-birds'
+nests might have been hidden, or turned the other way over a neighbor's
+field to a cluster of thickly grown apple-trees, equally impossible to
+search. If she had always gone one way I might have tried to follow, but
+to look for her infinitesimal nest at opposite poles of the earth was
+too discouraging, even if the weather had been cool enough for such
+exertion.
+
+When at last I could endure the wind and the dust and the heat no
+longer, and stood one morning on the porch, waiting for the most
+deliberate of drivers with his carriage to drive me to the station, that
+I might leave Utah altogether, the humming-bird appeared on the scene,
+took a sip or two out of her red cups, flirted her feathers saucily in
+my very face, then darted over the top of the cottage and disappeared;
+and that was the very last glimpse I had of the little dame in green.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX.
+
+
+ Acadian flycatcher, 161.
+
+ Arkansas goldfinch, 23.
+
+ At four o'clock in the morning, 95.
+
+
+ Barbed wire fence, 157.
+
+ Behind the tangle, 246.
+
+ Birds:
+   and poets, 194.
+   a strange song, 73.
+   different ways, 264.
+   hard to study, 20.
+   in Colorado, 18.
+   in Colorado Springs, 260.
+   in Denver, 260.
+   in the "Wrens' Court," 161, 166, 168.
+   leave nesting place, 154.
+   morning chorus, 21, 22, 105.
+   music in Colorado, 32.
+   not on exhibition, 19.
+   not sing alike, 34.
+   panic among, 39.
+   unfamiliar, 23, 259.
+   Utah, 260.
+
+ Black-headed grosbeak, 244, 251.
+   song of, 244.
+
+ Blue jay, 126.
+   and doll, 103.
+   and red-headed woodpecker, 104.
+   apple-tree nest, 151.
+   a struggle, 149.
+   attentive to mate, 127.
+   bad name, 147.
+   devoted mother, 127.
+   eating, 144.
+   getting over the ground, 145.
+   home deserted, 140.
+   interview with, 146.
+   joke or war-cry? 134.
+   manners, 130, 132, 144.
+   my search for nest, 126.
+   no pretense, 130.
+   pine-tree nest, 126.
+   vocabulary, 133.
+   when babies are noisy, 131.
+   with a stranger, 148.
+   with catbirds, 150.
+
+ Blue jay, the young:
+   accident to, 140.
+   beauty of, 143.
+   climber, 141.
+   first outing, 138.
+   imperfect, 152.
+   intelligence in house, 152.
+   on edge of nest, 137.
+   returned to parents, 153.
+
+ Bobolink song, 120.
+
+ Burro an investigator, 89.
+
+
+ Camp Harding, 9.
+
+ Camping in Colorado, 3.
+
+ Cañon wren, the, 74.
+   manners, 86, 87.
+   song, 74.
+
+ Cardinal grosbeak, 107.
+   abandoning the nest, 120.
+   as a father, 113.
+   confidence in people, 121.
+   delight of parents, 123.
+   eating corn, 109, 115.
+   importance of the builder, 119.
+   kindness to young, 117.
+   manners, 107.
+   nest, 122.
+   on grass, 105, 107.
+   politeness to mate, 116.
+   reception of woodpecker, 108.
+   rose trellis nest, 121.
+   speeding the parting guest, 125.
+   victim of English sparrow, 114.
+
+ Cardinal, the young, 113.
+   characteristics, 114.
+   first baby out, 122.
+   food of, 123.
+   song of, 116.
+   training, 116.
+   with sparrows, 114, 115.
+
+ Carolina wren, the great:
+   babies appear, 172.
+   ceremony of approaching, 177.
+   father disturbed, 175.
+   first sight of, 159.
+   fighting a chipmunk, 178.
+   hard to see, 177.
+   interruption to study, 168.
+   manners, 163, 173, 175.
+   mother anxious, 176.
+   nest, 149, 182.
+   song, 162, 164.
+   trailing, 162.
+   "Wrens' Court," 160.
+
+ Carolina wren, the young:
+   cries of, 181.
+   delay in taking flight, 179.
+   development of, 174.
+   first sallies, 180, 181.
+   manners, 178.
+
+ Catbird song, 23.
+
+ Cat on lawn, 112.
+
+ Cedar-tree little folk, 194.
+
+ Charming nook, a, 124.
+
+ Chat, long-tailed, yellow-breasted, 40, 232.
+   alertness of, 240.
+   bewitching, 241.
+   comes in sight, 237.
+   eccentric, 232.
+   egg stolen, 50.
+   farewell, 51.
+   first sight of, 45.
+   hard to study, 47.
+   haunts of, 241.
+   home of, 246.
+   humor, 40.
+   manners, 44, 46, 238, 239, 240.
+   nest, 47, 48.
+   on hand, 245.
+   saucy, 41.
+   secret of invisibility, 239.
+   studies me, 254,
+   triumphant, 257.
+   voice, 40, 43, 45, 236, 237, 239.
+
+ Chat, the madam:
+   interviews me, 255.
+   keeps her mate up to duty, 249.
+   manners, 248.
+   squawks, 254.
+   wonderful acting, 256.
+
+ Chewink, or towhee bunting:
+   babies, 31.
+   green-tailed towhee, 210.
+   husky cry, 30.
+   manners, 28, 29.
+   nest, 30.
+   song, 29.
+
+ Cheyenne Cañon, 15.
+   solitary possession of, 75.
+
+ Cheyenne Mountain, 43.
+
+ Chipmunk, 78.
+
+ Cinderella among the flowers, a, 60.
+
+ Cliff-dwellers in the cañon, 70.
+
+ Colorado, a restful way to see, 13.
+   the wonderland, 14.
+
+ Cotton storm, a, 17.
+
+ Cottonwoods, in the, 17.
+
+ Cuckoo, 157, 231.
+
+
+ Doll as a bogy, 103.
+
+ Dragonflies in Utah, 263.
+
+
+ English or house sparrow:
+   as a climber, 110.
+   autocrat, 129.
+   in Utah, 261.
+   robbing blackbirds, 100.
+   robbing red-headed woodpecker, 110.
+
+
+ Feast of flowers, the, 52.
+
+ Flicker a character, 106.
+
+ Flowers:
+   abundance of bloom, 54.
+   anemone, 61.
+   cactus, 56, 62, 74.
+   castilleia, 67.
+   cleome, 67.
+   columbine, 58, 67.
+   cyclamen, 67.
+   extermination by cattle, 208.
+   extermination by tourists, 68.
+   geranium, 58.
+   gilia, 64.
+   golden prince's feather, 65.
+   gummy and clinging stems, 66.
+   harebells, 67.
+   in a niche, 73.
+   in Kansas, 52.
+   mariposa lily, 65.
+   mentzelia, 60.
+   mertensia, 67.
+   Mexican poppy, 62.
+   milky juice, 66.
+   moccasin plant, 54, 75.
+   nasturtium, self-willed, 149.
+   ox-eye daisy, 66.
+   painter of, 68.
+   paradise of, 53.
+   pentstemon, 58.
+   pink stranger, 62.
+   primrose, 58, 67.
+   roses, 58, 63, 75.
+   spiderwort, 52.
+   symphony in green, 55.
+   varieties, 53, 57.
+   vetches, 67.
+   wild garden, 57.
+   wild mignonette, 62.
+   yellow daisies, 52.
+   yucca, 55, 62.
+
+
+ Gates, idiosyncrasies of, 220.
+
+ Getting up in the morning, 95.
+
+ Glen, a beautiful, 155.
+   frightened out of, 169.
+
+ Grasshopper, a clacking, 266.
+
+ Grave of "H. H.," 90, 91.
+
+ Great-crested flycatcher, 167.
+
+ Gull, the herring, 211.
+   following the plow, 213.
+   flight, 215.
+   manners, 213.
+   nesting, 216.
+   nooning, 215.
+   penalty for killing, 212.
+   sent to the "Chosen People," 212.
+   value of, 216.
+
+
+ Horned lark:
+   horns, 36.
+   nest, 36.
+   song, 35.
+
+ Horse, a scared, and result, 228.
+   drive me away, 257.
+
+ House wren, the Western, 24.
+   babies, 27, 28.
+   disturbed, 27.
+   manners, 24.
+   nest, 25.
+   song, 27.
+   strange cry, 25.
+
+ Humming-bird:
+   collecting spiders, 271.
+   different from the Eastern, 38.
+   dislike of heat, 272.
+   in cañon, 76.
+   last glimpse, 273.
+   manners, 269.
+   nesting, 272.
+   noisy, 38.
+   precious beak, 271.
+   scolding, 42.
+   surveillance, 40.
+   the broad-tailed, 268.
+   toilet of, 271.
+
+
+ Ideal retreat, an, 247.
+
+ In a pasture, 207.
+
+ In the Middle Country, 93.
+
+ In the Rocky Mountains, 1.
+
+ Irrigation vagaries, 242, 245, 267.
+
+
+ Kansas, 7.
+
+ Kitchen, an al fresco, 243.
+
+ Kitten, a lost, 39.
+
+
+ Lazuli-painted finch, 261.
+   anxiety of mother, 263.
+   babies, 267.
+   manners, 262, 265.
+   nest, 262.
+   nest destroyed, 268.
+
+
+ Magpie:
+   discover us, 225.
+   manners, 216, 219, 224.
+   nest, 223.
+   nursery, 230.
+   reception to us, 227.
+   search for nest, 216.
+   song, 224.
+
+ Meadow-lark, the Western, 249.
+   cry, 120.
+   song, 24, 32, 34.
+
+ Morning tramp, a, 156.
+
+ Mosquito, absence of, 20.
+   a lonely, 21.
+
+ Mourning dove, 103.
+   headquarters, 199.
+   joke of, 200.
+   manners, 196, 198, 199.
+   nest, 198.
+   silence of, 201, 204.
+   song, 195, 204.
+   talk, 204.
+   wing whistle, 204.
+   young, interview with, 201.
+   young, manners of, 197, 201.
+
+
+ Oak-brush, the, 222.
+
+ On the lawn, 259.
+
+ Orchard, an old, 250.
+
+ Orchard oriole:
+   a later view, 191.
+   anxiety of parents, 185.
+   baby cries, 186.
+   babies' first flight, 189, 190.
+   call from a Baltimore, 188.
+   called by nestlings, 184.
+   manners, 186, 190.
+   nest, 184, 192.
+   song of female, 191.
+   song of male, 192.
+
+
+ Park, a deserted, 42.
+
+ Pewee, Western wood, 22.
+   nest, 38.
+   song, 22, 37.
+   voice, 37.
+
+ Purple grackle, the, 96.
+   discouraging them, 104.
+   eating, 100.
+   greeting to me, 97.
+   husky tones, 98.
+   humor, 99.
+   no repose of manner, 101.
+   plumage, 99.
+   robbed by sparrows, 100.
+   strange utterances, 98.
+   treatment of young, 101.
+   young, 98, 101, 102.
+   young, persistence of, 102.
+
+
+ Red-headed woodpecker:
+   autocrat, 106.
+   eating corn, 109.
+   protecting the place, 110.
+   treatment of cardinal grosbeak, 108.
+   treatment of doll, 104.
+
+ Rest, to find, 3, 4, 5, 6, 11.
+
+ Robin, absence of, 28.
+   and corn, 103.
+   and doll, 103.
+   not plentiful, 250.
+   reception of snake, 250.
+
+ Rocky Mountains:
+   a pasture on, 207.
+   Cheyenne range, 235.
+   Wasatch range, 233, 234.
+
+
+ Sage-bush, 233.
+
+ Sage the delight of my friend, 234.
+
+ Salt Lake, view of, 218.
+
+ Secret of the Wild Rose Path, 231.
+
+ Seven Sisters' Falls, 72.
+
+ Sight-seeing travelers, 12.
+
+ South wind, 266.
+
+ Strange character of feathered world, 128.
+
+ Strangers not allowed, 129.
+
+ Study of birds, my way, 226.
+
+ Study of birds, two ways, 236.
+
+
+ Tents to live in, 11.
+
+ Thrushes absent, 260.
+
+ Tourist, 89, 91.
+
+ Tourist, the unscrupulous, 68.
+
+ Towhee (see Chewink).
+
+ Tragedy of a nest, 42.
+
+
+ Uproar of song, an, 32.
+
+
+ Vagaries of name-givers, 160.
+
+ View, a beautiful, 136.
+
+
+ Walks from the camp, 70.
+   the evening, 70.
+   the morning, 72.
+   up to the cañon, 72.
+
+ Water ouzel, or American dipper:
+   baby, 80, 85.
+   cry, 79.
+   "dipping," 80.
+   feats in the water, 83.
+   manners, 80, 81.
+   nest, 77.
+   song, 79, 81.
+   the mother, 82.
+
+ Wood-thrush nest, 168.
+
+
+ Yellow warbler:
+   nest, 36, 37.
+   song, 23, 36.
+
+
+
+
+    +----------------------------------------------+
+    | Transcriber's Note:                          |
+    |                                              |
+    | Typographical errors corrected in the text:  |
+    |                                              |
+    | Page  72  standstone changed to sandstone    |
+    | Page 153  Word "to" added before "one side"  |
+    | Page 250  cooes changed to coos              |
+    | Page 277  " added to "Wrens' Court,          |
+    +----------------------------------------------+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Bird-Lover in the West, by 
+Olive Thorne Miller and Harriet Mann Miller
+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Bird-Lover in the West, by 
+Olive Thorne Miller and Harriet Mann Miller
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: A Bird-Lover in the West
+
+Author: Olive Thorne Miller
+        Harriet Mann Miller
+
+Release Date: January 27, 2009 [EBook #27902]
+
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+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A BIRD-LOVER IN THE WEST ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Stephen Hope, Barbara Kosker, Joseph Cooper
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+https://www.pgdp.net
+
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+
+
+
+
+
+
+ A BIRD-LOVER IN THE WEST
+
+
+ BY
+
+ OLIVE THORNE MILLER
+
+
+
+
+ BOSTON AND NEW YORK
+ HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY
+ The Riverside Press, Cambridge
+ 1900
+
+
+
+
+ Copyright, 1894,
+ BY H. M. MILLER.
+
+ _All rights reserved._
+
+
+ _The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A._
+ Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton & Co.
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTORY.
+
+
+The studies in this volume were all made, as the title indicates, in the
+West; part of them in Colorado (1891), in Utah (1893), and the remainder
+(1892) in what I have called "The Middle Country," being Southern Ohio,
+and West only relatively to New England and New York, where most of my
+studies have been made.
+
+Several chapters have appeared in the "Atlantic Monthly" and other
+magazines, and in the "Independent" and "Harper's Bazar," while others
+are now for the first time published.
+
+ OLIVE THORNE MILLER.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+ IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
+
+                                                                PAGE
+
+     I. CAMPING IN COLORADO                                         3
+
+    II. IN THE COTTONWOODS                                         17
+
+           Western wood-pewee. _Contopus richardsonii._
+           Western house wren. _Troglodytes aëdon aztecus._
+           Towhee. _Pipilo erythrophthalmus._
+
+   III. AN UPROAR OF SONG                                          32
+
+           Western meadow-lark. _Sturnella magna neglecta._
+           Horned lark. _Otocoris alpestris leucolæma._
+           Yellow warbler. _Dendroica æstiva._
+           Western wood-pewee. _Contopus richardsonii._
+           Humming-bird. _Trochilus colubris._
+           Long-tailed chat. _Icteria virens longicauda._
+
+    IV. THE TRAGEDY OF A NEST                                      42
+
+           Long-tailed chat. _Icteria virens longicauda._
+
+     V. A FEAST OF FLOWERS                                         52
+
+    VI. A CINDERELLA AMONG FLOWERS                                 60
+
+   VII. CLIFF-DWELLERS IN THE CAÑON                                70
+
+           Cañon wren. _Catherpes mexicanus conspersus._
+           American dipper. _Cinclus mexicanus._
+
+
+ IN THE MIDDLE COUNTRY.
+
+  VIII. AT FOUR O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING                             95
+
+           Purple grackle. _Quiscalus quiscula._
+           Mourning dove. _Zenaidura macroura._
+           Red-headed woodpecker. _Melanerpes erythrocephalus._
+           Blue jay. _Cyanocitta cristata._
+           Cardinal grosbeak. _Cardinalis cardinalis._
+           American robin. _Merula migratoria._
+           Golden-wing woodpecker. _Colaptes auratus._
+           House sparrow. _Passer domesticus._
+
+    IX. THE LITTLE REDBIRDS                                       113
+
+           Cardinal grosbeak. _Cardinalis cardinalis._
+           House sparrow. _Passer domesticus._
+
+     X. THE CARDINAL'S NEST                                       119
+
+           Cardinal grosbeak. _Cardinalis cardinalis._
+           Bobolink. _Dolichonyx oryzivorus._
+           Meadow-lark. _Sturnella magna._
+
+    XI. LITTLE BOY BLUE                                           126
+
+           Blue jay. _Cyanocitta cristata._
+
+   XII. STORY OF THE NESTLINGS                                    136
+
+           Blue jay. _Cyanocitta cristata._
+
+  XIII. BLUE JAY MANNERS                                          144
+
+           Blue jay. _Cyanocitta cristata._
+
+   XIV. THE GREAT CAROLINIAN                                      154
+
+           Great Carolina wren. _Thryothorus ludovicianus._
+           Yellow-billed cuckoo. _Coccyzus americanus._
+           Crested flycatcher. _Myiarchus crinitus._
+
+    XV. THE WRENLINGS APPEAR                                      172
+           Great Carolina wren. _Thryothorus ludovicianus._
+
+   XVI. THE APPLE-TREE NEST                                       183
+
+           Orchard oriole. _Icterus spurius._
+
+  XVII. CEDAR-TREE LITTLE FOLK                                    194
+
+           Mourning dove. _Zenaidura macroura._
+
+
+ BESIDE THE GREAT SALT LAKE.
+
+ XVIII. IN A PASTURE                                              207
+
+           Louisiana tanager. _Piranga ludoviciana._
+           Green-tailed towhee. _Pipilo chlorurus._
+           Magpie. _Pica pica hudsonica._
+
+   XIX. THE SECRET OF THE WILD ROSE PATH                          231
+
+           Long-tailed chat. _Icteria virens longicauda._
+           Western robin. _Merula migratoria propinqua._
+           Black-headed grosbeak. _Habia melanocephala._
+
+    XX. ON THE LAWN                                               259
+
+           Lazuli-painted finch. _Passerina amoena._
+           Broad-tailed humming-bird. _Trochilus platycercus._
+           House sparrow. _Passer domesticus._
+
+
+
+
+IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
+
+ Trust me, 't is something to be cast
+ Face to face with one's self at last,
+ To be taken out of the fuss and strife,
+ The endless clatter of plate and knife,
+   The bore of books, and the bores of the street,
+ From the singular mess we agree to call Life.
+
+        *       *       *       *       *
+
+   And to be set down on one's own two feet
+ So nigh to the great warm heart of God,
+   You almost seem to feel it beat
+ Down from the sunshine and up from the sod;
+   To be compelled, as it were, to notice
+ All the beautiful changes and chances
+ Through which the landscape flits and glances,
+     And to see how the face of common day
+     Is written all over with tender histories.
+
+ JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL.
+
+
+
+
+A BIRD-LOVER IN THE WEST.
+
+
+
+
+I.
+
+CAMPING IN COLORADO.
+
+
+This chronicle of happy summer days with the birds and the flowers, at
+the foot of the Rocky Mountains, begins in the month of May, in the year
+eighteen hundred and ninety-two.
+
+As my train rolled quietly out of Jersey City late at night, I uttered a
+sigh of gratitude that I was really off; that at last I could rest. Up
+to the final moment I had been hurried and worried, but the instant I
+was alone, with my "section" to myself, I "took myself in hand," as is
+my custom.
+
+At the risk of seeming to stray very far from my subject, I want at this
+point to say something about rest, the greatly desired state that all
+busy workers are seeking, with such varying success.
+
+A really re-creative recreation I sought for years, and
+
+ "I've found some wisdom in my quest
+ That's richly worth retailing,"
+
+and that cannot be too often repeated, or too urgently insisted upon.
+What is imperatively needed, the sole and simple secret of rest, is
+this: To go to our blessed mother Nature, and to go with the whole
+being, mind and heart as well as body. To deposit one's physical frame
+in the most secret and sacred "garden of delights," and at the same time
+allow the mind to be filled, and the thoughts to be occupied, with the
+concerns of the world we live in year after year, is utterly useless;
+for it is not the external, but the internal man that needs recreation;
+it is not the body, but the spirit that demands refreshment and relief
+from the wearing cares of our high-pressure lives. "It is of no use,"
+says a thoughtful writer, "to carry my body to the woods, unless I get
+there myself."
+
+Let us consult the poets, our inspired teachers, on this subject. Says
+Lowell,--
+
+ "In June 't is good to lie beneath a tree
+ While the blithe season comforts every sense,
+ Steeps all the brain in rest, and heals the heart,
+ Brimming it o'er with sweetness unawares,
+ Fragrant and silent as that rosy snow
+ Wherewith the pitying apple-tree fills up
+ And tenderly lines some last-year's robin's nest."
+
+And our wise Emerson, in his strong and wholesome, if sometimes rugged
+way,--
+
+ "Quit thy friends as the dead in doom,
+ And build to them a final tomb.
+
+        *       *       *       *       *
+
+ Behind thee leave thy merchandise,
+ Thy churches and thy charities.
+
+        *       *       *       *       *
+
+ Enough for thee the primal mind
+ That flows in streams--that breathes in wind."
+
+Even the gentle Wordsworth, too; read his exquisite sonnet, beginning,--
+
+ "The world is too much with us; late and soon,
+ Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers."
+
+All recognize that it is a mental and spiritual change that is needed.
+
+With the earnest desire of suggesting to tired souls a practicable way
+of resting, I will even give a bit of personal history; I will tell the
+way in which I have learned to find recreation in nature.
+
+When I turn my back upon my home, I make a serious and determined effort
+to leave behind me all cares and worries. As my train, on that beautiful
+May evening, passed beyond the brick and stone walls, and sped into the
+open country, and I found myself alone with night, I shook off, as well
+as I was able, all my affairs, all my interests, all my
+responsibilities, leaving them in that busy city behind me, where a few
+burdens more or less would not matter to anybody. With my trunks
+checked, and my face turned toward the far-off Rocky Mountains, I left
+the whole work-a-day world behind me, departing--so far as possible--a
+liberated soul, with no duties excepting to rejoice and to recruit.
+This is not an easy thing to do; it is like tearing apart one's very
+life; but it can be done by earnest endeavor, it has been done, and it
+is a charm more potent than magic to bring restoration and recreation to
+the brain and nerve-weary worker.
+
+To insure any measure of success I always go alone; one familiar face
+would make the effort of no avail; and I seek a place where I am a
+stranger, so that my ordinary life cannot be recalled to me. When I
+reach my temporary home I forget, or at least ignore, my notions as to
+what I shall eat or drink, or how I shall sleep. I take the goods the
+gods provide, and adjust myself to them. Even these little things help
+one out of his old ways of thought and life. To still further banish
+home concerns, I mark upon my calendar one week before the day I shall
+start for home, and sternly resolve that not until I reach that day will
+I give one thought to my return, but will live as though I meant to stay
+always. I take no work of any sort, and I banish books, excepting a few
+poets and studies of nature.
+
+Such is the aim of my honest and earnest striving; that I do not quite
+reach my goal is merely to say I am human. Letters from home and friends
+will drag me back to old interests, and times will come, in sleepless
+nights and unguarded moments, when the whole world of old burdens and
+cares sweep in and overwhelm me. But I rouse my will, and resolutely,
+with all my power, push them back, refuse to entertain them for a
+moment.
+
+The result, even under these limitations, is eminently satisfactory.
+Holding myself in this attitude of mind, I secure a change almost as
+complete as if I stepped out of my body and left it resting, while I
+refreshed myself at the fountain of life. A few weeks in the country
+make me a new being; all my thoughts are turned into fresh channels; the
+old ruts are smoothed over, if not obliterated; nerves on the strain all
+the year have a chance to recreate themselves; old worries often weaken
+and fade away.
+
+The morning after I left home that balmy evening in May dawned upon me
+somewhere in western New York, and that beautiful day was passed in
+speeding through the country, and steadily getting farther and farther
+from work and care.
+
+And so I went on, day after day, night after night, till I entered
+Kansas, which was new to me. By that time I had succeeded in banishing
+to the farthest corner of my memory, behind closed and locked doors, all
+the anxieties, all the perplexities and problems, all the concerns, in
+fact, of my home life. I was like a newly created soul, fresh and eager
+to see and enjoy everything. I refused the morning papers; I wished to
+forget the world of strife and crime, and to get so into harmony with
+the trees and flowers, the brooks and the breezes, that I would realize
+myself
+
+ "Kith and kin to every wild-born thing that thrills and blows."
+
+In one word, I wished as nearly as possible to walk abroad out of my
+hindering body of clay.
+
+I looked out of the windows to see what the Cyclone State had to give
+me. It offered flowers and singing birds, broad fields of growing grain,
+and acres of rich black soil newly turned up to the sun. Everything was
+fresh and perfect, as if just from the hands of its maker; it seemed the
+paradise of the farmer.
+
+From the fertile fields and miles of flowers the train passed to bare,
+blossomless earth; from rich soil to rocks; from Kansas to Colorado.
+That part of the State which appeared in the morning looked like a vast
+body of hardly dry mud, with nothing worth mentioning growing upon it.
+Each little gutter had worn for itself a deep channel with precipitous
+sides, and here and there a great section had sunken, as though there
+was no solid foundation. Soon, however, the land showed inclination to
+draw itself up into hills, tiny ones with sharp peaks, as though
+preparing for mountains. Before long they retreated to a distance and
+grew bigger, and at last, far off, appeared the mountains, overtopping
+all one great white peak, the
+
+ "Giver of gold, king of eternal hills."
+
+A welcome awaited me in the summer home of a friend at Colorado Springs,
+in the presence of the great Cheyenne Range, with the snow-cap of Pike's
+Peak ever before me. Four delightful days I gave to friendship, and then
+I sought and found a perfect nook for rest and study, in a cottonwood
+grove on the banks of the Minnelowan (or Shining Water). This is a mad
+Colorado stream which is formed by the junction of the North and South
+Cheyenne Cañon brooks, and comes tumbling down from the Cheyenne,
+rushing and roaring as if it had the business of the world on its
+shoulders, and must do it man-fashion, with confusion and noise enough
+to drown all other sounds.
+
+Imagine a pretty, one-story cottage, set down in a grove of
+cottonwood-trees, with a gnarly oak and a tall pine here and there, to
+give it character, and surrounded as a hen by her chickens, by tents,
+six or eight in every conceivable position, and at every possible angle
+except a right angle. Add to this picture the sweet voices of birds, and
+the music of water rushing and hurrying over the stones; let your
+glance take in on one side the grand outlines of Cheyenne Mountain,
+
+ "Made doubly sacred by the poet's pen
+ And poet's grave,"
+
+and on the other the rest of the range, overlooked by Pike's Peak,
+fourteen thousand feet higher than the streets of New York. Do this, and
+you will come as near to realizing Camp Harding as one can who is
+hundreds of miles away and has never seen a Colorado camp.
+
+Do not think, however, that such camps are common, even in that land of
+outdoors, where tents are open for business in the streets of the towns,
+and where every householder sets up his own canvas in his yard, for the
+invalids to sleep in, from June to November. The little settlement of
+tents was an evolution, the gradual growth of the tent idea in the mind
+of one comfort-loving woman. She went there seven or eight years before,
+bought a grove under the shadow of Cheyenne, put up a tent, and passed
+her first summer thus. The next year, and several years thereafter, she
+gradually improved her transient abode in many ways that her womanly
+taste suggested,--as a wooden floor, a high base-board, partitions of
+muslin or cretonne, door and windows of wire gauze. The original
+dwelling thus step by step grew to a framed and rough-plastered house,
+with doors and windows _en règle_.
+
+Grouped picturesquely around the house, however, were some of the most
+unique abiding-places in Colorado. On the outside they were permanent
+tents with wooden foundations; on the inside they were models of
+comfort, with regular beds and furniture, rugs on the floor, gauzy
+window curtains, drapery wardrobes, and even tiny stoves for cool
+mornings and evenings. They combined the comforts of a house with the
+open air and delightful freshness of a tent, where one might hear every
+bird twitter, and see the dancing leaf shadows in the moonlight. Over
+the front platform the canvas cover extended to form an awning, and a
+wire-gauze door, in addition to one of wood, made them airy or snug as
+the weather demanded.
+
+The restfulness craved by the weary worker was there to be had for both
+soul and body, if one chose to take it. One might swing in a hammock all
+day, and be happy watching "the clouds that cruise the sultry sky"--a
+sky so blue one never tires of it; or beside the brook he might "lie
+upon its banks, and dream himself away to some enchanted ground." Or he
+might study the ever-changing aspect of the mountains,--their dreamy,
+veiled appearance, with the morning sun full upon them; their deep
+violet blueness in the evening, with the sun behind them, and the
+mystery of the moonlight, which "sets them far off in a world of their
+own," as tender and unreal as mountains in a dream.
+
+He _might_ do all these things, but he is far more likely to become
+excited, and finally bewitched by guide-books, and photographs, and talk
+all about him of this or that cañon, this or that pass, the Garden of
+the Gods, Manitou, the Seven Sisters' Falls, the grave of "H. H.;" and
+unless a fool or a philosopher, before he knows it to be in the full
+swing of sight-seeing, and becoming learned in the ways of burros, the
+"Ship of the Rockies," so indispensable, and so common that even the
+babies take to them.
+
+This traveler will climb peaks, and drive over nerve-shaking roads, a
+steep wall on one side and a frightful precipice on the other; he will
+toil up hundreds of steps, and go quaking down into mines; he will look,
+and admire, and tremble, till sentiment is worn to threads, purse
+depleted, and body and mind alike a wreck. For this sort of a traveler
+there is no rest in Colorado; there always remains another mountain to
+thrill him, another cañon to rhapsodize over; to one who is greedy of
+"sights," the tameness of Harlem, or the mud flats of Canarsie, will
+afford more rest.
+
+For myself I can always bear to be near sights without seeing them. I
+believed what I heard--never were such grand mountains! never such
+soul-stirring views! never such hairbreadth roads! I believed--and
+stayed in my cottonwood grove content. I knew how it all looked; did I
+not peer down into one cañon, holding my breath the while? and, with
+slightly differing arrangement of rocks and pine-trees and brooks, are
+not all cañons the same? Did I not gaze with awe at the "trail to the
+grave of H. H.," and watch, without envy, the sight-seeing tourist
+struggle with its difficulties? Could I not supply myself with
+photographs, and guide-books, and poems, and "H. H.'s" glowing words,
+and picture the whole scene? I could, I did, and to me Colorado was a
+delightful place of rest, with mountain air that it was a luxury to
+breathe (after the machinery adjusted itself to the altitude), with
+glorious sunshine every morning, with unequaled nights of coolness, and
+a new flower or two for every day of the month.
+
+If to "see Colorado" one must ascend every peak, toil through every
+cañon, cast the eyes on every waterfall, shudder over each precipice,
+wonder at each eccentric rock, drink from every spring, then I have not
+seen America's Wonderland. But if to steep my spirit in the beauty of
+its mountains so that they shall henceforth be a part of me; to inhale
+its enchanting air till my body itself seemed to have wings; if to paint
+in my memory its gorgeous procession of flowers, its broad mesa crowned
+with the royal blossoms of the yucca, its cosy cottonwood groves, its
+brooks rushing between banks of tangled greenery; if this is to "see
+Colorado," then no one has ever seen it more thoroughly.
+
+The "symphony in yellow and red," which "H. H." calls this wonderland,
+grows upon the sojourner in some mysterious way, till by the time he has
+seen the waxing and waning of one moon he is an enthusiast. It is
+charming alike to the sight-seer whose jaded faculties pine for new and
+thrilling emotions, to the weary in brain and body who longs only for
+peace and rest, and to the invalid whose every breath is a pain at home.
+To the lover of flowers it is an exhaustless panorama of beauty and
+fragrance, well worth crossing the continent to enjoy; to the mountain
+lover it offers endless attractions.
+
+Nothing is more fascinating to the stranger in Colorado than the
+formation of its cañons, not only the grand ones running up into the
+heart of the mountains, but the lesser ones cutting into the high
+table-land, or mesa, at the foot of the hills. The above mentioned
+cottonwood grove, for example, with its dozen of dwellings and a
+natural park of a good many acres above it, with tall pines that bear
+the marks of age, is so curiously hidden that one may come almost upon
+it without seeing it. It is reached from Colorado Springs by an electric
+road which runs along the mesa south of the town. As the car nears the
+end of the line, one begins to look around for the grove. Not a tree is
+in sight; right and left as far as can be seen stretches the treeless
+plain to the foot of the eternal hills; not even the top of a tall pine
+thrusts itself above the dead level. Before you is Cheyenne--grim,
+glorious, but impenetrable. The conductor stops. "This is your place,"
+he says. You see no place; you think he must be mistaken.
+
+"But where is Camp Harding?" you ask. He points to an obscure
+path--"trail" he calls it--which seems to throw itself over an edge. You
+approach that point, and there, to your wonder and your surprise, at
+your feet nestles the loveliest of smiling cañon-like valleys, filled
+with trees, aspen, oak, and pine, with here and there a tent or red roof
+gleaming through the green, and a noisy brook hurrying on its way
+downhill. By a steep scramble you reach the lower level, birds singing,
+flowers tempting on every side, and the picturesque, narrow trail
+leading you on, around the ledge of rock, over the rustic bridge, till
+you reach the back entrance of the camp. Before it, up the narrow
+valley, winds a road, the carriage-way to the Cheyenne cañons.
+
+
+
+
+II.
+
+IN THE COTTONWOODS.
+
+
+A cottonwood grove is the nearest approach to our Eastern rural
+districts to be found in Colorado, and a cotton storm, looking exactly
+like a snowstorm, is a common sight in these groves. The white, fluffy
+material grows in long bunches, loosely attached to stems, and the fibre
+is very short. At the lightest breeze that stirs the branches, tiny bits
+of it take to flight, and one tree will shed cotton for weeks. It clings
+to one's garments; it gets into the houses, and sticks to the carpets,
+often showing a trail of white footprints where a person has come in; it
+clogs the wire-gauze screens till they keep out the air as well as the
+flies; it fills the noses and the eyes of men and beasts. But its most
+curious effect is on the plants and flowers, to which it adheres, being
+a little gummy. Some flowers look as if they were encased in ice, and
+others seem wrapped in the gauziest of veils, which, flimsy as it looks,
+cannot be completely cleared from the leaves.
+
+It covers the ground like snow, and strangely enough it looks in June,
+but it does not, like snow, melt, even under the warm summer sunshine.
+It must be swept from garden and walks, and carted away. A heavy rain
+clears the air and subdues it for a time, but the sun soon dries the
+bunches still on the trees, and the cotton storm is again in full blast.
+This annoyance lasts through June and a part of July, fully six weeks,
+and then the stems themselves drop to, the ground, still holding enough
+cotton to keep up the storm for days. After this, the first rainfall
+ends the trouble for that season.
+
+In the midst of the cottonwoods, in beautiful Camp Harding, I spent the
+June that followed the journey described in the last chapter,--
+
+ "Dreaming sweet, idle dreams of having strayed
+ To Arcady with all its golden lore."
+
+The birds, of course, were my first concern. Ask of almost any resident
+not an ornithologist if there are birds in Colorado, and he will shake
+his head.
+
+"Not many, I think," he will probably say. "Camp birds and magpies. Oh
+yes, and larks. I think that's about all."
+
+This opinion, oft repeated, did not settle the matter in my mind, for I
+long ago discovered that none are so ignorant of the birds and flowers
+of a neighborhood as most of the people who live among them. I sought
+out my post, and I looked for myself.
+
+There are birds in the State, plenty of them, but they are not on
+exhibition like the mountains and their wonders. No driver knows the way
+to their haunts, and no guide-book points them out. Even a bird student
+may travel a day's journey, and not encounter so many as one shall see
+in a small orchard in New England. He may rise with the dawn, and hear
+nothing like the glorious morning chorus that stirs one in the Atlantic
+States. He may search the trees and shrubberies for long June days, and
+not find so many nests as will cluster about one cottage at home.
+
+Yet the birds are here, but they are shy, and they possess the true
+Colorado spirit,--they are mountain-worshipers. As the time approaches
+when each bird leaves society and retires for a season to the bosom of
+its own family, many of the feathered residents of the State bethink
+them of their inaccessible cañons. The saucy jay abandons the
+settlements where he has been so familiar as to dispute with the dogs
+for their food, and sets up his homestead in a tall pine-tree on a slope
+which to look at is to grow dizzy; the magpie, boldest of birds, steals
+away to some secure retreat; the meadow-lark makes her nest in the
+monotonous mesa, where it is as well hidden as a bobolink's nest in a
+New England meadow.
+
+The difficulties in the way of studying Colorado birds are several,
+aside from their excessive suspicion of every human being. In the first
+place, observations must be made before ten o'clock, for at that hour
+every day a lively breeze, which often amounts to a gale, springs up,
+and sets the cottonwood and aspen leaves in a flutter that hides the
+movements of any bird. Then, all through the most interesting month of
+June the cottonwood-trees are shedding their cotton, and to a person on
+the watch for slight stirrings among the leaves the falling cotton is a
+constant distraction. The butterflies, too, wandering about in their
+aimless way, are all the time deceiving the bird student, and drawing
+attention from the bird he is watching.
+
+On the other hand, one of the maddening pests of bird study at the East
+is here almost unknown,--the mosquito. Until the third week in June I
+saw but one. That one was in the habit of lying in wait for me when I
+went to a piece of low, swampy ground overgrown with bushes. Think of
+the opportunity this combination offers to the Eastern mosquito, and
+consider my emotions when I found but a solitary individual, and even
+that one disposed to coquette with me.
+
+I had hidden myself, and was keeping motionless, in order to see the
+very shy owners of a nest I had found, when the lonely mosquito came as
+far as the rim of my shade hat, and hovered there, evidently meditating
+an attack--a mosquito hesitating! I could not stir a hand, or even shake
+my leafy twig; but it did not require such violent measures; a light
+puff of breath this side or that was enough to discourage the gentle
+creature, and in all the hours I sat there it never once came any
+nearer. The race increased, however, and became rather troublesome on
+the veranda after tea; but in the grove they were never annoying; I
+rarely saw half a dozen. When I remember the tortures endured in the
+dear old woods of the East, in spite of "lollicopop" and pennyroyal, and
+other horrors with which I have tried to repel them, I could almost
+decide to live and die in Colorado.
+
+The morning bird chorus in the cottonwood grove where I spent my June
+was a great shock to me. If my tent had been pitched near the broad
+plains in which the meadow-lark delights, I might have wakened to the
+glorious song of this bird of the West. It is not a chorus, indeed, for
+one rarely hears more than a single performer, but it is a solo that
+fully makes up for want of numbers, and amply satisfies the lover of
+bird music, so strong, so sweet, so moving are his notes.
+
+But on my first morning in the grove, what was my dismay--I may almost
+say despair--to find that the Western wood-pewee led the matins! Now,
+this bird has a peculiar voice. It is loud, pervasive, and in quality of
+tone not unlike our Eastern phoebe, lacking entirely the sweet
+plaintiveness of our wood-pewee. A pewee chorus is a droll and dismal
+affair. The poor things do their best, no doubt, and they cannot prevent
+the pessimistic effect it has upon us. It is rhythmic, but not in the
+least musical, and it has a weird power over the listener. This morning
+hymn does not say, as does the robin's, that life is cheerful, that
+another glorious day is dawning. It says, "Rest is over; another day of
+toil is here; come to work." It is monotonous as a frog chorus, but
+there is a merry thrill in the notes of the amphibian which are entirely
+wanting in the song. If it were not for the light-hearted tremolo of the
+chewink thrown in now and then, and the loud, cheery ditty of the summer
+yellow-bird, who begins soon after the pewee, one would be almost
+superstitious about so unnatural a greeting to the new day. The evening
+call of the bird is different. He will sit far up on a dead twig of an
+old pine-tree, and utter a series of four notes, something like "do, mi,
+mi, do," repeating them without pausing till it is too dark to see him,
+all the time getting lower, sadder, more deliberate, till one feels
+like running out and committing suicide or annihilating the bird of
+ill-omen.
+
+I felt myself a stranger indeed when I reached this pleasant spot, and
+found that even the birds were unfamiliar. No robin or bluebird greeted
+me on my arrival; no cheerful song-sparrow tuned his little pipe for my
+benefit; no phoebe shouted the beloved name from the peak of the barn.
+Everything was strange. One accustomed to the birds of our Eastern
+States can hardly conceive of the country without robins in plenty; but
+in this unnatural corner of Uncle Sam's dominion I found but one pair.
+
+The most common song from morning till night was that of the summer
+yellow-bird, or yellow warbler. It was not the delicate little strain we
+are accustomed to hear from this bird, but a loud, clear carol, equal in
+volume to the notes of our robin. These three birds, with the addition
+of a vireo or two, were our main dependence for daily music, though we
+were favored occasionally by others. Now the Arkansas goldfinch uttered
+his sweet notes from the thick foliage of the cottonwood-trees; then the
+charming aria of the catbird came softly from the tangle of rose and
+other bushes; the black-headed grosbeak now and then saluted us from the
+top of a pine-tree; and rarely, too rarely, alas! a passing meadow-lark
+filled all the grove with his wonderful song.
+
+And there was the wren! He interested me from the first; for a wren is a
+bird of individuality always, and his voice reminded me, in a feeble
+way, of the witching notes of the winter wren, the
+
+ "Brown wren from out whose swelling throat
+ Unstinted joys of music float."
+
+This bird was the house wren, the humblest member of his musical family;
+but there was in his simple melody the wren quality, suggestive of the
+thrilling performances of his more gifted relatives; and I found it and
+him very pleasing.
+
+The chosen place for his vocal display was a pile of brush beside a
+closed-up little cottage, and I suspected him of having designs upon
+that two-roomed mansion for nesting purposes. After hopping all about
+the loose sticks, delivering his bit of an aria a dozen times or more,
+in a most rapturous way, he would suddenly dive into certain secret
+passages among the dead branches, when he was instantly lost to sight.
+Then, in a few seconds, a close watcher might sometimes see him pass
+like a shadow, under the cottage, which stood up on corner posts, dart
+out the farther side, and fly at once to the eaves.
+
+One day I was drawn from the house by a low and oft-repeated cry, like
+"Hear, hear, hear!" It was emphatic and imperative, as if some
+unfortunate little body had the business of the world on his shoulders,
+and could not get it done to his mind. I carefully approached the
+disturbed voice, and was surprised to find it belonged to the wren, who
+was so disconcerted at sight of me, that I concluded this particular
+sort of utterance must be for the benefit of his family alone. Later,
+that kind of talk, his lord-and-master style as I supposed, was the most
+common sound I heard from him, and not near the cottage and the brush
+heap, but across the brook. I thought that perhaps I had displeased him
+by too close surveillance, and he had set up housekeeping out of my
+reach. Across the brook I could not go, for between "our side" and the
+other raged a feud, which had culminated in torn-up bridges and barbed
+wire protections.
+
+One day, however, I had a surprise. In studying another bird, I was led
+around to the back of the still shut-up cottage, and there I found, very
+unexpectedly, an exceedingly busy and silent wren. He did sing
+occasionally while I watched him from afar, but in so low a tone that it
+could not be heard a few steps away. Of course I understood this
+unnatural circumspection, and on observing him cautiously, I saw that
+he made frequent visits to the eaves of the cottage, the very spot I
+had hoped he would nest. Then I noted that he carried in food, and on
+coming out he alighted on a dead bush, and sang under his breath. Here,
+then, was the nest, and all his pretense of scolding across the brook
+was but a blind! Wary little rogue! Who would ever suspect a house wren
+of shyness?
+
+I had evidently done him injustice when I regarded the scolding as his
+family manner, for here in his home he was quiet as a mouse, except when
+his joy bubbled over in trills.
+
+To make sure of my conclusions I went close to the house, and then for
+the first time (to know it) I saw his mate. She came with food in her
+beak, and was greatly disturbed at sight of her uninvited guest. She
+stood on a shrub near me fluttering her wings, and there her anxious
+spouse joined her, and fluttered his in the same way, uttering at the
+same time a low, single note of protest.
+
+On looking in through the window, I found that the cottage was a mere
+shell, all open under the eaves, so that the birds could go in and out
+anywhere. The nest was over the top of a window, and the owner thereof
+ran along the beam beside it, in great dudgeon at my impertinent
+staring. Had ever a pair of wrens quarters so ample,--a whole cottage to
+themselves? Henceforth, it was part of my daily rounds to peep in at
+the window, though I am sorry to say it aroused the indignation of the
+birds, and always brought them to the beam nearest me, to give me a
+piece of their mind.
+
+Bird babies grow apace, and baby wrens have not many inches to achieve.
+One day I came upon a scene of wild excitement: two wrenlings flying
+madly about in the cottage, now plump against the window, then tumbling
+breathless to the floor, and two anxious little parents, trying in vain
+to show their headstrong offspring the way they should go, to the
+openings under the eaves which led to the great out-of-doors. My face at
+the window seemed to be the "last straw." A much-distressed bird came
+boldly up to me behind the glass, saying by his manner--and who knows
+but in words?--"How can you be so cruel as to disturb us? Don't you see
+the trouble we are in?" He had no need of Anglo-Saxon (or even of
+American-English!). I understood him at once; and though exceedingly
+curious to see how they would do it, I had not the heart to insist. I
+left them to manage their willful little folk in their own way.
+
+The next morning I was awakened by the jolliest wren music of the
+season. Over and over the bird poured out his few notes, louder, madder,
+more rapturously than I had supposed he could. He had guided his family
+safely out of their imprisoning four walls, I was sure. And so I found
+it when I went out. Not a wren to be seen about the house, but soft
+little "churs" coming from here and there among the shrubbery, and every
+few minutes a loud, happy song proclaimed that wren troubles were over
+for the summer. Far in among the tangle of bushes and vines, I came upon
+him, as gay as he had been of yore:--
+
+ "Pausing and peering, with sidling head,
+ As saucily questioning all I said;
+ While the ox-eye danced on its slender stem,
+ And all glad Nature rejoiced with them."
+
+The chewink is a curious exchange for the robin. When I noticed the
+absence of the red-breast, whom--like the poor--we have always with us
+(at the East), I was pleased, in spite of my fondness for him, because,
+as every one must allow, he is sometimes officious in his attentions,
+and not at all reticent in expressing his opinions. I did miss his voice
+in the morning chorus,--the one who lived in the grove was not much of a
+singer,--but I was glad to know the chewink, who was almost a stranger.
+His peculiar trilling song was heard from morning till night; he came
+familiarly about the camp, eating from the dog's dish, and foraging for
+crumbs at the kitchen door. Next to the wood-pewee, he was the most
+friendly of our feathered neighbors.
+
+He might be seen at any time, hopping about on the ground, one moment
+picking up a morsel of food, and the next throwing up his head and
+bursting into song:--
+
+ "But not for you his little singing,
+ Soul of fire its flame is flinging,
+ Sings he for himself alone,"
+
+as was evident from the unconscious manner in which he uttered his notes
+between two mouthfuls, never mounting a twig or making a "performance"
+of his music. I have watched one an hour at a time, going about in his
+jerky fashion, tearing up the ground and searching therein, exactly
+after the manner of a scratching hen. This, by the way, was a droll
+operation, done with both feet together, a jump forward and a jerk back
+of the whole body, so rapidly one could hardly follow the motion, but
+throwing up a shower of dirt every time. He had neither the grace nor
+the dignity of our domestic biddy.
+
+Matter of fact as this fussy little personage was on the ground, taking
+in his breakfast and giving out his song, he was a different bird when
+he got above it. Alighting on the wren's brush heap, for instance, he
+would bristle up, raising the feathers on head and neck, his red eyes
+glowing eagerly, his tail a little spread and standing up at a sharp
+angle, prepared for instant fight or flight, whichever seemed desirable.
+
+I was amused to hear the husky cry with which this bird expresses most
+of his emotions,--about as nearly a "mew," to my ears, as the catbird
+executes. Whether frolicking with a comrade among the bushes, reproving
+a too inquisitive bird student, or warning the neighborhood against some
+monster like a stray kitten, this one cry seemed to answer for all his
+needs, and, excepting the song, was the only sound I heard him utter.
+
+Familiar as the chewink might be about our quarters, his own home was
+well hidden, on the rising ground leading up to the mesa,--
+
+                           "An unkempt zone,
+ Where vines and weeds and scrub oaks intertwine,"
+
+which no one bigger than a bird could penetrate. Whenever I appeared in
+that neighborhood, I was watched and followed by anxious and disturbed
+chewinks; but I never found a nest, though, judging from the conduct of
+the residents, I was frequently "very warm" (as the children say).
+
+About the time the purple aster began to unclose its fringed lids, and
+the mariposa lily to unfold its delicate cups on the lower
+mesa,--nearly the middle of July,--full-grown chewink babies, in brown
+coats and streaked vests, made their appearance in the grove, and after
+that the whole world might search the scrub oaks and not a bird would
+say him nay.
+
+                       "All is silent now
+ Save bell-note from some wandering cow,
+ Or rippling lark-song far away."
+
+
+
+
+III.
+
+AN UPROAR OF SONG.
+
+
+The bird music of Colorado, though not so abundant as one could wish, is
+singularly rich in quality, and remarkable for its volume. At the
+threshold of the State the traveler is struck by this peculiarity. As
+the train thunders by, the Western meadow-lark mounts a telegraph pole
+and pours out such a peal of melody that it is distinctly heard above
+the uproar of the iron wheels.
+
+This bird is preëminently the bird of the mesa, or high table-land of
+the region, and only to hear his rare song is well worth a journey to
+that distant wonderland. Not of his music could Lucy Larcom say, as she
+so happily does of our bird of the meadow,--
+
+ "Sounds the meadow-lark's refrain
+     Just as sad and clear."
+
+Nor could his sonorous song be characterized by Clinton Scollard's
+exquisite verse,--
+
+ "From whispering winds your plaintive notes were drawn."
+
+For the brilliant solo of Colorado's bird is not in the least like the
+charming minor chant of our Eastern lark. So powerful that it is heard
+at great distances in the clear air, it is still not in the slightest
+degree strained or harsh, but is sweet and rich, whether it be close at
+one's side in the silence, or shouted from the housetop in the tumult of
+a busy street. It has, moreover, the same tender winsomeness that charms
+us in our own lark song; something that fills the sympathetic listener
+with delight, that satisfies his whole being; a siren strain that he
+longs to listen to forever. The whole breadth and grandeur of the great
+West is in this song, its freedom, its wildness, the height of its
+mountains, the sweep of its rivers, the beauty of its flowers,--all in
+the wonderful performance. Even after months of absence, the bare memory
+of the song of the mesa will move its lover to an almost painful
+yearning. Of him, indeed, Shelley might truthfully say,--
+
+ "Better than all measures
+   Of delightful sound,
+ Better than all treasures
+   That in books are found,
+ Thy skill to poet were,
+   Thou scorner of the ground."
+
+Nor is the variety of the lark song less noteworthy than its quality.
+That each bird has a large _répertoire_ I cannot assert, for my
+opportunities for study have been too limited; but it is affirmed by
+those who know him better, that he has, and I fully believe it.
+
+One thing is certainly true of nearly if not quite all of our native
+birds, that no two sing exactly alike, and the close observer soon
+learns to distinguish between the robins and the song-sparrows of a
+neighborhood, by their notes alone. The Western lark seems even more
+than others to individualize his utterances, so that constant surprises
+reward the discriminating listener. During two months' bird-study in
+that delightful cañon-hidden grove at the foot of Cheyenne Mountain, one
+particular bird song was for weeks an unsolved mystery. The strain
+consisted of three notes in loud, ringing tones, which syllabled
+themselves very plainly in my ear as "Whip-for-her."
+
+This unseemly, and most emphatic, demand came always from a distance,
+and apparently from the top of some tall tree, and it proved to be most
+tantalizing; for although the first note invariably brought me out,
+opera-glass in hand, I was never able to come any nearer to a sight of
+the unknown than the sway of a twig he had just left.
+
+One morning, however, before I was up, the puzzling songster visited the
+little grove under my windows, and I heard his whole song, of which it
+now appeared the three notes were merely the conclusion. The
+performance was eccentric. It began with a soft warble, apparently for
+his sole entertainment, then suddenly, as if overwhelmed by memory of
+wrongs received or of punishment deserved, he interrupted his tender
+melody with a loud, incisive "Whip-for-her!" in a totally different
+manner. His nearness, however, solved the mystery; the ring of the
+meadow-lark was in his tones, and I knew him at once. I had not
+suspected his identity, for the Western bird does not take much trouble
+to keep out of sight, and, moreover, his song is rarely less than six or
+eight notes in length.
+
+Another unique singer of the highlands is the horned lark. One morning
+in June a lively carriage party passing along the mountain side, on a
+road so bare and bleak that it seemed nothing could live there, was
+startled by a small gray bird, who suddenly dashed out of the sand
+beside the wheels, ran across the path, and flew to a fence on the other
+side. Undisturbed, perhaps even stimulated, by the clatter of two horses
+and a rattling mountain wagon, undaunted by the laughing and talking
+load, the little creature at once burst into song, so loud as to be
+heard above the noisy procession, and so sweet that it silenced every
+tongue.
+
+"How exquisite! What is it?" we asked each other, at the end of the
+little aria.
+
+"It's the gray sand bird," answered the native driver.
+
+"Otherwise the horned lark," added the young naturalist, from his
+broncho behind the carriage.
+
+Let not his name mislead: this pretty fellow, in soft, gray-tinted
+plumage, is not deformed by "horns;" it is only two little tufts of
+feathers, which give a certain piquant, wide-awake expression to his
+head, that have fastened upon him a title so incongruous. The nest of
+the desert-lover is a slight depression in the barren earth, nothing
+more; and the eggs harmonize with their surroundings in color. The whole
+is concealed by its very openness, and as hard to find, as the
+bobolink's cradle in the trackless grass of the meadow.
+
+Most persistent of all the singers of the grove beside the house was the
+yellow warbler, a dainty bit of featherhood the size of one's thumb. On
+the Atlantic coast his simple ditty is tender, and so low that it must
+be listened for; but in that land of "skies so blue they flash," he
+sings it at the top of his voice, louder than the robin song as we know
+it, and easily heard above the roar of the wind and the brawling of the
+brook he haunts.
+
+Before me at this moment is the nest of one of these little sprites,
+which I watched till the last dumpy infant had taken flight, and then
+secured with the branchlet it was built upon. It was in a young oak, not
+more than twelve feet from the ground, occupying a perpendicular fork,
+where it was concealed and shaded by no less than sixteen twigs,
+standing upright, and loaded with leaves. The graceful cup itself, to
+judge by its looks, might be made of white floss silk,--I have no
+curiosity to know the actual material,--and is cushioned inside with
+downy fibres from the cottonwood-tree. It is dainty enough for a fairy's
+cradle.
+
+The wood-pewee, in dress and manners nearly resembling his Eastern
+brother,
+
+ "The pewee of the loneliest woods,
+ Sole singer in the solitudes,"
+
+has a strange and decidedly original utterance. While much louder and
+more continuous, it lacks the sweetness of our bird's notes; indeed, it
+resembles in quality of tone the voice of our phoebe, or his beautiful
+relative, the great-crested flycatcher. The Westerner has a great deal
+to say for himself. On alighting, he announces the fact by a single
+note, which is a habit also of our phoebe; he sings the sun up in the
+morning, and he sings it down in the evening, and he would be a
+delightful neighbor if only his voice were pleasing. But there is little
+charm in the music, for it is in truth a dismal chant, with the air and
+cheerfulness of a funeral dirge--a pessimistic performance that inspires
+the listener with a desire to choke him then and there.
+
+This bird's nest, as well as his song, is unlike that of our wood-pewee.
+Instead of a delicate, lichen-covered saucer set lightly upon a
+horizontal crotch of a dead branch,--our bird's chosen home,--it is a
+deeper cup, fastened tightly upon a large living branch, and, at least
+in a cottonwood grove, decorated on the outside with the fluffy cotton
+from the trees.
+
+Even the humming-bird, who contents himself in this part of the world
+with a modest hum, heard but a short distance away, at the foot of the
+Rocky Mountains may almost be called a noisy bird. The first one I
+noticed dashed out of a thickly leaved tree with loud, angry cries,
+swooped down toward me, and flew back and forth over my head, scolding
+with a hum which, considering his size, might almost be called a roar. I
+could not believe my ears until my eyes confirmed their testimony. The
+sound was not made by the wings, but was plainly a cry strong and harsh
+in an extraordinary degree.
+
+The Western ruby-throat has other singularities which differentiate him
+from his Eastern brother. It is very droll to see one of his family take
+part in the clamors of a bird mob, perching like his bigger fellows,
+and adding his excited cries to the notes of catbird and robin, chewink
+and yellow-bird. Attracted one morning by a great bird outcry in a dense
+young oak grove across the road, I left my seat under the cottonwoods
+and strolled over toward it. It was plain that some tragedy was in the
+air, for the winged world was in a panic. Two robins, the only pair in
+the neighborhood, uttered their cry of distress from the top of the
+tallest tree; a catbird hopped from branch to branch, flirting his tail
+and mewing in agitation; a chewink or two near the ground jerked
+themselves about uneasily, adding their strange, husky call to the
+hubbub; and above the din rose the shrill voice of a humming-bird. Every
+individual had his eyes fixed upon the ground, where it was evident that
+some monster must be lurking. I expected a big snake at the very least,
+and, putting the lower branches aside, I, too, peered into the
+semi-twilight of the grove.
+
+No snake was there; but my eyes fell upon an anxious little gray face,
+obviously much disturbed to find itself the centre of so much attention.
+As I appeared, this bugaboo, who had caused all the excitement,
+recognized me as a friend and ran toward me, crying piteously. It was a
+very small lost kitten!
+
+I took up the stray little beastie, and a silence fell upon the
+assembly in the trees, which began to scatter, each one departing upon
+his own business in a moment. But the humming-bird refused to be so
+easily pacified; he was bound to see the end of the affair, and he
+followed me out of the grove, still vigorously speaking his mind about
+the enemy in fur. I suspected that the little creature had wandered away
+from the house on the hill above, and I went up to see. The hummer
+accompanied me every step of the way, sometimes flying over my head, and
+again alighting for a minute on a branch under which I passed. Not until
+he saw me deliver pussy into the hands of her own family, and return to
+my usual seat in the grove, did he release me from surveillance and take
+his leave.
+
+The yellow-breasted chat, the long-tailed variety belonging to the West,
+delivers his strange medley of "chacks" and whistles, and rattles and
+other indescribable cries, in a voice that is loud and distinct, as well
+as sweet and rich. He is a bird of humor, too, with a mocking spirit not
+common in his race. One day, while sitting motionless in a hidden nook,
+trying to spy upon the domestic affairs of this elusive individual, I
+was startled by the so-called "laugh" of a robin, which was instantly
+repeated by a chat, unseen, but quite near. The robin, apparently
+surprised or interested, called again, and was a second time mocked.
+Then he lost his temper, and began a serious reproof to the levity of
+his neighbor, which ended in a good round scolding, as the saucy chat
+continued to repeat his taunting laugh. This went on till the red-breast
+flew away in high dudgeon.
+
+Why our little brothers in feathers are so much more boisterous than
+elsewhere,
+
+ "Up in the parks and the mesas wide,
+ Under the blue of the bluest sky,"
+
+has not, so far as I know, been discovered.
+
+Whether it be the result of habitual opposition to the strong winds
+which, during the season of song, sweep over the plains every day, or
+whether the exhilaration of the mountain air be the cause--who can
+tell?
+
+
+
+
+IV.
+
+THE TRAGEDY OF A NEST.
+
+
+Near to the Camp, a little closer to beautiful Cheyenne Mountain, lay a
+small park. It was a continuation of the grove, through which the brook
+came roaring and tumbling down from the cañons above, and, being several
+miles from the town, it had never become a popular resort. A few winding
+paths, and a rude bench here and there, were the only signs of man's
+interference with its native wildness; it was practically abandoned to
+the birds--and me.
+
+The birds had full possession when I appeared on the scene, and though I
+did my best to be unobtrusive, my presence was not so welcome as I could
+have wished. Every morning when I came slowly and quietly up the little
+path from the gate, bird-notes suddenly ceased; the grosbeak, pouring
+out his soul from the top of a pine-tree, dived down the other side; the
+towhee, picking up his breakfast on the ground, scuttled behind the
+bushes and disappeared; the humming-bird, interrupted in her morning
+"affairs," flew off over my head, scolding vigorously; only the
+vireo--serene as always--went on warbling and eating, undisturbed.
+
+Then I made haste to seek out an obscure spot, where I could sit and
+wait in silence, to see who might unwittingly show himself.
+
+I was never lonely, and never tired; for if--as sometimes happened--no
+flit of wing came near to interest me, there before me was beautiful
+Cheyenne, with its changing face never twice alike, and its undying
+associations with its poet and lover, whose lonely grave makes it
+forever sacred to those who loved her. There, too, was the wonderful sky
+of Colorado, so blue it looked almost violet, and near at hand the
+"Singing Water," whose stirring music was always inspiring.
+
+One morning I was startled from my reverie by a sudden cry, so loud and
+clear that I turned quickly to see what manner of bird had uttered it.
+The voice was peculiar and entirely new to me. First came a scolding
+note like that of an oriole, then the "chack" of a blackbird, and next a
+sweet, clear whistle, one following the other rapidly and vehemently, as
+if the performer intended to display all his accomplishments in a
+breath. Cheyenne vanished like "the magic mountain of a dream," blue
+skies were forgotten, the babbling brook unheard, every sense was
+instantly alert to see that extraordinary bird,--
+
+ "Like a poet hidden,
+ Singing songs unbidden."
+
+But he did not appear. Not a leaf rustled, not a twig bent, though the
+strange medley kept on for fifteen minutes, then ceased as abruptly as
+it had begun, and not a whisper more could be heard. The whole thing
+seemed uncanny. Was it a bird at all, or a mere "wandering voice"? It
+seemed to come from a piece of rather swampy ground, overgrown with
+clumps of willow and low shrubs; but what bird of earthly mould could
+come and go, and make no sign that a close student of bird ways could
+detect? Did he creep on the ground? Did he vanish into thin air?
+
+Hours went by. I could not go, and my leafy nook was "struck through
+with slanted shafts of afternoon" before I reluctantly gave up that I
+should not see my enchanter that day, and slowly left the grove, the
+mystery unexplained.
+
+Very early the next morning I was saluted by the same loud, clear calls
+near the house. Had then the Invisible followed me home? I sprang up and
+hurried to the always open window. The voice was very near; but I could
+not see its author, though I was hidden behind blinds.
+
+This time the bird--if bird it were--indulged in a fuller _répertoire_.
+I seized pencil and paper, and noted down phonetically the different
+notes as they were uttered. This is the record: "Rat-t-t-t-t" (very
+rapid); "quit! quit! quit!" (a little slower); "wh-eu! wh-eu!" (still
+more deliberately); "chack! chack! chack!" (quite slow); "cr[=e],
+cr[=e], cr[=e], cr[=e]" (fast); "hu-way! hu-way!" (very sweet). There
+was a still more musical clause that I cannot put into syllables, then a
+rattle exactly like castanets, and lastly a sort of "Kr-r-r! kr-r-r!" in
+the tone of a great-crested flycatcher. While this will not express to
+one who has not heard it the marvelous charm of it all, it will at least
+indicate the variety.
+
+Hardly waiting to dispose of breakfast, I betook myself to my "woodland
+enchanted," resolved to stay till I saw that bird.
+
+ "All day in the bushes
+ The woodland was haunted."
+
+The voice was soon on hand, and once more I was treated to the
+incomparable recitative.
+
+This day, too, my patience was rewarded; the mystery was solved; I saw
+the Unknown! While my eyes were fixed upon a certain bush before me, the
+singer incautiously ventured too near the top of a twig, and I saw him
+plainly, standing almost upright, and vehemently chanting his fantasia,
+opening his mouth very wide with every call. I knew him at once, the
+rogue! from having read of him; he was the yellow-breasted chat. It was
+well, indeed, that I happened to be looking at that very spot, and that
+I was quick in my observation; for in a moment he saw the blunder he had
+made, and slipped back down the stem, too late for his secret--I had him
+down in black and white.
+
+From that time the little park was never lonely, nor did I spend much
+time dreaming over Cheyenne. The moment I appeared in the morning my
+lively host began his vocal gymnastics, while I sat spellbound,
+bewitched by the magic of his notes. In spite of being absorbed in
+listening to him, I retained my faculties sufficiently to reflect that
+the chat had probably other employment than entertaining me, and that
+doubtless his object was to distract my attention from looking about me,
+or to reproach me for intruding upon his private domain. In either case
+there was, of course,
+
+         "A nest unseen
+ Somewhere among the million stalks;"
+
+and, delightful as I found the unseen bird, his nest was a treasure I
+was even more anxious to see.
+
+Not to disturb him more than necessary, I spent part of an evening
+studying up the nesting habits of the chat,--the long-tailed,
+yellow-breasted, as I found him to be,--and the next morning made a
+thorough search through the swamp, looking into every bush and examining
+every thicket. An hour or two of this hard work satisfied me for the
+day, and I went home warm and tired, followed to the very door by the
+mocking voice, triumphing, as it seemed, in my failure.
+
+The next day, however, fortune smiled upon me; I came upon a nest, not
+far above the ground, among the stems of a clump of shrubs, which
+exactly answered the description of the one I sought. Careful not to lay
+a finger on it, I slightly parted the branches above, and looked in upon
+three pinkish-white eggs, small in size and dainty as tinted pearls.
+Happy day, I thought, and the forerunner of happy to-morrows when I
+should watch
+
+ "The green nest full of pleasant shade
+ Wherein three speckled eggs were laid,"
+
+and see and delight in the family life centring about it.
+
+To study a bird so shy required extraordinary precautions; I therefore
+sought, and found, a post of observation a long way off, where I could
+look through a natural vista among the shrubs, and with my glass bring
+the bush and its precious contents into view. For greater seclusion in
+my retreat, so that I should be as little conspicuous as possible, I
+drew down a branch of the low tree over my seat, and fastened it with a
+fine string to a stout weed below. Then I thought I had a perfect
+screen; I devoutly hoped the birds would not notice me.
+
+Vain delusion! and labor as vain! Doubtless two pairs of anxious eyes
+watched from some neighboring bush all my careful preparations, and then
+and there two despairing hearts bade farewell to their lovely little
+home, abandoned it and its treasures to the spy and the destroyer, which
+in their eyes I seemed to be.
+
+This conclusion was forced upon me by the experiences of the next few
+days. The birds absolutely would not approach the nest while I was in
+the park. The first morning I sat motionless for nearly two hours, and
+not a feather showed itself near that bush; it was plainly "tabooed."
+During the next day the chat called from this side and that, moving
+about in his wonderful way, without disturbing a twig, rustling a leaf,
+or flitting a wing--as silently, indeed, as if he were a spirit
+unclothed.
+
+While waiting for him to show himself, making myself as nearly a part of
+nature about me as a mortal is gifted to do, I congratulated myself upon
+the one good look I had secured, for, with all my efforts and all my
+watching, I saw him but twice more all summer. The enigma of that
+remarkable voice would have been maddening indeed, if I could not have
+known to whom it belonged.
+
+After several days of untiring observation I had but two glimpses to
+record. On one occasion a chat alighted on the top sprig of the fateful
+shrub, as if going to the nest, but almost on the instant vanished. The
+same day, a little later, one of these birds flitted into my view,
+without a sound. So perfectly silent were his movements that I should
+not have seen him if he had not come directly before my eyes. He, or
+she, for the pair are alike, alighted in a low bush and scrambled about
+as if in search of insects, climbing, not hopping. He stayed but a few
+seconds and departed like a shadow, as he had come.
+
+On the tenth day after my discovery of the nest with its trio of eggs I
+went out as usual, for I could not abandon hope. In passing the nest I
+glanced in and saw one egg; I could never see but one as I went by, but,
+not liking to go too near, I presumed that the other two were there, as
+I had always found them, and slipped quietly into my usual place.
+
+In a few moments the chat shouted a call so near that it fairly startled
+me. From that he went on to make his ordinary protest, but, as happened
+nearly every time, I was not able to see him. I saw something--something
+that took my breath away. A shadowy form creeping stealthily through the
+shrubs five or six feet from me. It glided across the opening in front,
+and in a moment went to the bush I was watching. In silence, but with
+evident excitement, it moved about, approached the nest, and in a few
+seconds flew quickly across the path in plain sight, holding in its mouth
+something white which was large for its beak. I was reminded of an
+English sparrow carrying a piece of bread as big as his head, a sight
+familiar to every one. In a minute or two the same bird, or his twin,
+came to the nest again and disappeared on the other side.
+
+When I left my place to go home, I looked with misgivings into the nest
+on which I had built so many hopes. Lo! it was empty!
+
+Now I identified that stealthy visitor absolutely, but I shall never
+name him. I have never heard him accused of nest-robbing, and I shall
+not make the charge; for I am convinced that the chat had deserted the
+nest, and that this abstracter of eggs knew it, and simply took the good
+things the gods threw in his way--as would the best of us.
+
+After that unfortunate ending the chat disappeared from the little park;
+but a week later I came upon him, or his voice, in a private and rarely
+visited pasture down the road, where many clumps of small trees and much
+low growth offered desirable nesting-places. He made his usual protest,
+and feeling that I had been the cause of the tragedy of the first nest,
+though I had grieved over it as much as the owners could, the least I
+could do, to show my regret, was to take myself and my curiosity out of
+his neighborhood. So I retired at once, and left the whole broad pasture
+to the incorrigible chat family, who, I hope, succeeded at last in
+enriching the world by half a dozen more of their bewitching kind.
+
+
+
+
+V.
+
+A FEAST OF FLOWERS.
+
+ When first the crocus thrusts its point of gold
+ Up through the still snow-drifted garden mould,
+ And folded green things in dim woods unclose
+ Their crinkled spears, a sudden tremor goes
+ Into my veins and makes me kith and kin
+ To every wild-born thing that thrills and blows.
+
+ T. B. ALDRICH.
+
+
+My feast of flowers began before I entered Colorado. For half the
+breadth of Kansas the banks of the railroad were heavenly blue with
+clustered blossoms of the spiderwort. I remember clumps of this flower
+in my grandmother's old-fashioned garden, but my wildest dreams never
+pictured miles of it, so profuse that, looking backward from the train,
+the track looked like threads of steel in a broad ribbon of blue.
+
+Through the same State, also, the Western meadow-larks kept us company,
+and I shall never again think of "bleeding Kansas," but of smiling
+Kansas, the home of the bluest of blossoms and the sweetest of singers.
+The latter half of the way through the smiling State was golden with
+yellow daisies in equal abundance, and beside them many other flowers.
+Beginning at noon, I counted twenty-seven varieties, so near the track
+that I could distinguish them as we rushed past.
+
+The Santa Fé road enters Colorado in a peculiarly desolate region.
+Flowers and birds appear to have stayed behind in Kansas, and no green
+thing shows its head, excepting one dismal-looking bush, which serves
+only to accentuate the poverty of the soil. As we go on, the mud is
+replaced by sand and stones, from gravel up to big bowlders, and flowers
+begin to struggle up through the unpromising ground.
+
+Nothing is more surprising than the amazing profusion of wild-flowers
+which this apparently ungenial soil produces. Of a certainty, if
+Colorado is not the paradise of wild-flowers, it is incomparably richer
+in them than any State east of the Mississippi River and north of "Mason
+and Dixon's Line." To begin with, there is a marvelous variety. Since I
+have taken note of them, from about the 10th of June till nearly the
+same date in July, I have found in my daily walk of not more than a mile
+or two, each time from one to seven new kinds. A few days I have found
+seven, many times I have brought home four, and never has a day passed
+without at least one I had not seen before. That will average, at a low
+estimate, about a hundred varieties of flowers in a month, and all
+within a radius of four miles. What neighborhood can produce a record
+equal to this?
+
+Then, again, the blossoms themselves are so abundant. Hardly a root
+contents itself with a single flower. The moccasin-plant is the only one
+I have noticed as yet. One root will usually send up from one to a dozen
+stems, fairly loaded with buds--like the yucca--which open a few every
+day, and thus keep in bloom for weeks. Or if there is but one stem, it
+will be packed with buds from the ground to the tip, with new ones to
+come out for every blossom that falls.
+
+One in the vase on my stand at this moment is of this sort. It is a stem
+that sometimes attains a height of four or five feet. I think it
+lengthens as long as it is blossoming, and, to look at its preparations,
+that must be all summer. Every two or three inches of the stout stem is
+a whorl of leaves and buds and blossoms. Except the number of buds, it
+is all in fours. Opposite each other, making a cross, are four leaves,
+like a carnation leaf at first, but broadening and lengthening till it
+is two inches at the base and eight or ten long. Rising out of the axil
+of each leaf are buds, of graduated size and development up to the open
+blossom. That one stem, therefore, is prepared to open fresh flowers
+every day for a long time.
+
+The plant is exquisitely beautiful, for the whole thing, from the stem
+to the flower petals, is of a delicate, light pea-green. The blossom
+opens like a star, with four stamens and four petals. The description
+sounds mathematical, but the plant is graceful--a veritable symphony in
+green.
+
+A truly royal bouquet stands on my table--three spikes of yucca flowers
+in a tall vase, the middle one three feet high, bearing fifty blossoms
+and buds, of large size and a pink color; on its right, one a little
+less in size, with long creamy cups fully open; and on the left another,
+set with round greenish balls, not so open as cups. They are distinctly
+different, but each seems more exquisite than the other, and their
+fragrance fills the room. In fact it is so overpowering that when at
+night I close the door opening into the grove, I shut the vase and its
+contents outside.
+
+This grand flower is the glory of the mesa or table-land at the foot of
+this range of the Rocky Mountains--the Cheyenne Range. Where no
+grass--that we name grass--will grow, where trees die for want of water,
+these noble spikes of flowers dot the bare plains in profusion.
+
+It is the rich possessor of three names. To the flower-lover it is the
+yucca; to the cultivator, or whosoever meddles with its leaves, it is
+the Spanish-bayonet; to the utilitarian, who values a thing only as it
+is of use to him, it is the soap-weed--ignoble name, referring to
+certain qualities pertaining to its roots. When we remember that this
+flower is not the careful product of the garden, but of spontaneous
+growth in the most barren and hopeless-looking plains, we may well
+regard it as a type of Colorado's luxuriance in these loveliest of
+nature's gifts.
+
+Of a surly disposition is the blossom of a cactus--the "prickly-pear,"
+as we call it in Eastern gardens, where we cultivate it for its oddity,
+I suppose. When the sojourner in this land of flowers sees, opening on
+all sides of this inhospitable-looking plant, rich cream-colored cups,
+the size of a Jacqueminot bud, and of a rare, satiny sheen, she cannot
+resist the desire to fill a low dish with them for her table.
+
+Woe to her if she attempts to gather them "by hand"! Properly warned,
+she will take a knife, sever the flower from the pear (there is no stem
+to speak of), pick it up by the tip of a petal, carry it home in a paper
+or handkerchief, and dump it gently into water--happy if she does not
+feel a dozen intolerable prickles here and there, and have to extract,
+with help of magnifying-glass and tweezers, as many needle-like barbs
+rankling in her flesh. She may as well have spared herself the trouble.
+The flowers possess the uncompromising nature of the stock from which
+they sprung; they will speedily shut themselves up like buds again--I
+almost believe they close with a snap--and obstinately refuse to display
+their satin draperies to delight the eyes of their abductors. This
+unlovely spirit is not common among Colorado flowers; most of them go on
+blooming in the vase day after day.
+
+Remarkable are the places in which the flowers are found. Not only are
+they seen in crevices all the way up the straight side of rocks, where
+one would hardly think a seed could lodge, but beside the roads, between
+the horses' tracks, and on the edge of gutters in the streets of a city.
+One can walk down any street in Colorado Springs and gather a bouquet,
+lovely and fragrant, choice enough to adorn any one's table. I once
+counted twelve varieties in crossing one vacant corner lot on the
+principal street.
+
+One of the richest wild gardens I know is a bare, open spot in a
+cottonwood grove, part of it tunneled by ants, which run over it by
+millions, and the rest a jumble of bowlders and wild rosebushes,
+impossible to describe. In this spot, unshaded from the burning sun,
+flourish flowers innumerable. Rosebushes, towering far above one's head,
+loaded with bloom; shrubs of several kinds, equally burdened by delicate
+white or pink blossoms; the ground covered with foot-high pentstemons,
+blue and lavender, in which the buds fairly get in each other's way; and
+a curious plant--primrose, I believe--which opens every morning, a few
+inches from the ground, a large white blossom like the magnolia, turns
+it deep pink, and closes it before night; several kinds of yellow
+flowers; wild geraniums, with a look of home in their daintily penciled
+petals; above all, the wonderful golden columbine. I despair of
+picturing this grand flower to eyes accustomed to the insignificant
+columbine of the East. The blossom is three times the size of its
+Eastern namesake, growing in clumps sometimes three feet across, with
+thirty or forty stems of flowers standing two and a half feet high. In
+hue it is a delicate straw color, sometimes all one tint, sometimes with
+outside petals of snowy white, and rarely with those outsiders of
+lavender. It is a red-letter day when the flower-lover comes upon a
+clump of the lavender-leaved columbine. Far up in the mountains is found
+still another variety of this beautiful flower, with outside petals of a
+rich blue. This, I believe, is the State flower of Colorado.
+
+I am surprised at the small number of flowers here with which I am
+familiar. I think there are not more than half a dozen in all this
+extraordinary "procession of flowers" that I ever saw before. In
+consequence, every day promises discoveries, every walk is exciting as
+an excursion into unknown lands, each new find is a fresh treasure.
+
+
+
+
+VI.
+
+A CINDERELLA AMONG FLOWERS.
+
+ Like torches lit for carnival,
+ The fiery lilies straight and tall
+ Burn where the deepest shadow is;
+ Still dance the columbines cliff-hung,
+ And like a broidered veil outflung
+ The many-blossomed clematis.
+
+ SUSAN COOLIDGE.
+
+
+A rough, scraggy plant, with unattractive, dark-green foliage and a
+profusion of buds standing out at all angles, is, in July, almost the
+only growing thing to be seen on the barren-looking mesa around Colorado
+Springs. Anything more unpromising can hardly be imagined; the coarsest
+thistle is a beauty beside it; the common burdock has a grace of growth
+far beyond it; the meanest weed shows a color which puts it to shame.
+Yet if the curious traveler pass that way again, late in the afternoon,
+he shall find that "Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of
+these." He will see the bush transfigured; its angular form hidden under
+a mass of many pointed stars of snowy whiteness, with clusters of pale
+gold stamens. Then will stand revealed the "superb mentzelia," a true
+Cinderella, fit only for ignominious uses in the morning, but a suitable
+bride for the fairy prince in the evening.
+
+To look at the wide-stretching table-lands, where, during its season,
+this fairy-story transformation takes place daily, so burned by the sun,
+and swept by the wind, that no cultivated plant will flourish on it, one
+would never suspect that it is the scene of a brilliant "procession of
+flowers" from spring to fall. "There is always something going on
+outdoors worth seeing," says Charles Dudley Warner, and of no part of
+the world is this more true than of these apparently desolate plains at
+the foot of the Rocky Mountains. Rich is the reward of the daily
+stroller, not only in the inspiration of its pure, bracing air, the
+songs of its meadow-larks, and the glory of its grand mountain view, but
+in its charming flower show.
+
+This begins with the anemone, modest and shy like our own, but three
+times as big, and well protected from the sharp May breezes by a soft,
+fluffy silk wrap. Then some day in early June the walker shall note
+groups of long, sword-shaped leaves, rising in clusters here and there
+from the ground. He may not handle them with impunity, for they are
+strong and sharp-edged, and somewhat later the beauty they are set to
+guard is revealed. A stem or two, heavy and loaded with hard green
+balls, pushes itself up among them day by day, till some morning he
+stands spellbound before the full-blown bells of the yucca, cream-tinted
+or pink, and fragrant as the breath of summer.
+
+Before the Nature-lover is tired of feasting his eyes upon that stately
+flower, shall begin to unfold the crumpled draperies of the great
+Mexican poppy, dotting the hillsides and the mesa with white, as far as
+the eye can reach. Meanwhile, the earth itself shall suddenly turn to
+pink, and a close look disclose a tiny, low-growing blossom, sweet as
+the morning, with the glow of the sunrise in its face; a little bunch of
+crazy-looking stamens, and tiny snips of petals standing out at all
+angles, and of all shades on one stem, from white to deep red; the whole
+no bigger than a gauzy-winged fly, and shaped not unlike one, with a
+delicious odor that scents the air.
+
+Next day--or next week--wandering over the pathless barrens, the
+observer may come upon a group of cream-colored satin flowers, wide open
+to the sun, innocent looking and most tempting to gather. But the great
+fleshy leaves from which they spring give warning; they belong to the
+cactus family, and are well armed to protect their treasures from the
+vagrant hand. The walker--if he be wise--will content himself with
+looking, nor seek a nearer acquaintance.
+
+While these royal beauties are adorning the highlands, others, perhaps
+even more lovely, are blooming in the cañons, under the trees, and
+beside the noisy brooks. First, there is a "riot of roses"--the only
+expression that adequately suggests the profusion of these beautiful
+flowers. They grow in enormous bushes, far above one's head, in
+impenetrable thickets, extending for yards each way.
+
+         "Rose hedges
+ Abloom to the edges."
+
+Every country road is walled in by them; every brookside is glorified by
+their rich masses of color; and no rocky wall is so bare but here and
+there a tiny shoot finds root, and open its rosy bloom. All these
+bushes, from the low-growing sort that holds its mottled and shaded
+petals three inches above the ground, to that whose top one cannot
+reach, are simply loaded with blossoms of all shades, from nearly white
+to deepest rose-color, filling the air with perfume.
+
+The first time one comes upon this lavish display, he--or more probably
+she--picks a spray from the first bush; she cannot resist the next
+variety, and before she knows it her arms are full, with temptations as
+strong as ever before her. She may at last, like "H. H.," take home her
+roses by the carriage load, or, overwhelmed by their numbers, leave them
+all on their stems, and enjoy them in mass.
+
+Shyly hiding under the taller shrubs beside the running water, the
+experienced seeker will find the gilia, one of the gems of Colorado's
+bouquet. This plant consists of one slender stem two feet or more tall,
+swayed by every breeze, and set for several inches of its length with
+daintiest blossoms,--
+
+ "Like threaded rubies on its stem."
+
+They are like fairy trumpets, in many shades, from snow white to deep
+rose, and brilliant scarlet, with great variety of delicate marking
+visible only under a glass. The stem is so sticky that the flowers must
+be arranged as they are gathered; for they cling to each other more
+closely than the fabled "brother," and an attempt to separate them will
+result in torn flowers.
+
+Anything more exquisite than a vase of gilias alone is rarely seen. The
+buds are as lovely as the blossoms; new ones open every day, and even
+the faded ones are not unsightly; their petals are simply turned
+backward a little. One minute every morning spent in snipping off
+blossoms that are past their prime insures the happy possessor a
+bouquet that is a joy forever, even in memory; lovely and fresh, in
+ever-changing combinations of color and form.
+
+Some day shall be made memorable to the enthusiast by the discovery of a
+flower which should be named for "H. H.,"--the one which looked so
+charming from the moving train that her winning tongue brought the iron
+horse to a pause while it was gathered, "root and branch," for her
+delectation. Finding the gorgeous spike of golden blossoms without a
+common name, she called it--most happily--the golden prince's feather.
+It is to be presumed that it has an unwieldy scientific cognomen in the
+botanies; but I heard of no common one, except that given by the poet.
+
+While this royal flower is still in bloom, may be found the mariposa, or
+butterfly lily, small and low on the burning mesa, but more generous in
+size, and richer of hue, in the shaded cañons.
+
+ "Like a bubble borne in air
+   Floats the shy Mariposa's bell,"
+
+says Susan Coolidge in her beautiful tribute to her beloved friend and
+poet. The three petals of this exquisite flower form a graceful cup of
+differing degrees of violet hue, some being nearly white, with the color
+massed in a rich, deep-toned crescent, low down at the heart of each
+petal, while others are glowing in the most regal purple.
+
+All these weeks, too, have been blossoming dozens, yes, hundreds of
+others; every nook and corner is full; every walk brings surprises. Some
+of our most familiar friends are wanting. One is not surprised that the
+most common wayside flower of that golden region is the yellow daisy, or
+sunflower it is called; but she remembers fondly our fields of white
+daisies, and clumps of gay little buttercups, and she longs for
+cheery-faced dandelions beside her path. A few of the latter she may
+find, much larger and more showy than ours; but these--it is said in
+Colorado Springs--are all from seed imported by an exile for health's
+sake, who pined for the flowers of home.
+
+Several peculiarities of Colorado flowers are noteworthy. Some have
+gummy or sticky stems, like the gilia, already mentioned, and others
+again are "clinging," by means of a certain roughness of stem and leaf.
+The mentzelia is of this nature; half a dozen stalks can with difficulty
+be separated; and they seem even to attract any light substance, like
+fringe or lace, holding so closely to it that they must be torn apart.
+
+Many of the prettiest flowers are, like our milkweed, nourished by a
+milky juice, and when severed from the parent stem, not only weep thick
+white tears, which stain the hands and the garments, but utterly refuse
+to subsist on water, and begin at once to droop. Is it the vitality in
+the air which forces even the plants to eccentricities? Or can it be
+that they have not yet been subdued into uniformity like ours? Are they
+unconventional--nearer to wild Nature? So queries an unscientific lover
+of them all.
+
+This slight sketch of a few flowers gives hardly a hint of the richness
+of Colorado's flora. No words can paint the profusion and the beauty. I
+have not here even mentioned some of the most notable: the great golden
+columbine, the State flower, to which our modest blossom is an
+insignificant weed;
+
+ "The fairy lilies, straight and tall,
+ Like torches lit for carnival;"
+
+the primrose, opening at evening a disk three or four inches across,
+loaded with richest perfume, and changed to odorless pink before
+morning; exquisite vetches, with bloom like our sweet pea, and of more
+than fifty varieties; harebells in great clumps, and castilleias which
+dot the State with scarlet; rosy cyclamens "on long, lithe stems that
+soar;" and mertensias, whose delicate bells, blue as a baby's eyes, turn
+day by day to pink; the cleome, which covers Denver with a purple veil;
+the whole family of pentstemons, and hundreds of others.
+
+An artist in Colorado Springs, who has given her heart, almost her life,
+to fixing in imperishable color the floral wealth about her, has painted
+over three hundred varieties of Colorado wild-flowers, and her list is
+still incomplete.
+
+It is not pleasant to mar this record of beauty, but one thing must be
+mentioned. The luxuriance of the flowers is already greatly diminished
+by the unscrupulousness of the tourists who swarm in the flower season,
+especially, I am sorry to say, women. Not content with filling their
+hands with flowers, they fill their arms and even their carriage, if
+they have one. Moreover, the hold of the plant on the light, sandy soil
+is very slight; and the careless gatherer, not provided with knife or
+scissors, will almost invariably pull the root with the flower, thus
+totally annihilating that plant. When one witnesses such greediness, and
+remembers that these vandals are in general on the wing, and cannot stay
+to enjoy what they have rifled, but will leave it all to be thrown out
+by hotel servants the next morning, he cannot wonder at the indignation
+of the residents toward the traveler, nor that "No admittance" notices
+are put up, and big dogs kept, and that "tourist" is a name synonymous
+with "plunderer," and bitterly hated by the people.
+
+I have seen a party of ladies--to judge by their looks--with arms so
+full of the golden columbine that it seemed they could not hold another
+flower, whose traveling dress and equipments showed them to be mere
+transient passers through, who could not possibly make use of so many.
+Half a dozen blossoms would have given as much pleasure as half a
+hundred, and be much more easily cared for, besides leaving a few for
+their successors to enjoy. The result is, of course, plain to see: a few
+more years of plunder, and Colorado will be left bare, and lose half her
+charm.
+
+One beautiful place near Colorado Springs, Glen Eyrie, belonging to
+General Palmer, was generously left open for every one to enjoy by
+driving through; but, incredible as it seems, his hospitality was so
+abused, his lovely grounds rifled, not only of wild-flowers, but even of
+cultivated flowers and plants, that he was forced at last to put up
+notices that the public was allowed to "drive through _without
+dismounting_."
+
+
+
+
+VII.
+
+CLIFF-DWELLERS IN THE CAÑON.
+
+                                   Glad
+ With light as with a garment it is clad
+ Each dawn, before the tardy plains have won
+ One ray; and often after day has long been done
+ For us, the light doth cling reluctant, sad to leave its brow.
+
+ H. H.
+
+
+The happiest day of my summer in the Rocky Mountains was passed in the
+heart of a mountain consecrated by the songs and the grave of its lover,
+"H. H.,"--beautiful Cheyenne, the grandest and the most graceful of its
+range.
+
+Camp Harding, my home for the season, in its charming situation, has
+already been described. The fortunate dwellers in this "happy valley"
+were blessed with two delectable walks, "down the road" and "up the
+road." Down the road presented an enchanting procession of flowers,
+which changed from day to day as the season advanced; to-day the scarlet
+castilleia, or painter's-brush, flaming out of the coarse grasses;
+to-morrow the sand lily, lifting its dainty face above the bare sand;
+next week the harebell, in great clumps, nodding across the field, and
+next month the mariposa or butterfly lily, just peeping from behind the
+brush,--with dozens of others to keep them company. As one went on, the
+fields grew broader, the walls of the mesa lowered and drew apart, till
+the cañon was lost in the wide, open country.
+
+This was the favorite evening walk, with all the camp dogs in
+attendance,--the nimble greyhound, the age-stiffened and sedate spaniel,
+the saucy, ill-bred bull-terrier, and the naïve baby pug. The loitering
+walk usually ended at the red farmhouse a mile away, and the walkers
+returned to the camp in the gloaming, loaded with flowers, saturated
+with the delicious mountain air, and filled with a peace that passeth
+words.
+
+Up the road led into the mountain, under thick-crowding trees, between
+frowning rocks, ever growing higher and drawing nearer together, till
+the carriage road became a burro track, and then a footpath; now this
+side the boisterous brook, then crossing by a log or two to the other
+side, and ending in the heart of Cheyenne in a _cul-de-sac_, whose high
+perpendicular sides could be scaled only by flights of steps built
+against the rocks. From high up the mountain, into this immense rocky
+basin, came the brook Shining Water, in seven tremendous leaps, each
+more lovely than the last, and reached at bottom a deep stone bowl,
+which flung it out in a shower of spray forbidding near approach, and
+keeping the rocks forever wet.
+
+The morning walk was up the road, in the grateful shade of the trees,
+between the cool rocks, beside the impetuous brook. This last was an
+ever fresh source of interest and pleasure, for nothing differs more
+widely from an Eastern brook than its Western namesake. The terms we
+apply to our mountain rivulets do not at all describe a body of water on
+its way down a Rocky Mountain valley. It does not murmur,--it roars and
+brawls; it cannot ripple,--it rages and foams about the bowlders that
+lie in its path. The name of a Colorado mountain stream, the Roaring
+Fork, exactly characterizes it.
+
+One warm morning in June, a small party from the camp set out for a walk
+up the road. By easy stages, resting here and there on convenient rocks,
+beguiled at every step by something more beautiful just ahead, they
+penetrated to the end of the cañon. Of that party I was one, and it was
+my first visit. I was alternately in raptures over the richness of
+color, the glowing red sandstone against the violet-blue sky, and
+thrilled by the grandeur of places which looked as if the whole
+mountain had been violently rent asunder.
+
+But no emotion whatever, no beauty, no sublimity even, can make me
+insensible to a bird note. Just at the entrance to the Pillars of
+Hercules, two towering walls of perpendicular rock that approach each
+other almost threateningly, as if they would close up and crush between
+them the rash mortal who dared to penetrate farther,--in that impressive
+spot, while I lingered, half yielding to a mysterious hesitation about
+entering the strange portal, a bird song fell upon my ear. It was a
+plaintive warble, that sounded far away up the stern cliff above my
+head. It seemed impossible that a bird could find a foothold, or be in
+any way attracted by those bare walls, yet I turned my eyes, and later
+my glass that way.
+
+At first nothing was to be seen save, part way up the height, an
+exquisite bit of nature. In a niche that might have been scooped out by
+a mighty hand, where scarcely a ray of sunlight could penetrate, and no
+human touch could make or mar, were growing, and blooming luxuriantly, a
+golden columbine, Colorado's pride and glory, a rosy star-shaped blossom
+unknown to me, and a cluster of
+
+ "Proud cyclamens on long, lithe stems that soar."
+
+When I could withdraw my eyes from this dainty wind-sown garden, I
+sought the singer, who proved to be a small brown bird with a
+conspicuous white throat, flitting about on the face of the rock,
+apparently quite at home, and constantly repeating his few notes. His
+song was tender and bewitching in its effect, though it was really
+simple in construction, being merely nine notes, the first uttered
+twice, and the remaining eight in descending chromatic scale.
+
+Now and then the tiny songster disappeared in what looked like a slight
+crack in the wall, but instantly reappeared, and resumed his siren
+strains. Spellbound I stood, looking and listening; but alas! the hour
+was late, the way was long, and others were waiting; I needs must tear
+myself away. "To-morrow I will come again," I said, as I turned back.
+"To-morrow I shall be here alone, and spend the whole day with the cañon
+wren."
+
+Then we retraced our steps of the morning, lingering among the pleasant
+groves of cottonwood, oak, and aspen; pausing to admire the cactus
+display of gorgeous yellow, with petals widespread, yet so wedded to
+their wildness that they resented the touch of a human hand, resisting
+their ravisher with needle-like barbs, and then sullenly drawing
+together their satin petals and refusing to open them more; past great
+thickets of wild roses, higher than our heads and fragrant as the
+morning; beside close-growing bushes, where hid the
+
+ "Golden cradle of the moccasin flower,"
+
+and the too clever yellow-breasted chat had mocked and defied me; and so
+home to the camp.
+
+At an early hour the next morning, the carriage of my hostess set me
+down at the entrance of Cheyenne Cañon proper, with the impedimenta
+necessary for a day's isolation from civilization. I passed through the
+gate,--for even this grand work of nature is claimed as private
+property; but, happily, through good sense or indifference,
+"improvements" have not been attempted, and one forgets the gate and the
+gate-keeper as soon as they are passed.
+
+Entering at that unnatural hour, and alone, leaving the last human being
+behind,--staring in astonishment, by the way, at my unprecedented
+proceeding,--I began to realize, as I walked up the narrow path, that
+the whole grand cañon, winding perhaps a mile into the heart of this
+most beautiful of the Rocky Mountains, was mine alone for three hours.
+Indeed, when the time arrived for tourists to appear, so little did I
+concern myself with them that they might have been a procession of
+spectres passing by; so, in effect, the cañon was my solitary possession
+for nine blissful hours.
+
+The delights of that perfect day cannot be put into words. Strolling up
+the path, filled with an inexpressible sense of ownership and seclusion
+from all the world, I first paused in the neighborhood of the small
+cliff-dweller whose music had charmed me, and suggested the enchanting
+idea of spending a day with him in his retreat. I seated myself opposite
+the forbidding wall where the bird had hovered, apparently so much at
+home. All was silent; no singer to be heard, no wren to be seen. The
+sun, which turned the tops of the Pillars to gold as I entered, crept
+down inch by inch till it beat upon my head and clothed the rock in a
+red glory. Still no bird appeared. High above the top of the rocks, in
+the clear thin air of the mountain, a flock of swallows wheeled and
+sported, uttering an unfamiliar two-note call; butterflies fluttered
+irresolute, looking frivolous enough in the presence of the eternal
+hills; gauzy-winged dragonflies zigzagged to and fro, their intense blue
+gleaming in the sun. The hour for visitors drew near, and my precious
+solitude was fast slipping away.
+
+Slowly then I walked up the cañon, looking for my singer. Humming-birds
+were hovering before the bare rock as before a flower, perhaps sipping
+the water-drops that here and there trickled down, and large hawks, like
+mere specks against the blue, were soaring, but no wren could I see. At
+last I reached the end, with its waterfall fountain. Close within this
+ceaseless sprinkle, on a narrow ledge that was never dry, was placed--I
+had almost said grew--a bird's nest; whose, it were needless to ask. One
+American bird, and one only, chooses perpetual dampness for his
+environment,--the American dipper, or water ouzel.
+
+Here I paused to muse over the spray-soaked cradle on the rock. In this
+strange place had lived a bird so eccentric that he prefers not only to
+nest under a continuous shower, through which he must constantly pass,
+but to spend most of his life in, not on the water. Shall we call him a
+fool or a philosopher? Is the water a protection, and from what? Has
+"damp, moist unpleasantness" no terrors for his fine feathers? Where now
+were the nestlings whose lullaby had been the music of the falling
+waters? Down that sheer rock, perhaps into the water at its foot, had
+been the first flight of the ouzel baby. Why had I come too late to see
+him?
+
+But the hours were passing, while I had not seen, and, what was worse,
+had not heard my first charmer, the cañon wren. Leaving these perplexing
+conundrums unsolved, I turned slowly back down the walk, to resume my
+search. Perhaps fifty feet from the ouzel nest, as I lingered to admire
+the picturesque rapids in the brook, a slight movement drew my attention
+to a little projection on a stone, not six feet from me, where a small
+chipmunk sat pertly up, holding in his two hands, and eagerly
+nibbling--was it, could it be a strawberry in this rocky place?
+
+Of course I stopped instantly to look at this pretty sight. I judged him
+to be a youngster, partly because of his evident fearlessness of his
+hereditary enemy, a human being; more on account of the saucy way in
+which he returned my stare; and most, perhaps, from the appearance of
+absorbing delight, in which there was a suggestion of the unexpected,
+with which he discussed that sweet morsel. Closely I watched him as he
+turned the treasure round and round in his deft little paws, and at last
+dropped the rifled hull. Would he go for another, and where? In an
+instant, with a parting glance at me, to make sure that I had not moved,
+he scrambled down his rocky throne, and bounded in great leaps over the
+path to a crumpled paper, which I saw at once was one of the bags with
+which tourists sow the earth. But its presence there did not rouse in my
+furry friend the indignation it excited in me. To him it was a
+treasure-trove, for into it he disappeared without a moment's
+hesitation; and almost before I had jumped to the conclusion that it
+contained the remains of somebody's luncheon, he reappeared, holding in
+his mouth another strawberry, bounded over the ground to his former
+seat, and proceeded to dispose of that one, also. The scene was so
+charming and his pleasure so genuine that I forgave the careless
+traveler on the spot, and only wished I had a kodak to secure a
+permanent picture of this unique strawberry festival.
+
+As I loitered along, gazing idly at the brook, ever listening and
+longing for the wren song, I was suddenly struck motionless by a loud,
+shrill, and peculiar cry. It was plainly a bird voice, and it seemed to
+come almost from the stream itself. It ceased in a moment, and then
+followed a burst of song, liquid as the singing of the brook, and
+enchantingly sweet, though very low. I was astounded. Who could sing
+like that up in this narrow mountain gorge, where I supposed the cañon
+wren was king?
+
+At the point where I stood, a straggling shrub, the only one for rods,
+hung over the brink. I silently sank to a seat behind it, lest I disturb
+the singer, and remained without movement. The baffling carol went on
+for some seconds, and for the only time in my life I wished I could put
+a spell upon brook-babble, that I might the better hear.
+
+Cautiously I raised my glass to my eyes, and examined the rocks across
+the water, probably eight feet from me. Then arose again that strange
+cry, and at the same instant my eye fell upon a tiny ledge, level with
+the water, and perhaps six inches long, on which stood a small
+fellow-creature in great excitement. He was engaged in what I should
+call "curtsying"; that is, bending his leg joint, and dropping his plump
+little body for a second, then bobbing up to his fullest height,
+repeating the performance constantly,--looking eagerly out over the
+water the while, evidently expecting somebody. This was undoubtedly the
+bird's manner of begging for food,--a very pretty and well-bred way,
+too, vastly superior to the impetuous calls and demands of some young
+birds. The movement was "dipping," of course, and he was the dipper, or
+ouzel baby, that had been cradled in that fountain-dashed nest by the
+fall. He was not long out of it, either; for though fully dressed in his
+modest slate-color, with white feet, and white edgings to many of his
+feathers, he had hardly a vestige of a tail. He was a winsome baby, for
+all that.
+
+While I studied the points of the stranger, breathless lest he should
+disappear before my eyes, he suddenly burst out with the strange call I
+had heard. It was clearly a cry of joy, of welcome, for out of the
+water, up on to the ledge beside him, scrambled at that moment a
+grown-up ouzel. He gave one poke into the wide-open mouth of the infant,
+then slipped back into the water, dropped down a foot or more, climbed
+out upon another little shelf in the rock, and in a moment the song
+arose. I watched the singer closely. The notes were so low and so
+mingled with the roar of the brook that even then I should not have been
+certain he was uttering them if I had not seen his throat and mouth
+distinctly. The song was really exquisite, and as much in harmony with
+the melody of the stream as the voice of the English sparrow is with the
+city sounds among which he dwells, and the plaintive refrain of the
+meadow-lark with the low-lying, silent fields where he spends his days.
+
+But little cared baby ouzel for music, however ravishing. What to his
+mind was far more important was food,--in short, worms. His pretty
+begging continued, and the daring notion of attempting a perilous
+journey over the foot of water that separated him from his papa plainly
+entered his head. He hurried back and forth on the brink with growing
+agitation, and was seemingly about to plunge in, when the singer again
+entered the water, brought up another morsel, and then stood on the
+ledge beside the eager youngling, "dipping" occasionally himself, and
+showing every time he winked--as did the little one, also--snowy-white
+eyelids, in strange contrast to the dark slate-colored plumage.
+
+This aesthetic manner of discharging family duties, alternating food for
+the body with rapture of the soul, continued for some time, probably
+until the young bird had as much as was good for him; and then supplies
+were cut off by the peremptory disappearance of the purveyor, who
+plunged with the brook over the edge of a rock, and was seen no more.
+
+A little later a grown bird appeared, that I supposed at first was the
+returning papa, but a few moments' observation convinced me that it was
+the mother; partly because no song accompanied the work, but more
+because of the entirely different manners of the new-comer. Filling the
+crop of that importunate offspring of hers was, with this Quaker-dressed
+dame, a serious business that left no time for rest or recreation. Two
+charmed hours I sat absorbed, watching the most wonderful evolutions one
+could believe possible to a creature in feathers.
+
+At the point where this little drama was enacted, the brook rushed over
+a line of pebbles stretching from bank to bank, lying at all angles and
+of all sizes, from six to ten inches in diameter. Then it ran five or
+six feet quietly, around smooth rocks here and there above the water,
+and ended by plunging over a mass of bowlders to a lower level. The bird
+began by mounting one of those slippery rounded stones, and thrusting
+her head under water up to her shoulders. Holding it there a few
+seconds, apparently looking for something, she then jumped in where the
+turmoil was maddest, picked an object from the bottom, and, returning to
+the ledge, gave it to baby.
+
+The next moment, before I had recovered from my astonishment at this
+feat of the ouzel, she ran directly up the falls (which, though not
+high, were exceedingly lively), being half the time entirely under
+water, and exactly as much at her ease as if no water were there; though
+how she could stand in the rapid current, not to speak of walking
+straight up against it, I could not understand.
+
+Often she threw herself into the stream, and let it carry her down, like
+a duck, a foot or two, while she looked intently on the bottom, then
+simply walked up out of it on to a stone. I could see that her plumage
+was not in the least wet; a drop or two often rested on her back when
+she came out, but it rolled off in a moment. She never even shook
+herself. The food she brought to that eager youngling every few minutes
+looked like minute worms, doubtless some insect larvæ.
+
+Several times this hard-working mother plunged into the brook where it
+was shallow, ran or walked down it, half under water, and stopped on the
+very brink of the lower fall, where one would think she could not even
+stand, much less turn back and run up stream, which she did freely. This
+looked to me almost as difficult as for a man to stand on the brink of
+Niagara, with the water roaring and tumbling around him. Now and then
+the bird ran or flew up, against the current, and entirely under water,
+so that I could see her only as a dark-colored moving object, and then
+came out all fresh and dry beside the baby, with a mouthful of food. I
+should hardly dare to tell this, for fear of raising doubts of my
+accuracy, if the same thing had not been seen and reported by others
+before me. Her crowning action was to stand with one foot on each of two
+stones in the middle and most uproarious part of the little fall, lean
+far over, and deliberately pick something from a third stone.
+
+All this was no show performance, even no frolic, on the part of the
+ouzel,--it was simply her every-day manner of providing for the needs of
+that infant; and when she considered the duty discharged for the time,
+she took her departure, very probably going at once to the care of a
+second youngster who awaited her coming in some other niche in the
+rocks.
+
+Finding himself alone again, and no more dainties coming his way, the
+young dipper turned for entertainment to the swift-running streamlet. He
+went down to the edge, stepping easily, never hopping; but when the
+shallow edge of the water ran over his pretty white toes, he hastily
+scampered back, as if afraid to venture farther. The clever little rogue
+was only coquetting, however, for when he did at last plunge in he
+showed himself very much at home. He easily crossed a turbulent bit of
+the brook, and when he was carried down a little he scrambled without
+trouble up on a stone. All the time, too, he was peering about after
+food; and in fact it was plain that his begging was a mere pretense,--he
+was perfectly well able to look out for himself. Through the whole of
+these scenes not one of the birds, old or young, had paid the slightest
+attention to me, though I was not ten feet from them.
+
+During the time I had been so absorbed in my delightful study of
+domestic life in the ouzel family, the other interesting resident of the
+cañon--the elusive cañon wren--had been forgotten. Now, as I noticed
+that the day was waning, I thought of him again, and, tearing myself
+away from the enticing picture, leaving the pretty baby to his own
+amusements, I returned to the famous Pillars, and planted myself before
+my rock, resolved to stay there till the bird appeared.
+
+No note came to encourage me, but, gazing steadily upward, after a time
+I noticed something that looked like a fly running along the wall.
+Bringing my glass to my eyes, I found that it was a bird, and one of the
+white-throated family I so longed to see. She--for her silence and her
+ways proclaimed her sex--was running about where appeared to be nothing
+but perpendicular rock, flirting her tail after the manner of her race,
+as happy and as unconcerned as if several thousand feet of sheer cliff
+did not stretch between her and the brook at its foot. Her movements
+were jerky and wren-like, and every few minutes she flitted into a tiny
+crevice that seemed, from my point of view, hardly large enough to admit
+even her minute form. She was dressed like the sweet singer of
+yesterday, and the door she entered so familiarly was the same I had
+seen him interested in. I guessed that she was his mate.
+
+The bird seemed to be gathering from the rock something which she
+constantly carried into the hole. Possibly there were nestlings in that
+snug and inaccessible home. To discover if my conjectures were true, I
+redoubled my vigilance, though it was neck-breaking work, for so narrow
+was the cañon at that point that I could not get far enough away for a
+more level view.
+
+Sometimes the bustling little wren flew to the top of the wall, about
+twenty feet above her front door, as it looked to me (it may have been
+ten times that). Over the edge she instantly disappeared, but in a few
+minutes returned to her occupation on the rock. Upon the earth beneath
+her sky parlor she seemed never to turn her eyes, and I began to fear
+that I should get no nearer view of the shy cliff-dweller.
+
+Finally, however, the caprice seized the tantalizing creature of
+descending to the level of mortals, and the brook. Suddenly, while I
+looked, she flung herself off her perch, and fell--down--down--down--
+disappearing at last behind a clump of weeds at the bottom. Was she
+killed? Had she been shot by some noiseless air-gun? What had become
+of the tiny wren? I sprang to my feet, and hurried as near as the
+intervening stream would allow, when lo! there she was, lively and fussy
+as ever, running about at the foot of the cliff, searching, searching
+all the time, ever and anon jumping up and pulling from the rock
+something that clung to it.
+
+When the industrious bird had filled her beak with material that stuck
+out on both sides, which I concluded to be some kind of rock moss, she
+started back. Not up the face of that blank wall, loaded as she was,
+but by a strange path that she knew well, up which I watched her wending
+her way to her proper level. This was a cleft between two solid bodies
+of rock, where, it would seem, the two walls, in settling together for
+their lifelong union, had broken and crumbled, and formed between them a
+sort of crack, filled with unattached bowlders, with crevices and
+passages, sometimes perpendicular, sometimes horizontal. Around and
+through these was a zigzag road to the top, evidently as familiar to
+that atom of a bird as Broadway is to some of her fellow-creatures, and
+more easily traversed, for she had it all to herself.
+
+The wren flew about three feet to the first step of her upward passage,
+then ran and clambered nearly all the rest of the way, darting behind
+jutting rocks and coming out the other side, occasionally flying a foot
+or two; now pausing as if for an observation, jerking her tail upright
+and letting it drop back, wren-fashion, then starting afresh, and so
+going on till she reached the level of her nest, when she flew across
+the (apparent) forty or fifty feet, directly into the crevice. In a
+minute she came out, and without an instant's pause flung herself down
+again.
+
+I watched this curious process very closely. The wren seemed to close
+her wings; certainly she did not use them, nor were they in the least
+spread that I could detect. She came to the ground as if she were a
+stone, as quickly and as directly as a stone would have fallen; but just
+before touching the ground she spread her wings, and alighted lightly on
+her feet. Then she fell to her labor of collecting what I suppose was
+nesting material, and in a few minutes started up again by the
+roundabout road to the top. Two hours or more, with gradually stiffening
+neck, I spent with the wren, while she worked constantly and silently,
+and not once during all that time did the singer appear.
+
+What the scattering parties of tourists, who from time to time passed
+me, thought of a silent personage sitting in the cañon alone, staring
+intently up at a blank wall of rock, I did not inquire. Perhaps that she
+was a verse-writer seeking inspiration; more likely, however, a harmless
+lunatic musing over her own fancies.
+
+I know well what I thought of them, from the glimpses that came to me as
+I sat there; some climbing over the sharp-edged rocks, in tight boots,
+delicate kid gloves, and immaculate traveling costumes, and panting for
+breath in the seven thousand feet altitude; others uncomfortably seated
+on the backs of the scraggy little burros, one of whom was so interested
+in my proceedings that he walked directly up and thrust his long,
+inquiring ears into my very face, spite of the resistance of his rider,
+forcing me to rise and decline closer acquaintance. One of the
+melancholy procession was loaded with a heavy camera, another equipped
+with a butterfly net; this one bent under the weight of a big basket of
+luncheon, and that one was burdened with satchels and wraps and
+umbrellas. All were laboriously trying to enjoy themselves, but not one
+lingered to look at the wonder and the beauty of the surroundings. I
+pitied them, one and all, feeling obliged, as no doubt they did, to "see
+the sights;" tramping the lovely cañon to-day, glancing neither to right
+nor left; whirling through the Garden of the Gods to-morrow; painfully
+climbing the next day the burro track to the Grave, the sacred point
+where
+
+ "Upon the wind-blown mountain spot
+ Chosen and loved as best by her,
+ Watched over by near sun and star,
+ Encompassed by wide skies, she sleeps."
+
+Alas that one cannot quote with truth the remaining lines!
+
+ "And not one jarring murmur creeps
+ Up from the plain her rest to mar."
+
+For now, at the end of the toilsome passage, that place which should be
+sacred to loving memories and tender thoughts, is desecrated by placards
+and picnickers, defaced by advertisements, strewn with the
+wrapping-paper, tin cans, and bottles with which the modern
+globe-trotter marks his path through the beautiful and sacred scenes in
+nature.[1]
+
+In this uncomfortable way the majority of summer tourists spend day
+after day, and week after week; going home tired out, with no new idea
+gained, but happy to be able to say they have been here and there,
+beheld this cañon, dined on that mountain, drank champagne in such a
+pass, and struggled for breath on top of "the Peak." Their eyes may
+indeed have passed over these scenes, but they have not _seen_ one
+thing.
+
+Far wiser is he (and more especially she) who seeks out a corner obscure
+enough to escape the eyes of the "procession," settles himself in it,
+and spends fruitful and delightful days alone with nature; never hasting
+nor rushing; seeing and studying the wonders at hand, but avoiding
+"parties" and "excursions;" valuing more a thorough knowledge of one
+cañon than a glimpse of fifty; caring more to appreciate the beauties of
+one mountain than to scramble over a whole range; getting into such
+perfect harmony with nature that it is as if he had come into possession
+of a new life; and from such an experience returning to his home
+refreshed and invigorated in mind and body.
+
+Such were my reflections as the sun went down, and I felt, as I passed
+out through the gate, that I ought to double my entrance fee, so much
+had my life been enriched by that perfect day alone in Cheyenne Cañon.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 1: Since the above was written, I am glad to learn that,
+because of this vandalism, the remains of "H. H." have been removed to
+the cemetery at Colorado Springs.]
+
+
+
+
+IN THE MIDDLE COUNTRY.
+
+
+
+
+ For all the woods are shrill with stress of song,
+   Where soft wings flutter down to new-built nests,
+ And turbulent sweet sounds are heard day long,
+   As of innumerable marriage feasts.
+
+ CHARLES LOTIN HILDRETH.
+
+
+
+
+VIII.
+
+AT FOUR O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING.
+
+
+Four o'clock in the morning is the magical hour of the day. I do not
+offer this sentiment as original, nor have I the slightest hope of
+converting any one to my opinion; I merely state the fact.
+
+For years I had known it perfectly well; and fortified by my knowledge,
+and bristling with good resolutions, I went out every June determined to
+rise at that unnatural hour. Nothing is easier than to get up at four
+o'clock--the night before; but when morning comes, the point of view is
+changed, and all the arguments that arise in the mind are on the other
+side; sleep is the one thing desirable. The case appeared hopeless.
+Appeals from Philip drunk (with sleep) to Philip sober did not seem to
+avail; for whatever the latter decreed, the former would surely disobey.
+
+But last June I found my spur; last summer I learned to get up with
+eagerness, and stay up with delight. This was effected by means of an
+alarm, set by the evening's wakefulness, that had no mercy on the
+morning's sleepiness. The secret is--a present interest. What may be
+going on somewhere out of sight and hearing in the world is a matter of
+perfect indifference; what is heard and seen at the moment is an
+argument that no one can resist.
+
+I got my hint by the accident of some shelled corn being left on the
+ground before my window, and so attracting a four o'clock party,
+consisting of blackbirds, blue jays, and doves. I noticed the corn, but
+did not think of the pleasure it would give me, until the next morning,
+when I was awakened about four o'clock by loud and excited talk in
+blackbird tones, and hurried to the window, to find that I had half the
+birds of the neighborhood before me.
+
+Most in number, and most noisy, were the common blackbirds, who just at
+that time were feeding their young in a grove of evergreens back of the
+house, where they had set up their nurseries in a crowd, as is their
+custom. It is impossible to take this bird seriously, he is so
+irresistibly ludicrous. His manners always suggest to me the peculiar
+drollery of the negro; one of the old-fashioned sort, as we read of him,
+and I promised myself some amusement from the study of him at short
+range; I was not disappointed.
+
+My greeting as I took my seat at the open window, unfortunately without
+blinds to screen me, was most comical. A big pompous fellow turned his
+wicked-looking white eye upon me, drew himself into a queer humped-up
+position, with all his feathers on end, and apparently by a strong
+effort _squeezed_ out a husky and squeaky, yet loud cry of two notes,
+which sounded exactly like "Squee-gee!"
+
+I was so astounded that I laughed in his face; at which he repeated it
+with added emphasis, then turned his back on me, as unworthy of notice
+away up in my window, and gave his undivided attention to a specially
+large grain of corn which had been unearthed by a meek-looking neighbor,
+and appropriated by him, in the most lordly manner. His bearing at the
+moment was superb and stately in a degree of which only a bird who walks
+is capable; one cannot be dignified who is obliged to hop.
+
+I thought his greeting was a personal one to show contempt--which it did
+emphatically--to the human race in general, and to me in particular, but
+I found later that it was the ordinary blackbird way of being offensive;
+it was equivalent to "Get out!" or "Shut up!" or some other of the curt
+and rude expressions in use by bigger folk than blackbirds.
+
+If a bird alighted too near one of these arrogant fellows on the ground,
+he was met with the same expletive, and if he was about the same size
+he "talked back." The number and variety of utterances at their command
+was astonishing; I was always being surprised with a new one. Now a
+blackbird would fly across the lawn, making a noise exactly like a boy's
+tin trumpet, and repeating it as long as he was within hearing,
+regarding it, seemingly, as an exceptionally great feat. Again one would
+seize a kernel of corn, burst out with a convulsive cry, as if he were
+choking to death, and fly off with his prize, in imminent danger of his
+life, as I could not but feel.
+
+The second morning a youngster came with his papa to the feast, and he
+was droller, if possible, than his elders. He followed his parent
+around, with head lowered and mouth wide open, fairly bawling in a loud
+yet husky tone.
+
+The young blackbird does not appear in the glossy suit of his parents.
+His coat is rusty in hue, and his eye is dark, as is proper in youth. He
+is not at all backward in speaking his mind, and his sole desire at this
+period of his life being food, he demands it with an energy and
+persistence that usually insures success.
+
+In making close acquaintance with them, one cannot help longing to
+prescribe to the whole blackbird family something to clear their
+bronchial tubes; every tone is husky, and the student involuntarily
+clears his own throat as he listens.
+
+I was surprised to find the blackbirds so beautiful. When the sun was
+near setting, and struck across the grass its level rays, they were
+really exquisite; their heads a brilliant metallic blue, and all back of
+that rich bronze or purple, all over as glossy as satin. The little
+dames are somewhat smaller, and a shade less finely dressed than their
+bumptious mates; but that does not make them meek--far from it! and they
+are not behind their partners in eccentric freaks. Sometimes one would
+apparently attempt a joke by starting to fly, and passing so near the
+head of one of the dignitaries on the ground that he would involuntarily
+start and "duck" ingloriously. On one occasion a pair were working
+peaceably together at the corn, when she flirted a bit of dirt so that
+it flew toward him. He dashed furiously at her. She gave one hop which
+took her about a foot away, and then it appeared that she coveted a
+kernel of corn that was near him when the offense was given, for she
+instantly jumped back and pounced upon it as if she expected to be
+annihilated. He ran after her and drove her off, but she kept her prize.
+
+Eating one of those hard grains was no joke to anybody without teeth,
+and it was a serious affair to one of the blackbirds. He took it into
+his beak, dropped both head and tail, and gave his mind to the cracking
+of the sweet morsel. At this time he particularly disliked to be
+disturbed, and the only time I saw one rude to a youngster was when
+struggling with this difficulty. While feeding the nestlings, they broke
+the kernels into bits, picked up all the pieces, filling the beak the
+whole length, and then flew off with them.
+
+But they were not always allowed to keep the whole kernel. They were
+generally attended while on the ground by a little party of thieves,
+ready and waiting to snatch any morsel that was dropped. These were, of
+course, the English sparrows. They could not break corn, but they liked
+it for all that, so they used their wits to secure it, and of sharpness
+these street birds have no lack. The moment a blackbird alighted on the
+grass, a sparrow or two came down beside him, and lingered around,
+watching eagerly. Whenever a crumb dropped, one rushed in and snatched
+it, and instantly flew from the wrath to come.
+
+The sparrows had not been at this long before some of the wise
+blackbirds saw through it, and resented it with proper spirit. One of
+them would turn savagely after the sparrow who followed him, and the
+knowing rascal always took his departure. It was amusing to see a
+blackbird working seriously on a grain, all his faculties absorbed in
+the solemn question whether he should succeed in cracking his nut, while
+two or three feathered pilferers stood as near as they dared, anxiously
+waiting till the great work should be accomplished, the hard shell
+should yield, and some bits should fall.
+
+About five days after the feast was spread, the young came out in force,
+often two of them following one adult about on the grass, running after
+him so closely that he could hardly get a chance to break up the kernel;
+indeed, he often had to fly to a tree to prepare the mouthfuls for them.
+The young blackbird has not the slightest repose of manner; nor, for
+that matter, has the old one either. The grown-ups treated the young
+well, almost always; they never "squee-gee'd" at them, never touched
+them in any way, notwithstanding they were so insistent in begging that
+they would chase an adult bird across the grass, calling madly all the
+time, and fairly force him to fly away to get rid of them.
+
+Once two young ones got possession of the only spot where corn was left,
+and so tormented their elders who came that they had to dash in and
+snatch a kernel when they wanted one. One of the old ones danced around
+these two babies in a little circle a foot in diameter, the infants
+turning as he moved, and ever presenting open beaks to him. It was one
+of the funniest exhibitions I ever saw. After going around half a dozen
+times, the baffled blackbird flew away without a taste.
+
+When the two had driven every one else off the ground by their
+importunities, one of them plucked up spirit to try managing the corn
+for himself. Like a little man he stopped bawling, and began exercising
+his strength on the sweet grain. Upon this his neighbor, instead of
+following his example, began to beg of him! fluttering his wings,
+putting up his beak, and almost pulling the corn out of the mouth of the
+poor little fellow struggling with his first kernel!
+
+Sometimes a young one drove his parent all over a tree with his
+supplications. Higher and higher would go the persecuted, with his
+tormentor scrambling, and half flying after, till the elder absolutely
+flew away, much put out.
+
+Long before this time the corn had been used up. But I could not bear to
+lose my morning entertainment, for all these things took place between
+four and six A. M.--so I made a trip to the village, and bought
+a bag of the much desired dainty, some handfuls of which I scattered
+every night after birds were abed, ready for the sunrise show.
+Blackbirds were not the only guests at the feast; there were the
+doves,--mourning, or wood-doves,--who dropped to the grass, serene as a
+summer morning, walking around in their small red boots, with mincing
+steps and fussy little bows. Blue jays, too, came in plenty, selected
+each his grain and flew away with it. Robins, seeing all the excitement,
+came over from their regular hunting-ground, but never finding anything
+so attractive as worms, they soon left.
+
+The corn feast wound up with a droll excitement. One day a child from
+the house took her doll out in the grass to play, set it up against a
+tree trunk, and left it there. It had long light hair which stood out
+around the head, and it did look rather uncanny, but it was amusing to
+see the consternation it caused. Blue jays came to trees near by, and
+talked in low tones to each other; then one after another swooped down
+toward it; then they all squawked at it, and finding this of no avail,
+they left in a body.
+
+The robins approached cautiously, two of them, calling constantly, "he!
+he! he!" One was determined not to be afraid, and came nearer and
+nearer, till within about a foot of the strange object and behind it,
+when suddenly he started as though shot, jumped back, and both flew in a
+panic.
+
+Soon after this a red-headed woodpecker alighted on the trunk of the
+elm, preparatory to helping himself to a grain of corn. The moment his
+eyes fell upon madam of the fluffy hair, he burst out with a loud, rapid
+woodpecker "chitter," gradually growing higher in key and louder in
+tone. The blue jay flew down from the nest across the yard, and another
+came from behind the house; both perched near and stared at him, and
+then began to talk in low tones. A robin came hastily over and gazed at
+the usually silent red-head, and apparently it was to all as strange a
+performance as it was to me, or possibly they recognized that it was a
+cry of warning against danger.
+
+After he had us all aroused, the bird suddenly fell to silence, and
+resumed his ordinary manner, but he did not go after corn. I suppose the
+harangue was addressed to the doll.
+
+That was the last scene in the first act of the corn feast, for the
+blackbirds had become so numerous and so noisy that they made morning
+hideous to the whole household, and I stopped the supplies for several
+days, till these birds ceased to expect anything, and so came no more,
+and then I spread a fresh breakfast-table for more interesting guests,
+whose manners and customs I studied for weeks.
+
+I was invariably startled wide awake on these mornings by a bird note,
+and sprang up, to see at one glance that
+
+ "Day had awakened all things that be,
+ The lark and the thrush, and the swallow free,"
+
+and that my party was already assembled; one or two cardinals--or
+redbirds, as they are often called--on the grass, with the usual
+attendance of English sparrows, and the red-headed woodpecker in the
+elm, surveying the lawn, and considering which of the trespassers he
+should fall upon. It was the work of one minute to get into my wraps and
+seat myself, with opera glass, at the wide-open window.
+
+My first discovery made, however, during the blackbird reign, was that
+four o'clock is the most lovely part of the day. All the dust of human
+affairs having settled during the hours of sleep, the air is fresh and
+sweet, as if just made; and generally, just before sunrise, the foliage
+is at perfect rest,--the repose of night still lingering, the world of
+nature as well as of men still sleeping.
+
+The first thing one naturally looks for, as birds begin to waken, is a
+morning chorus of song. True bird-lovers, indeed, long for it with a
+longing that cannot be told. But alas, every year the chorus is
+withdrawing more and more to the woods, every year it is harder to find
+a place where English sparrows are not in possession; and it is one of
+the most grievous sins of that bird that he spoils the song, even when
+he does not succeed in driving out the singer. A running accompaniment
+of harsh and interminable squawks overpowers the music of meadow-lark
+and robin, and the glorious song of the thrush is fairly murdered by it.
+One could almost forgive the sparrow his other crimes, if he would only
+lie abed in the morning; if he would occasionally listen, and not
+forever break the peace of the opening day with his vulgar brawling. But
+the subject of English sparrows is maddening to a lover of native birds;
+let us not defile the magic hour by considering it.
+
+The most obvious resident of the neighborhood, at four o'clock in the
+morning, was always the golden-winged woodpecker, or flicker. Though he
+scorned the breakfast I offered, having no vegetarian proclivities, he
+did not refuse me his presence. I found him a character, and an amusing
+study, and I never saw his tribe so numerous and so much at home.
+
+Though largest in size of my four o'clock birds, and most fully
+represented (always excepting the English sparrows), the golden-wing was
+not in command. The autocrat of the hour, the reigning power, was quite
+a different personage, although belonging to the woodpecker family. It
+was a red-headed woodpecker who assumed to own the lawn and be master of
+the feast. This individual was marked by a defect in plumage, and had
+been a regular caller since the morning of my arrival. During the
+blackbird supremacy over the corn supply he had been hardly more than a
+spectator, coming to the trunk of the elm and surveying the assembly of
+blue jays, doves, blackbirds, and sparrows with interest, as one looks
+down upon a herd with whom he has nothing in common. But when those
+birds departed, and the visitors were of a different character, mostly
+cardinals, with an occasional blue jay, he at once took the place he
+felt belonged to him--that of dictator.
+
+The Virginia cardinal, a genuine F. F. V., and a regular attendant at my
+corn breakfast, was a subject of special study with me; indeed, it was
+largely on his account that I had set up my tent in that part of the
+world. I had all my life known him as a tenant of cages, and it struck
+me at first as very odd to see him flying about freely, like other wild
+birds. No one, it seemed to me, ever looked so out of place as this
+fellow of elegant manners, aristocratic crest, and brilliant dress,
+hopping about on the ground with his exaggerated little hops, tail held
+stiffly up out of harm's way, and uttering sharp "tsips." One could not
+help the feeling that he was altogether too fine for this common
+work-a-day existence; that he was intended for show; and that a gilded
+cage was his proper abiding-place, with a retinue of human servants to
+minister to his comfort. Yet he was modest and unassuming, and appeared
+really to enjoy his life of hard work; varying his struggles with a
+kernel of hard corn on the ground, where his color shone out like a
+flower against the green, with a rest on a spruce-tree, where
+
+ "Like a living jewel he sits and sings;"
+
+and when he had finished his frugal meal, departing, if nothing hurried
+him, with a graceful, loitering flight, in which each wing-beat seemed
+to carry him but a few inches forward, and leave his body poised, an
+infinitesimal second for another beat. With much noise of fluttering
+wings he would start for some point, but appear not to care much whether
+he got there. He was never in haste unless there was something to hurry
+him, in which he differed greatly from some of the fidgety, restless
+personages I have known among the feathered folk.
+
+The woodpecker's way of making himself disagreeable to this
+distinguished guest, was to keep watch from his tree (an elm overlooking
+the supply of corn) till he came to eat, and then fly down, aiming for
+exactly the spot occupied by the bird on the ground. No one, however
+brave, could help "getting out from under," when he saw this tricolored
+whirlwind descending upon him. The cardinal always jumped aside, then
+drew himself up, crest erect, tail held at an angle of forty-five
+degrees, and faced the woodpecker, calm, but prepared to stand up for
+his right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of his breakfast. Sometimes
+they had a little set-to, with beaks not more than three inches apart,
+the woodpecker making feints of rushing upon his _vis-à-vis_, and the
+cardinal jumping up ready to clinch, if a fight became necessary. It
+never went quite so far as that, though they glared at each other, and
+the cardinal uttered a little whispered "ha!" every time he sprang up.
+
+The Virginian's deliberate manner of eating made peace important to him.
+He took a grain of hard corn in his mouth, lengthwise; then working his
+sharp-edged beak, he soon succeeded in cutting the shell of the kernel
+through its whole length. From this he went on turning it with his
+tongue, and still cutting with his beak, till the whole shell rolled out
+of the side of his mouth in one long piece, completely cleared from its
+savory contents.
+
+The red-head, on the contrary, took his grain of corn to a branch, or
+sometimes to the trunk of a tree, where he sought a suitable crevice in
+the bark or in a crotch, placed his kernel, hammered it well in till
+firm and safe, and then proceeded to pick off pieces and eat them
+daintily, one by one. Sometimes he left a kernel there, and I saw how
+firmly it was wedged in, when the English sparrow discovered his store,
+fell upon it, and dug it out. It was a good deal of work for a
+strong-billed, persistent sparrow to dislodge a grain thus placed. But
+of course he never gave up till he could carry it off, probably because
+he saw that some one valued it; for since he was unable to crack a grain
+that was whole, it must have been useless to him. Sometimes the
+woodpecker wedged the kernel into a crevice in the bark of the trunk,
+then broke it up, and packed the pieces away in other niches; and I have
+seen an English sparrow go carefully over the trunk, picking out and
+eating these tidbits. That, or something else, has taught sparrows to
+climb tree trunks, which they do, in the neighborhood I speak of, with
+as much ease as a woodpecker. I have repeatedly seen them go the whole
+length of a tall elm trunk; proceeding by little hops, aided by the
+wings, and using the tail for support almost as handily as a woodpecker
+himself.
+
+The red-head's assumption of being monarch of all he surveyed did not
+end with the breakfast-table; he seemed to consider himself guardian and
+protector of the whole place. One evening I was drawn far down on the
+lawn by a peculiar cry of his. It began with a singular performance
+which I have already described, a loud, rapid "chit-it-it-it-it,"
+increasing in volume and rising in pitch, as though he were working
+himself up to some deed of desperation. In a few minutes, however, he
+appeared to get his feelings under control, and dropped to a single-note
+cry, often repeated. It differed widely from his loud call, "wok! wok!
+wok!" still more from the husky tones of his conversation with others of
+his kind; neither was it like the war-cries with which he intimated to
+another bird that he was not invited to breakfast. I thought there must
+be trouble brewing, especially as mingled with it was an occasional
+excited "pe-auk!" of a flicker. When I reached the spot, I found a
+curious party, consisting of two doves and three flickers, assembled on
+one small tree, with the woodpecker on an upper branch, as though
+addressing his remarks to them.
+
+As I drew near the scene of the excitement, the doves flew, and then the
+golden-wings; but the red-head held his ground, though he stopped his
+cries when he saw help coming. In vain I looked about for the cause of
+the row; everything was serene. It was a beautiful quiet evening, and
+not a child, nor a dog, nor anything in sight to make trouble. The tree
+stood quite by itself, in the midst of grass that knew not the clatter
+of the lawn-mower.
+
+I stood still and waited; and I had my reward, for after a few minutes'
+silence I saw a pair of ears, and then a head, cautiously lifted above
+the grass, about fifteen feet from the tree. The mystery was solved; it
+was a cat, whom all birds know as a creature who will bear watching when
+prowling around the haunts of bird families. I am fond of pussy, but I
+deprecate her taste for game, as I do that of some other hunters, wiser
+if not better than she. I invited her to leave this place, where she
+plainly was unwelcome, by an emphatic "scat!" and a stick tossed her
+way. She instantly dropped into the grass and was lost to view; and as
+the woodpecker, whose eyes were sharper and his position better than
+mine, said no more, I concluded she had taken the hint and departed.
+
+
+
+
+IX.
+
+THE LITTLE REDBIRDS.
+
+
+When the little redbirds began to visit the lawn there were exciting
+times. At first they ventured only to the trees overlooking it; and the
+gayly dressed father who had them in charge reminded me of nothing so
+much as a fussy young mother. He was alert to the tips of his toes, and
+excited, as if the whole world was thirsting for the life of those
+frowzy-headed youngsters in the maple. His manner intimated that nobody
+ever had birdlings before; indeed, that there never had been, or could
+be, just such a production as that young family behind the leaves. While
+they were there, he flirted his tail, jerked himself around, crest
+standing sharply up, and in every way showed his sense of importance and
+responsibility.
+
+As for the young ones, after they had been hopping about the branches a
+week or so, and papa had grown less madly anxious if one looked at them,
+they appeared bright and spirited, dressed in the subdued and tasteful
+hues of their mother, with pert little crests and dark beaks. They were
+not allowed on the grass, and they waited patiently on the tree while
+their provider shelled a kernel and took it up to them. The cardinal
+baby I found to be a self-respecting individual, who generally waits in
+patience his parents' pleasure, though he is not too often fed. He is
+not bumptious nor self-assertive, like many others; he rarely teases,
+and is altogether a well-mannered and proper young person. After a
+while, as the youngsters learned strength and speed on the wing, they
+came to the table with the grown-ups, and then I saw there were three
+spruce young redbirds, all under the care of their gorgeous papa.
+
+No sooner did they appear on the ground than trouble began with the
+English-sparrow tribe. The grievance of these birds was that they could
+not manage the tough kernels. They were just as hungry as anybody, and
+just as well-disposed toward corn, but they had not sufficient strength
+of beak to break it. They did not, however, go without corn, for all
+that. Their game was the not uncommon one of availing themselves of the
+labor of others; they invited themselves to everybody's breakfast-table,
+though, to be sure, they had to watch their chances in order to secure a
+morsel, and escape the wrath of the owner thereof.
+
+The cardinal was at first a specially easy victim to this plot. He took
+the whole matter most solemnly, and was so absorbed in the work, that if
+a bit dropped, in the process of separating it from the shell, as often
+happened, he did not concern himself about it till he had finished what
+he had in his mouth, and then he turned one great eye on the ground, for
+the fragments which had long before been snatched by sparrows and gone
+down sparrow throats. The surprise and the solemn stare with which he
+"could hardly believe his eyes" were exceedingly droll. After a while he
+saw through their little game, and took to watching, and when a sparrow
+appeared too much interested in his operations, he made a feint of going
+for him, which warned the gamin that he would better look out for
+himself.
+
+It did not take these sharp fellows long to discover that the young
+redbird was the easier prey, and soon every youngster on the ground was
+attended by a sparrow or two, ready to seize upon any fragment that
+fell. The parent's way of feeding was to shell a kernel and then give it
+to one of the little ones, who broke it up and ate it. From waiting for
+fallen bits, the sparrows, never being repulsed, grew bolder, and
+finally went so far as actually to snatch the corn out of the young
+cardinals' beaks. Again and again did I see this performance: a sparrow
+grab and run (or fly), leaving the baby astonished and dazed, looking
+as if he did not know exactly what had happened, but sure he was in some
+way bereaved.
+
+One day, while the cardinal family were eating on the grass, the mother
+of the brood came to a tree near by. At once her gallant spouse flew up
+there and offered her the mouthful he had just prepared, then returned
+to his duties. She was rarely seen on the lawn, and I judged that she
+was sitting again.
+
+Sometimes, when the youngsters were alone on the ground, I heard a
+little snatch of song, two or three notes, a musical word or two of very
+sweet quality. The woodpecker, autocrat though he assumed to be, did not
+at first interfere with the young birds; but as they became more and
+more independent and grown up, he began to consider them fair game, and
+to come down on them with a rush that scattered them; not far, however;
+they were brave little fellows.
+
+At last, after four weeks of close attention, the cardinal made up his
+mind that his young folk were babies no longer, and that they were able
+to feed themselves. I was interested to see his manner of intimating to
+his young hopefuls that they had reached their majority. When one begged
+of him, in his gentle way, the parent turned suddenly and gave him a
+slight push. The urchin understood, and moved a little farther off; but
+perhaps the next time he asked he would be fed. They learned the lesson,
+however, and in less than two days from the first hint they became
+almost entirely independent.
+
+One morning the whole family happened to meet at table. The mother came
+first, and then the three young ones, all of whom were trying their best
+to feed themselves. At last came their "natural provider;" and one of
+the juveniles, who found the grains almost unmanageable, could not help
+begging of him. He gently but firmly drove the pleader away, as if he
+said, "My son, you are big enough to feed yourself." The little one
+turned, but did not go; he stood with his back toward his parent, and
+wings still fluttering. Then papa flew to a low branch of the
+spruce-tree, and instantly the infant followed him, still begging with
+quivering wings. Suddenly the elder turned, and I expected to see him
+annihilate that beggar, but, to my surprise, he fed him! He could not
+hold out against him! He had been playing the stern parent, but could
+not keep it up. It was a very pretty and very human-looking performance.
+
+A day or two after the family had learned to take care of themselves,
+the original pair, the parents of the pretty brood, came and went
+together to the field, while the younglings appeared sometimes in a
+little flock, and sometimes one alone; and from that time they were to
+be rated as grown-up and educated cardinals. A brighter or prettier trio
+I have not seen. I am almost positive there was but one family of
+cardinals on the place; and if I am right, those youngsters had been
+four weeks out of the nest before they took charge of their own food
+supply. From what I have seen in the case of other young birds, I have
+no doubt that is the fact.
+
+
+
+
+X.
+
+THE CARDINAL'S NEST.
+
+
+While I had been studying four o'clock manners, grave and gay, other
+things had happened. Most delightful, perhaps, was my acquaintance with
+a cardinal family at home. From the first I had looked for a nest, and
+had suffered two or three disappointments. One pair flaunted their
+intentions by appearing on a tree before my window, "tsipping" with all
+their might; she with her beak full of hay from the lawn below; he,
+eager and devoted, assisting by his presence. The important and
+consequential manner of a bird with building material in mouth is
+amusing. She has no doubt that what she is about to do is the very most
+momentous fact in the "Sublime Now" (as some college youth has it). Of
+course I dropped everything and tried to follow the pair, at a distance
+great enough not to disturb them, yet to keep in sight at least the
+direction they took, for they are shy birds, and do not like to be spied
+upon. But I could not have gauged my distance properly; for, though I
+thought I knew the exact cedar-tree she had chosen, I found, to my
+dismay and regret afterward, that no sign of a nest was there, or
+thereabout.
+
+Another pair went farther, and held out even more delusive hopes; they
+actually built a nest in a neighbor's yard, the family in the house
+maintaining an appearance of the utmost indifference, so as not to alarm
+the birds till they were committed to that nest. For so little does
+madam regard the labor of building, and so fickle is she in her fancies,
+that she thinks nothing of preparing at least two nests before she
+settles on one. The nest was made on a big branch of cedar, perhaps
+seven feet from the ground,--a rough affair, as this bird always makes.
+In it she even placed an egg, and then, for some undiscovered reason, it
+was abandoned, and they took their domestic joys and sorrows elsewhere.
+
+But now, at last, word came to me of an occupied nest to be seen at a
+certain house, and I started at once for it. It was up a shady country
+lane, with a meadow-lark field on one side, and a bobolink meadow on the
+other. The lark mounted the fence, and delivered his strange sputtering
+cry,--the first I had ever heard from him (or her, for I believe this is
+the female's utterance). But the dear little bobolink soared around my
+head, and let fall his happy trills; then suddenly, as Lowell
+delightfully pictures him,--
+
+ "Remembering duty, in mid-quaver stops,
+   Just ere he sweeps o'er rapture's tremulous brink,
+ And 'twixt the winrows most demurely drops,
+   A decorous bird of business, who provides
+   For his brown mate and fledglings six besides,
+ And looks from right to left, a farmer mid his crops."
+
+Nothing less attractive than a cardinal family could draw me away from
+these rival allurements, but I went on.
+
+The cardinal's bower was the prettiest of the summer, built in a
+climbing rose which ran riot over a trellis beside a kitchen door. The
+vine was loaded with buds just beginning to unfold their green wraps to
+flood the place with beauty and fragrance, and the nest was so carefully
+tucked away behind the leaves that it could not be seen from the front.
+Whether from confidence in the two or three residents of the cottage, or
+because the house was alone so many hours of the day,--the occupants
+being students, and absent most of the time,--the birds had taken no
+account of a window which opened almost behind them. From that window
+one could look into, and touch, if he desired, the little family. But no
+one who lived there did desire (though I wish to record that one was a
+boy of twelve or fourteen, who had been taught respect for the lives
+even of birds), and these birds became so accustomed to their human
+observers that they paid no attention to them.
+
+The female cardinal is so dainty in looks and manner, so delicate in all
+her ways, that one naturally expects her to build at least a neat and
+comely nest, and I was surprised to see a rough-looking affair, similar
+to the one already mentioned. This might be, in her case, because it was
+the third nest she had built that summer. One had been used for the
+first brood. The second had been seized and appropriated to their own
+use by another pair of birds. (As this was told me, and I cannot vouch
+for it, I shall not name the alleged thief.) This, the third, was made
+of twigs and fibres of bark,--or what looked like that,--and was
+strongly stayed to the rose stems, the largest of which was not bigger
+than my little finger, and most of them much smaller.
+
+On my second visit I was invited into the kitchen to see the family in
+the rosebush. It appeared that this was "coming-off" day, and one little
+cardinal had already taken his fate in his hands when I arrived, soon
+after breakfast. He had progressed on the journey of life about one
+foot; and a mere dot of a fellow he looked beside his parents, with a
+downy fuzz on his head, which surrounded it like a halo, and no sign of
+a crest. The three nestlings still at home were very restless,
+crowding, and almost pushing each other out. They could well spare their
+elder brother, for before he left he had walked all over them at his
+pleasure; and how he could help it in those close quarters I do not see.
+
+While I looked on, papa came with provisions. At one time the food
+consisted of green worms about twice as large as a common knitting
+needle. Three or four of them he held crosswise of his beak, and gave
+one to each nestling. The next course was a big white grub, which he did
+not divide, but gave to one, who had considerable difficulty in
+swallowing it.
+
+I said the birds did not notice the family, but they very quickly
+recognized me as a stranger. They stood and glared at me in the cardinal
+way, and uttered some sharp remonstrance; but business was pressing, and
+I was unobtrusive, so they concluded to ignore me.
+
+The advent of the first redbird baby seemed to give much pleasure, for
+the head of the family sang a good deal in the intervals of feeding; and
+both of the pair appeared very happy over it, often alighting beside the
+wanderer, evidently to encourage him, for they did not always feed. The
+youngster, after an hour, perhaps, flew about ten feet to a peach-tree,
+where he struggled violently, and nearly fell before he secured a hold
+on a twig. Both parents flew to his assistance, but he did not fall, and
+soon after he flew to a grape trellis, and, with a little clambering, to
+a stem of the vine, where he seemed pleased to stay,--perhaps because
+this overlooked the garden whence came all his food.
+
+I stayed two or three hours with the little family, and then left them;
+and when I appeared the next morning all were gone from the nest. I
+heard the gentle cries of young redbirds all around, but did not try to
+look them up, both because I did not want to worry the parents, and
+because I had already made acquaintance with young cardinals in my four
+o'clock studies.
+
+The place this discerning pair of birds had selected in which to
+establish themselves was one of the most charming nooks in the vicinity.
+Kept free from English sparrows (by persistently destroying their
+nests), and having but a small and quiet family, it was the delight of
+cardinals and catbirds. Without taking pains to look for them, one might
+see the nests of two catbirds, two wood doves, a robin or two, and
+others; and there were beside, thickets, the delight of many birds, and
+a row of spruces so close that a whole flock might have nested there in
+security. In that spot "the quaintly discontinuous lays" of the catbird
+were in perfection; one song especially was the best I ever heard,
+being louder and more clear than catbirds usually sing.
+
+As I turned to leave the grounds, the relieved parent, who had not
+relished my interest in his little folk, mounted a branch, and,
+
+ "Like a pomegranate flower
+ In the dark foliage of the cedar-tree,
+ Shone out and sang for me."
+
+And thus I left him.
+
+
+
+
+XI.
+
+LITTLE BOY BLUE.
+
+ "The crested blue jay flitting swift."
+
+
+To know the little boy blue in his domestic life had been my desire for
+years. In vain did I search far and wide for a nest, till it began to
+look almost as if the bird intentionally avoided me. I went to New
+England, and blue jays disappeared as if by magic; I turned my steps to
+the Rocky Mountains, and the whole tribe betook itself to the
+inaccessible hills. In despair I abandoned the search, and set up my
+tent in the middle country, without a thought of the bonny blue bird.
+One June morning I seated myself by my window, which looked out upon a
+goodly stretch of lawn dotted with trees of many kinds, and behold the
+long-desired object right before my eyes!
+
+The blue jay himself pointed it out to me; unconsciously, however, for
+he did not notice me in my distant window. From the ground, where I was
+looking at him, he flew directly to a pine-tree about thirty feet high,
+and there, near the top, sat his mate on her nest. He leaned over her
+tenderly; she fluttered her wings and opened her mouth, and he dropped
+into it the tidbit he had brought. Then she stepped to a branch on one
+side, and he proceeded to attend to the wants of the young family, too
+small as yet to appear above the edge.
+
+The pine-tree, which from this moment became of absorbing interest, was
+so far from my window that the birds never thought of me as an observer,
+and yet so near that with my glass I could see them perfectly. It was
+also exactly before a thick-foliaged maple, that formed a background
+against which I could watch the life of the nest, wherever the sunlight
+fell, and whatever the condition of the sky; so happily was placed my
+blue jay household.
+
+I observed at once that the jay was very gallant and attentive to his
+spouse. The first mouthful was for her, even when babies grew clamorous,
+and she took her share of the work of feeding. Nor did he omit this
+little politeness when they went to the nest together, both presumably
+with food for the nestlings. She was a devoted mother, brooding her
+bantlings for hours every day, till they were so big that it was hard to
+crowd them back into the cradle; and he was an equally faithful father,
+working from four o'clock in the morning till after dusk, a good deal
+of the time feeding the whole family. I acquired a new respect for
+_Cyanocitta cristata_.
+
+I had not watched the blue jays long before I was struck with the
+peculiar character of the feathered world about me, the strange absence
+of small birds. The neighbors were blackbirds (purple grackles),
+Carolina doves, golden-winged and red-headed woodpeckers, robins and
+cardinal grosbeaks, and of course English sparrows,--all large birds,
+able to hold their own by force of arms, as it were, except the
+foreigner, who maintained his position by impudence and union, a mob
+being his weapon of offense and defense. Beside him no small bird lived
+in the vicinity. No vireo hung there her dainty cup, while her mate
+preached his interminable sermons from the trees about; no phoebe
+shouted his woes to an unsympathizing world; no sweet-voiced goldfinch
+poured out his joyous soul; not a song-sparrow tuned his little lay
+within our borders. Unseen of men, but no doubt sharply defined to
+clearer senses than ours, was a line barring them out.
+
+Who was responsible for this state of things? Could it be the one pair
+of jays in the pine, or the colony of blackbirds the other side of the
+house? Should we characterize it as a blue jay neighborhood or a
+blackbird neighborhood? The place was well policed, certainly; robins
+and blue jays united in that work, though their relations with each
+other bore the character of an armed neutrality, always ready for a few
+hot words and a little bluster, but never really coming to blows. We
+never had the pleasure of seeing a stranger among us. We might hear him
+approaching, nearer and nearer, till, just as the eager listener fancied
+he might alight in sight, there would burst upon the air the screech of
+a jay or the war-cry of a robin, accompanied by the precipitate flight
+of the whole clan, and away would go the stranger in a most sensational
+manner, followed by outcries and clamor enough to drive off an army of
+feathered brigands. This neighborhood, if the accounts of his character
+are to be credited, should be the congenial home of the
+kingbird,--tyrant flycatcher he is named; but as a matter of fact, not
+only were the smaller flycatchers conspicuous by their absence, but the
+king himself was never seen, and the flying tribes of the insect world,
+so far as dull-eyed mortals could see, grew and flourished.
+
+Close scrutiny of every movement of wings, however, revealed one thing,
+namely, that any small bird who appeared within our precincts was
+instantly, without hesitation, and equally without unusual noise or
+special publicity, driven out by the English sparrow; and I became
+convinced that he, and he alone, was responsible for the presence of
+none but large birds, who could defy him.
+
+One of the prettiest sights about the pine-tree homestead was the way
+the jay went up to it. He never imitated the easy style of his mate, who
+simply flew to a branch below the three that held her treasure, and
+hopped up the last step. Not he; not so would his knightly soul mount to
+the castle of his sweetheart and his babies. He alighted much lower,
+often at the foot of the tree, and passed jauntily up the winding way
+that led to them, hopping from branch to branch, pausing on each, and
+circling the trunk as he went; now showing his trim violet-blue coat,
+now his demure Quaker-drab vest and black necklace; and so he ascended
+his spiral stair.
+
+There is nothing demure about the blue jay, let me hasten to say, except
+his vest; there is no pretension about him. He does not go around with
+the meek manners of the dove, and then let his angry passions rise, in
+spite of his reputation, as does that "meek and gentle" fellow-creature
+on occasion. The blue jay takes his life with the utmost seriousness,
+however it may strike a looker-on. While his helpmeet is on the nest, it
+is, according to the blue jay code, his duty, as well as it is plainly
+his pleasure, to provide her with food, which consequently he does;
+later, it is his province not only to feed, but to protect the family,
+which also he accomplishes with much noise and bluster. Before the young
+are out comes his hardest task, keeping the secret of the nest, which
+obliges him to control his naturally boisterous tendencies; but even in
+this he is successful, as I saw in the case of a bird whose mate was
+sitting in an apple-tree close beside a house. There, he was the soul of
+discretion, and so subdued in manner that one might be in the vicinity
+all day and never suspect the presence of either. All the comings and
+goings took place in silence, over the top of the tree, and I have
+watched the nest an hour at a time without being able to see a sign of
+its occupancy, except the one thing a sitting bird cannot hide, the
+tail. And, by the way, how providential--from the bird student's point
+of view--that birds have tails! They can, it is true, be narrowed to the
+width of one feather and laid against a convenient twig, but they cannot
+be wholly suppressed, nor drawn down out of sight into the nest with the
+rest of the body.
+
+When the young blue jays begin to speak for themselves, and their
+vigilant protector feels that the precious secret can no longer be kept,
+then he arouses the neighborhood with the announcement that here is a
+nest he is bound to protect with his life; that he is engaged in
+performing his most solemn duty, and will not be disturbed. His air is
+that so familiar in bigger folk, of daring the whole world to "knock a
+chip off his shoulder," and he goes about with an appearance of
+important business on hand very droll to see.
+
+The bearing of the mother of the pine-tree brood was somewhat different
+from that of her mate, and by their manners only could the pair be
+distinguished. Whatever may be Nature's reason for dressing the sexes
+unlike each other in the feathered world,--which I will leave for the
+wise heads to settle,--it is certainly an immense advantage to the
+looker-on in birddom. When a pair are facsimiles of each other, as are
+the jays, it requires the closest observation to tell them apart;
+indeed, unless there is some defect in plumage, which is not uncommon,
+it is necessary to penetrate their personal characteristics, to become
+familiar with their idiosyncrasies of habit and manner. In the pine-tree
+family, the mother had neither the presence of mind nor the bluster of
+the partner of her joys. When I came too near the nest tree, she greeted
+me with a plaintive cry, a sort of "craw! craw!" at the same time
+"jouncing" herself violently, thus protesting against my intrusion;
+while he saluted me with squawks that made the welkin ring. Neither of
+them paid any attention to me, so long as I remained upon a stationary
+bench not far from their tree; they were used to seeing people in that
+place, and did not mind them. It was the unexpected that they resented.
+Having established our habits, birds in general insist that we shall
+govern ourselves by them, and not depart from our accustomed orbit.
+
+On near acquaintance, I found the jay possessed of a vocabulary more
+copious than that of any other bird I know, though the flicker does not
+lack variety of expression. When some aspiring scientist is ready to
+study the language of birds, I advise him to experiment with the blue
+jay. He is exceedingly voluble, always ready to talk, and not in the
+least backward in exhibiting his accomplishments. The low-toned,
+plaintive sounding conversation of the jays with each other, not only
+beside the nest, but when flying together or apart, or in brief
+interviews in the lilac bush, pleased me especially, because it was
+exactly the same prattle that a pet blue jay was accustomed to address
+to me; and it confirmed what I had always believed from his manner, that
+it was his most loving and intimate expression, the tone in which he
+addresses his best beloved.
+
+Beside the well-known squawk, which Thoreau aptly calls "the brazen
+trump of the impatient jay," the shouts and calls and war-cries of the
+bird can hardly be numbered, and I have no doubt each has its definite
+meaning. More rarely may be heard a clear and musical two-note cry,
+sounding like "ke-lo! ke-lo!" This seems to be something special in the
+jay language, for not only is it peculiar and quite unlike every other
+utterance, but I never saw the bird when he delivered it, and I was long
+in tracing it home to him. Aside from the cries of war and victory, jays
+have a great variety of notes of distress; they can put more anguish and
+despair into their tones than any other living creature of my
+acquaintance. Some, indeed, are so moving that the sympathetic hearer is
+sure that, at the very least, the mother's offspring are being murdered
+before her eyes; and on rushing out, prepared to risk his life in their
+defense, he finds, perhaps, that a child has strayed near the tree, or
+something equally dreadful has occurred. Jays have no idea of relative
+values; they could not make more ado over a heart-breaking calamity than
+they do over a slight annoyance. Some of their cries, notably that of
+the jay baby, sound like the wail of a human infant. As to one curious
+utterance in the jay _répertoire_, I could not quite make up my mind
+whether it was a real call to arms, or intended as a joke on the
+neighborhood. When a bird, without visible provocation, suddenly burst
+out with this loud two-note call, instantly every feathered individual
+was on the alert,--sprang to arms, as it were. Blue jays joined in,
+robins hurried to the tops of the tallest trees and added their excited
+notes, with jerking wings and tail, and at the second or third
+repetition the whole party precipitated itself as one bird--upon what?
+Nothing that I could discover.
+
+
+
+
+XII.
+
+STORY OF THE NESTLINGS.
+
+
+While I was studying the manners and customs of the bird in blue, babies
+were growing up in the pine-tree nest. Five days after I began to
+observe, I saw little heads above the edge. On the sixth day they began,
+as mothers say, to "take notice," stirring about in a lively way,
+clambering up into sight, and fluttering their draperies over the edge.
+Now came busy and hungry times in the jay family; the mother added her
+forces, and both parents worked industriously from morning till night.
+
+On the seventh day I was up early, as usual, and, also as usual, my
+first act was to admire the view from my window. I fancied it was the
+most beautiful in the early morning, when the sun, behind the rampart of
+locust and other trees, threw the yard into deep shade, painting a
+thousand shadow pictures on the grass; but at still noon, when every
+perfect tree stood on its own shadow, openings looked dark and
+mysterious, and a bird was lost in the depths, then I was sure it was
+never so lovely; again at night, when wrapped in darkness, and all
+silent except the subdued whisper of the pine, with its
+
+     "Sound of the Sea,
+     O mournful tree,
+ In thy boughs forever clinging,"
+
+I knew it could not be surpassed. I was up early, as I said, when the
+dove was cooing to his mate in the distance, and before human noises had
+begun, and then I heard the baby cry from the pine-tree,--a whispered
+jay squawk, constantly repeated.
+
+On this day the first nestling mounted the edge of his high nursery, and
+fluttered his wings when food approached. Every night after that it grew
+more and more difficult to settle the household in bed, for everybody
+wanted to be on top; and no sooner would one arrange himself to his mind
+than some "under one," not relishing his crushed position, would
+struggle out, step over his brothers and sisters, and take his place on
+top, and then the whole thing would have to be done over. I think that
+mamma had often to put a peremptory end to these difficulties by sitting
+down on them, for frequently it was a very turbulent-looking nest when
+she calmly placed herself upon it.
+
+Often, in those days, I wished I could put myself on a level with that
+little castle in the air, and look into it, filled to the brim with
+beauty as I knew it was. But I had not long to wait, for speedily it
+became too full, and ran over into the outside world. On the eighth day
+one ambitious youngster stepped upon the branch beside the nest and
+shook himself out, and on the ninth came the plunge into the wide, wide
+world. While I was at breakfast he made his first effort, and on my
+return I saw him on a branch about a foot below the nest, the last step
+on papa's winding stair. Here he beat his wings and plumed himself
+vigorously, rejoicing, no doubt, in his freedom and in plenty of room.
+Again and again he nearly lost his balance, in his violent attempts to
+dress his beautiful plumage, and remove the last remnant of nest
+mussiness. But he did not fall, and at last he began to look about him.
+One cannot but wonder what he thought when he
+
+ "First opened wondering eyes and found
+ A world of green leaves all around,"
+
+looking down upon us from his high perch, complete to the little black
+necklace, and lacking only length of tail of being as big as his
+parents.
+
+After half an hour of restless putting to rights, the little jay sat
+down patiently to wait for whatever might come to him. The wind got up
+and shook him well, but he rocked safely on his airy seat. Then some one
+approached. He leaned over with mouth open, and across the yard I heard
+his coaxing voice. But alas! though he was on the very threshold, the
+food-bearer omitted that step, and passed him by. Then the little one
+looked up wistfully, apparently conscious of being at a disadvantage.
+Did he regret the nest privileges he had abandoned? Should he retrace
+his steps and be a nestling? That the thought passed through his head
+was indicated by his movements. He raised himself on his legs, turned
+his face to his old home, and started up, even stepped one small twig
+nearer. But perish the thought! he would not go back! He settled himself
+again on his seat.
+
+All things come in time to him who can wait, and the next provision
+stopped at the little wanderer. His father alighted beside him and fed
+him two mouthfuls. Thus fortified, his ambition was roused, and his
+desire to see more, to do more. He began to jump about on his perch,
+facing first this way, then that; he crept to the outer end of the
+branch he was on, and was lost to view behind a thick clump of pine
+needles. In a few minutes he returned, considered other branches near,
+and, after some study, did really go to the nearest one. Then, step by
+step, very deliberately, he mounted the winding stair of his father,
+using, however, every little twig that the elder had vaulted over at a
+bound. Finally he reached the branch opposite his birthplace, only the
+tree-trunk between. The trunk was small, home was invitingly near, he
+was tired; the temptation was too great, and in a minute he was cuddled
+down with his brothers, having been on a journey of an hour. In the
+nest, all this time, there had been a hurry and skurry of dressing, as
+though the house were to be vacated, and no one wished to be late. After
+a rest and probably a nap, the ambitious young jay took a longer trip:
+he flew to the next tree, and, I believe, returned no more.
+
+The next day was spent by all the nestlings in hopping about the three
+branches on which their home was built, making beautiful pictures of
+themselves every moment; but whenever the bringer of supplies drew near,
+each little one hastened to scramble back to the nest, to be ready for
+his share. The last day in the old home had now arrived. One by one the
+birdlings flew to the maple, and turned their backs on their native tree
+forever; and that night the "mournful tree" was entirely deserted.
+
+The exit was not accomplished without its excitement. After tea, as I
+was congratulating myself that they were all safely out in the world,
+without accident, suddenly there arose a terrible outcry, robin and blue
+jay voices in chorus. I looked over to the scene of the fray, and saw a
+young jay on the ground, and the parents frantic with anxiety.
+Naturally, my first impulse was to go to their aid, and I started; but I
+was saluted with a volley of squawks that warned me not to interfere. I
+retired meekly, leaving the birds to deal with the difficulty as they
+best could, while from afar I watched the little fellow as he scrambled
+around in the grass. He tried to fly, but could not rise more than two
+feet. Both the elders were with him, but seemed unable to help him, and
+night was coming on. I resolved, finally, to "take my life in my hands,"
+brave those unreasoning parents, and place the infant out of the way of
+cats and boys.
+
+As I reached the doorstep I saw that the youngster had begun to climb
+the trunk of a locust-tree. I stood in amazement and saw that baby climb
+six feet straight up the trunk. He did it by flying a few inches,
+clinging to the bark and resting, then flying a few inches more. I
+watched, breathless, till he got nearly to the lowest branch, when alas!
+his strength or his courage gave out, and he fell back to the ground.
+But he pulled himself together, and after a few minutes more of
+struggling through the grass he came to the trunk of the maple next his
+native pine. Up this he went in the same way, till he reached a branch,
+where I saw him sitting with all the dignity of a young jay (old jays
+have no dignity). While he was wrestling with fate and his life was in
+the balance, the parents had kept near him and perfectly silent, unless
+some one came near, when they filled the air with squawks, and appeared
+so savage that I honestly believe they would have attacked any one who
+had tried to lend a hand.
+
+But still the little blue-coat had not learned sufficient modesty of
+endeavor, for the next morning he found himself again in the grass. He
+tried climbing, but unfortunately selected a tree with branches higher
+than he could hold out to reach; so he fell back to the ground. Then
+came the inexorable demands of breakfast, with which no one who has been
+up since four o'clock will decline to comply. On my return, the
+straggler was mounted on a post that held a tennis net, three or four
+feet from the ground. One of the old birds was on the rope close by him,
+and there I left them. Once more I saw him fall, but I concluded that
+since he had learned to climb, and the parents would not accept my
+assistance any way, he must take care of himself. I suppose he was the
+youngest of the brood, who could not help imitating his elders, but was
+not strong enough to do as they did. On the following day he was able to
+keep his place, and he came to the ground no more.
+
+From that day I saw, and, what was more evident, heard the jay babies
+constantly, though they wandered far from the place of their birth.
+Their voices waxed stronger day by day; from morning to night they
+called vigorously; and very lovely they looked as they sat on the
+branches in their brand-new fluffy suits, with their tails a little
+spread, and showing the snowy borderings beautifully. Twenty-two days
+after they bade farewell to the old home before my window they were
+still crying for food, still following their hard-working parents, and,
+though flying with great ease, never coming to the ground (that I could
+see), and apparently having not the smallest notion of looking out for
+themselves.
+
+
+
+
+XIII.
+
+BLUE JAY MANNERS.
+
+
+Early in my acquaintance with the jay family, wishing to induce the
+birds of the vicinity to show themselves, I procured a quantity of
+shelled corn, and scattered a few handfuls under my window every night.
+This gave me opportunity to note, among other things, the jay's way of
+conducting himself on the ground, and his table manners. To eat a kernel
+of dry corn, he flew with it to a small branch, placed it between his
+feet (the latter of course being close together), and, holding it thus,
+drew back his head and delivered a blow with that pickaxe beak of his
+that would have broken a toe if he had missed by the shadow of an inch
+the grain for which it was intended. I was always nervous when I saw him
+do it, for I expected an accident, but none ever happened that I know
+of. When the babies grew clamorous all over the place, the jay used to
+fill his beak with the whole kernels. Eight were his limit, and those
+kept the mouth open, with one sticking out at the tip. Thus loaded he
+flew off, but was back in two minutes for another supply. The
+red-headed woodpecker, who claimed to own the corn-field, seemed to
+think this a little grasping, and protested against such a wholesale
+performance; but the overworked jay simply jumped to one side when he
+came at him, and went right on picking up corn. When he had time to
+spare from his arduous duties, he sometimes indulged his passion for
+burying things by carrying a grain off on the lawn with an air of most
+important business, and driving it into the ground, hammering it well
+down out of sight.
+
+The blue jay's manner of getting over the ground was peculiar, and
+especially his way of leaving it. He proceeded by high hops, bounding up
+from each like a rubber ball; and when ready to fly he hopped farther
+and bounded higher each time, till it seemed as if he were too high to
+return, and so took to his wings. That is exactly the way it looked to
+an observer; for there is a lightness, an airiness of bearing about this
+apparently heavy bird impossible to describe, but familiar to those who
+have watched him.
+
+Some time after the blue jay family had taken to roaming about the
+grounds, I had a pleasing little interview with one of them in the
+raspberry patch. This was a favorite resort of the neighboring birds,
+where I often betook myself to see who came to the feast. This morning
+I was sitting quietly under a spruce-tree, when three blue jays came
+flying toward me with noise and outcries, evidently in excitement over
+something. The one leading the party had in his beak a white object,
+like a piece of bread, and was uttering low, complaining cries as he
+flew; he passed on, and the second followed him; but the third seemed
+struck by my appearance, and probably felt it his duty to inquire into
+my business, for he alighted on a tree before me, not ten feet from
+where I sat. He began in the regular way, by greeting me with a squawk;
+for, like some of his bigger (and wiser?) fellow-creatures, he assumed
+that a stranger must be a suspicious personage, and an unusual position
+must mean mischief. I was very comfortable, and I thought I would see if
+I could not fool him into thinking me a scarecrow, companion to those
+adorning the "patch" at that moment. I sat motionless, not using my
+glass, but looking him squarely in the eyes. This seemed to impress him;
+he ceased squawking, and hopped a twig nearer, stopped, turned one
+calmly observant eye on me, then quickly changed to the other, as if to
+see if the first had not deceived him. Still I did not move, and he was
+plainly puzzled to make me out. He came nearer and nearer, and I moved
+only my eyes to keep them on his. All this time he did not utter a
+sound, but studied me as closely, and to all appearances as carefully,
+as ever I had studied him. Obviously he was in doubt what manner of
+creature it was, so like the human race, yet so unaccountably quiet. He
+tried to be unconcerned, while still not releasing me from strict
+surveillance; he dressed his feathers a little, uttering a soft whisper
+to himself, as if he said, "Well, I never!" then looked me over again
+more carefully than before. This pantomime went on for half an hour or
+more; and no one who had looked for that length of time into the eyes of
+a blue jay could doubt his intelligence, or that he had his thoughts and
+his well-defined opinions, that he had studied his observer very much as
+she had studied him, and that she had not fooled him in the least.
+
+The little boy blue is one of the birds suffering under a bad name whom
+I have wished to know better, to see if perchance something might be
+done to clear up his reputation a bit. I am not able to say that he
+never steals the eggs of other birds, though during nearly a month of
+hard work, when, if ever, a few eggs would have been a welcome addition
+to his resources, and sparrows were sitting in scores on the place, I
+did not see or hear anything of the sort. I have heard of his destroying
+the nest, and presumably eating the eggs or young of the English
+sparrow, but the hundred or two who raised their broods and squawked
+from morning to night in the immediate vicinity of the pine-tree
+household never intimated that they were disturbed, and never showed
+hostility to their neighbors in blue. Moreover, there is undoubtedly
+something to be said on the jay's side. Even if he does indulge in these
+little eccentricities, what is he but a "collector"? And though he does
+not claim to be working "in the interest of science," which bigger
+collectors invariably do, he is working in the interest of life, and
+life is more than science. Even a blue jay's life is to him as precious
+as ours to us, and who shall say that it is not as useful as many of
+ours in the great plan?
+
+The only indications of hostilities that I observed in four weeks' close
+study, at the most aggressive time of bird life, nesting-time, I shall
+relate exactly as I saw them, and the record will be found a very modest
+one. In this case, certainly, the jay was no more offensive than the
+meekest bird that has a nest to defend, and far less belligerent than
+robins and many others. On one occasion a strange blue jay flew up to
+the nest in the pine. I could not discover that he had any evil
+intention, except just to see what was going on, but one of the pair
+flew at him with loud cries, which I heard for some time after the two
+had disappeared in the distance, and when our bird returned, he perched
+on an evergreen, bowing and "jouncing" violently, his manner plainly
+defying the enemy to "try it again." At another time I observed a savage
+fight, or what looked like it, between two jays. I happened not to see
+the beginning, for I was particularly struck that morning with the
+behavior of a bouquet of nasturtiums which stood in a vase on my table.
+I never was fond of these flowers, and I noticed then for the first time
+how very self-willed and obstinate they were. No matter how nicely they
+were arranged, it would not be an hour before the whole bunch was in
+disorder, every blossom turning the way it preferred, and no two looking
+in the same direction. I thought, when I first observed this, that I
+must be mistaken, and I took them out and rearranged them as I
+considered best; but the result was always the same, and I began to feel
+that they knew altogether too much for their station in the vegetable
+world. I was trying to see if I could discover any method in their
+movements, when I was startled by a flashing vision of blue down under
+the locusts, and, on looking closely, saw two jays flying up like
+quarrelsome cocks,--only not together, but alternately, so that one was
+in the air all the time. They flew three feet high, at least, all their
+feathers on end, and looking more like shapeless masses of blue feathers
+than like birds. They did not pause or rest till one seemed to get the
+other down. I could not see from my window well enough to be positive,
+but both were in the grass together, and only one in sight, who stood
+perfectly quiet. He appeared to be holding the other down, for
+occasionally there would be a stir below, and renewed vigilance on the
+part of the one I could see. Several minutes passed. I became very
+uneasy. Was he killing him? I could stand it no longer, so I ran down.
+But my coming was a diversion, and both flew. When I reached the place,
+one had disappeared, and the other was hopping around the tree in great
+excitement, holding in his beak a fluffy white feather about the size of
+a jay's breast feather. I did not see the act, and I cannot absolutely
+declare it, but I have no doubt that he pulled that feather from the
+breast of his foe as he held him down; how many more with it I could not
+tell, for I did not think of looking until it was too late.
+
+Again one day, somewhat later, when blue jay and catbird babies were
+rather numerous, I saw a blue jay dive into a lilac bush much frequented
+by catbirds, young and old together. Instantly there arose a great cry
+of distress, as though some one were hurt, and a rustling of leaves,
+proclaiming that a chase, if not a fight, was in progress. I hurried
+downstairs, and as I appeared the jay flew, with two catbirds after him,
+still crying in a way I had never heard before. I expected nothing less
+than to find a young catbird injured, but I found nothing. Whether the
+blue jay really had touched one, or it was a mere false alarm on the
+part of the very excitable catbirds, I could not tell. This is the only
+thing I have seen in the jay that might have been an interference with
+another bird's rights; and the catbirds made such a row when I came near
+their babies that I strongly suspect the only guilt of the jay was
+alighting in the lilac they had made their headquarters.
+
+The little boy blue in the apple-tree, already spoken of, did not get
+his family off with so little adventure as his pine-tree neighbor. The
+youngling of this nest came to the ground and stayed there. The people
+of the house returned him to the tree several times, but every time he
+fell again. Three or four days he wandered about the neighborhood, the
+parents rousing the country with their uproar, and terrorizing the
+household cat to such a point of meekness that no sooner did a jay begin
+to squawk than he ran to the door and begged to come in. At last, out of
+mercy, the family took the little fellow into the house, when they saw
+that he was not quite right in some way. One side seemed to be nearly
+useless; one foot did not hold on; one wing was weak; and his breathing
+seemed to be one-sided. The family, seeing that he could not take care
+of himself, decided to adopt him. He took kindly to human care and human
+food, and before the end of a week had made himself very much at home.
+He knew his food provider, and the moment she entered the room he rose
+on his weak little legs, fluttered his wings violently, and presented a
+gaping mouth with the jay baby cry issuing therefrom. Nothing was ever
+more droll than this sight. He was an intelligent youngster, knew what
+he wanted, and when he had had enough. He would eat bread up to a
+certain point, but after that he demanded cake or a berry, and his
+favorite food was an egg. He was exceedingly curious about all his
+surroundings, examined everything with great care, and delighted to look
+out of the window. He selected his own sleeping-place,--the upper one of
+a set of bookshelves,--and refused to change; and he watched the
+movements of a wounded woodcock as he ran around the floor with as much
+interest as did the people. Under human care he grew rapidly stronger,
+learned to fly more readily and to use his weak side; and every day he
+was allowed to fly about in the trees for hours. Once or twice, when
+left out, he returned to the house for food and care; but at last came a
+day when he returned no more. No doubt he was taken in charge again by
+his parents, who, it was probable, had not left the neighborhood.
+
+After July came in, and baby blue jays could hardly be distinguished
+from their parents, my studies took me away from the place nearly all
+day, and I lost sight of the family whose acquaintance had made my June
+so delightful.
+
+
+
+
+XIV.
+
+THE GREAT CAROLINIAN.
+
+
+All through June of that summer I studied the birds in the spacious
+inclosure around my "Inn of Rest." But as that month drew near its end,
+
+ "The happy birds that change their sky
+ To build and brood, that live their lives
+ From land to land,"
+
+almost disappeared. Blue jay babies wandered far off, where I could hear
+them it is true, but where--owing to the despair into which my
+appearance threw the whole jay family--I rarely saw them; orchard and
+Baltimore orioles had learned to fly, and carried their ceaseless cries
+far beyond my hearing; catbirds and cardinals, doves and golden-wings,
+all had raised their broods and betaken themselves wherever their fancy
+or food drew them, certainly without the bounds of my daily walks. It
+was evident that I must seek fresh fields, or remove my quarters to a
+more northerly region, where the sun is less ardent and the birds less
+in haste with their nesting.
+
+Accordingly I sought a companion who should also be a guide, and turned
+my steps to the only promising place in the vicinity, a deep ravine,
+through which ran a little stream that was called a river, and dignified
+with a river's name, yet rippled and babbled, and conducted itself
+precisely like a brook.
+
+The Glen, as it was called, was a unique possession for a common
+work-a-day village in the midst of a good farming country. Long ago
+would its stately trees have been destroyed, its streamlet set to
+turning wheels, and Nature forced to express herself on those many
+acres, in corn and potatoes, instead of her own graceful and varied
+selection of greenery; or, mayhap, its underbrush cut out, its slopes
+sodded, its springs buried in pipes and put to use, and the whole
+"improved" into dull insipidity,--all this, but for the will of one man
+who held the title to the grounds, and rated it so highly, that, though
+willing to sell, no one could come up to his terms. Happy delusion! that
+blessed the whole neighborhood with an enchanting bit of nature
+untouched by art. Long may he live to keep the deeds in his possession,
+and the grounds in their own wild beauty.
+
+The place was surrounded by bristling barbed fences, and trespassers
+were pointedly warned off, so when one had paid for the privilege, and
+entered the grounds, he was supposed to be safe from intrusion, except
+of others who had also bought the right. The part easily accessible to
+hotel and railroad station was the scene of constant picnics, for which
+the State is famous, but that portion which lay near my place of study
+was usually left to the lonely kingfisher--and the cows. There the shy
+wood dwellers set up their households, and many familiar upland birds
+came with their fledglings; that was the land of promise for
+bird-lovers, and there one of them decided to study.
+
+We began with the most virtuous resolves. We would come at five o'clock
+in the morning; we would catch the birds at their breakfast. We did; it
+was a lovely morning after a heavy rain, on which we set out to explore
+the ravine for birds. The storm in passing had taken the breeze with it,
+and not a twig had stirred since. Every leaf and grass blade was loaded
+with rain-drops. Walking in the grass was like wading in a stream; to
+touch a bush was to evoke a shower. But though our shoes were wet
+through, and our garments well sprinkled, before we reached the barbed
+fence, over or under or through or around which we must pass to our
+goal, we would not be discouraged; we went on.
+
+As to the fence, let me, in passing, give my fellow drapery-bearers a
+hint. Carry a light shawl, or even a yard of muslin, to lay across the
+wire you can step over (thus covering the mischievous barbs), while a
+good friend holds up with strong hand the next wire, and you slip
+through. Thus you may pass this cruel device of man without accident.
+
+Having circumvented the fence, the next task was to descend the steep
+sides of the ravine. The difficulty was, not to get down, for that could
+be done almost anywhere, but to go right side up; to land on the feet
+and not on the head was the test of sure-footedness and climbing
+ability. We conquered that obstacle, cautiously creeping down rocky
+steps, and over slippery soil, steadying ourselves by bushes, clasping
+small tree-trunks, scrambling over big ones that lay prone upon the
+ground, and thus we safely reached the level of the stream. Then we
+passed along more easily, stooping under low trees, crossing the beds of
+tiny brooks, encircling clumps of shrubbery (and catching the night's
+cobwebs on our faces), till we reached a fallen tree-trunk that seemed
+made for resting. There we seated ourselves, to breathe, and to see who
+lived in the place.
+
+One of the residents proclaimed himself at once,
+
+                     "To left and right
+ The cuckoo told his name to all the hills,"--
+
+and in a moment we saw him, busy with his breakfast. His manner of
+hunting was interesting; he stood perfectly still on a branch, his beak
+pointed upward, but his head so turned that one eye looked downward.
+When something attracted him, he almost fell off his perch, seized the
+morsel as he passed, alighted on a lower branch, and at once began
+looking around again. There was no frivolity, no flitting about like a
+little bird; his conduct was grave and dignified, and he was absolutely
+silent, except when at rare intervals he mounted a branch and uttered
+his call, or song, if one might so call it. He managed his long tail
+with grace and expression, holding it a little spread as he moved about,
+thus showing the white tips and "corners."
+
+While we were absorbed in cuckoo affairs the sun peeped over the trees,
+and the place was transfigured. Everything, as I said, was charged with
+water, and looking against the sun, some drops hanging from the tip of a
+leaf glowed red as rubies, others shone out blue as sapphires, while
+here and there one scintillated with many colors like a diamond, now
+flashing red, and now yellow or blue.
+
+               "The humblest weed
+ Wore its own coronal, and gayly bold
+ Waved jeweled sceptre."
+
+In that spot we sat an hour, and saw many birds, with whom it was
+evidently a favorite hunting-ground. But no one seemed to live there;
+every one appeared to be passing through; and realizing as we did, that
+it was late in the season, our search for nests in use was rather
+half-hearted anyway. As our breakfast-time drew near we decided to go
+home, having found nothing we cared to study. Just as we were taking
+leave of the spot I heard, nearly at my back, a gentle scolding cry, and
+glancing around, my eyes fell upon two small birds running down the
+trunk of a walnut sapling. A few inches above the ground one of the pair
+disappeared, and the other, still scolding, flew away. I hastened to the
+spot--and there I found my great Carolinian.
+
+The nest was made in a natural cavity in the side of a stump six or
+eight inches in diameter and a foot high. It seemed to be of moss,
+completely roofed over, and stooping nearer its level I saw the bird,
+looking flattened as if she had been crushed, but returning my gaze,
+bravely resolved to live or die with her brood. I noted her color, and
+the peculiar irregular line over her eye, and then I left her, though I
+did not know who she was. Nothing would have been easier than to put my
+hand over her door and catch her, but nothing would have induced me to
+do so--if I never knew her name. Time enough for formal introductions
+later in our acquaintance, I thought, and if it happened that we never
+met again, what did I care how she was named in the books?
+
+I did not at first even suspect her identity, for who would expect to
+find the great Carolina wren a personage of less than six inches! even
+though he were somewhat familiar with the vagaries of name-givers, who
+call one bird after the cat, whom he in no way resembles, and another
+after the bull, to whom the likeness is, if possible, still less. What
+was certain was that the nest belonged to wrens, and was admirably
+placed for study; and what I instantly resolved was to improve my
+acquaintance with the owners thereof.
+
+The little opening in the woods, which became the Wren's Court, when
+their rank was discovered, was a most attractive place, shaded enough to
+be pleasant, while yet leaving a goodly stretch of blue sky in sight,
+bounded on one side by immense forest trees--walnut, butternut, oak, and
+others--which looked as if they had stood there for generations; on the
+other side, the babbling stream, up and down which the kingfisher flew
+and clattered all day. One way out led to the thicket where a
+wood-thrush was sitting in a low tree, and the other, by the Path
+Difficult, up to the world above. The seat, across the court from the
+nest, had plainly been arranged by some kind fate on purpose for us. It
+was the trunk of a tree, which in falling failed to quite reach the
+ground, and so had bleached and dried, and it was shaded and screened
+from observation by vigorous saplings which had sprung up about it. The
+whole was indeed an ideal nook, well worthy to be named after its
+distinguished residents.
+
+Thoreau was right in his assertion that one may see all the birds of a
+neighborhood by simply waiting patiently in one place, and into that
+charming spot came "sooner or later" every bird I had seen in my
+wanderings up and down the ravine. There sang the scarlet tanager every
+morning through July, gleaming among the leaves of the tallest trees,
+his olive-clad spouse nowhere to be seen, presumably occupied with
+domestic affairs. There the Acadian flycatcher pursued his calling,
+fluttering his wings and uttering a sweet little murmur when he
+alighted. Into that retired corner came the cries of flicker and blue
+jay from the high ground beyond. On the edge sang the indigo-bird and
+the wood-pewee, and cardinal and wood-thrush song formed the chorus to
+all the varied notes that we heard.
+
+Upon our entrance the next morning, my first glance at the nest was one
+of dismay--the material seemed to be pulled out a little. Had it been
+robbed! had some vagabond squirrel thrust lawless paws into the little
+home! I looked closely; no, there sat, or rather there lay the little
+mother. But she did not relish this second call. She flew, fluttering
+and trailing on the ground, as if hurt, hoping, of course, to attract us
+away from her nest. Seeing that of no avail, however, which she quickly
+did, she retreated to a low branch, threw back her head, and uttered a
+soft "chur-r-r," again and again repeated, doubtless to her mate. But
+that personage did not make his appearance, and we examined the nest.
+There were five eggs, white, very thickly and evenly specked with fine
+dots of dark color. An end of one that stuck up was plain white, perhaps
+the others were the same; we did not inquire too closely, for what did
+we care for eggs, except as the cradles of the future birds?
+
+Very soon we retired to our seat across the court and became quiet, to
+wait for what might come. Suddenly, with almost startling effect,
+
+ "A bird broke forth and sung
+ And trilled and quavered and shook his throat."
+
+It was a new voice to us, loud and clear, and the song, consisting of
+three clauses, sounded like "Whit-e-ar! Whit-e-ar! Whit-e-ar!" then a
+pause, and the same repeated, and so on indefinitely. It came nearer and
+still nearer, and in a moment we saw the bird, a tiny creature,
+red-brown on the back, light below--the image of the little sitter in
+the stump, as we remarked with delight; we hoped he was her mate. He did
+not seem inclined to go to the nest, but stayed on a twig of a dead
+branch which hung from a large tree near by.
+
+While the stranger was pouring out his rhapsody, head thrown back, tail
+hanging straight down, and wings slightly drooped, I noticed a movement
+by the nest, and fixed my eyes upon that. The little dame had stolen out
+of her place, and now began the ascent of the sapling which started out
+one side of her small stump. Up the trunk she went with perfect ease,
+running a few steps, and then pausing a moment before she took the next
+half-dozen. She did not go bobbing up like a woodpecker, nor did she
+steady herself with her tail, like that frequenter of tree-trunks; she
+simply ran up that almost perpendicular stick as a fly runs up the wall.
+Meanwhile her mate, if that he were, kept up his ringing song, till she
+reached the top of the sapling, perhaps seven or eight feet high, and
+flew over near him. In an instant the song ceased, and the next moment
+two small birds flew over our heads, and we heard chatting and
+churring, and then silence.
+
+Without this hint from the wren we should rarely have seen her leave the
+nest; we should naturally have watched for wings, and none might come or
+go, while she was using her feet instead. She returned in the same way;
+flying to the top, or part way up her sapling, she ran down to her nest
+as glibly as she had run up. The walnut-trunk was the ladder which led
+to the outside world. This pretty little scene was many times repeated,
+in the days that we spent before the castle of our Carolinians; the male
+announcing himself afar with songs, and approaching gradually, while his
+mate listened to the notes that had wooed her, and now again coaxed her
+away from her sitting, for a short outing with him. Sometimes, though
+rarely, she came out without this inducement, but during her sitting
+days she usually went only upon his invitation.
+
+Before many days we had fully identified the pair. The song had puzzled
+me at first, for though extraordinary in volume for a bird of his size,
+and possessing that indefinable wren quality, that abandon and
+unexpectedness, as if it were that instant inspired, it had yet few
+notes, and I missed the exquisite tremolo that makes the song of the
+winter-wren so bewitching. But I "studied him up," and learned that his
+finest and most characteristic song is uttered in the spring only. After
+nesting has begun, he gives merely these musical calls, which, though
+delightful, do not compare--say the books--with his ante-nuptial
+performance. I was too late for that, but I was glad and thankful for
+these.
+
+Moreover, the wren varied his songs as the days went on. There were from
+two to five notes in a clause, never more, and commonly but three. This
+clause he repeated again and again during the whole of one visit; but
+the next time he came he had a new one, which likewise he kept to while
+he stayed. Again, when, some days later, he took part in feeding, he
+frequently changed the song as he left the nest. Struck by the variety
+he gave to his few notes, after some days I began to take them down in
+syllables as they expressed themselves to my ear, for they were sharp
+and distinct. Of course, these syllables resemble his sound about as a
+dried flower resembles the living blossom, but they serve the same
+purpose, to reproduce them in memory. In that way I recorded in three
+days eighteen different arrangements of his notes. Doubtless there were
+many more; indeed, he seemed to delight in inventing new combinations,
+and his taste evidently agreed with mine, for when he succeeded in
+evolving a particularly charming one, he did not easily change it. One
+that specially pleased me I put down as "Shame-ber-ee!" and this was his
+favorite, too, for after the day he began it, he sang it oftener than
+any other. It had a peculiarly joyous ring, the second note being a
+third below the first, and the third fully an octave higher than the
+second. I believe he had just then struck upon it, his enjoyment of it
+was so plain to see.
+
+The Wren's Court was a distracting spot to study one pair of small
+birds. So many others came about, and always, it seemed, in some crisis
+in wren affairs, when I dared not take my eyes from my glass, lest I
+lose the sequence of events. There appeared sometimes to be a thousand
+whispering, squealing, and smacking titmice in the trees over my head,
+and a whole regiment of great-crested flycatchers and others on one
+side. I was glad I was familiar with all the flicker noises, or I should
+have been driven wild at these moments, so many, so various, and so
+peculiar were their utterances; likewise thankful that I knew the row
+made by the jay on the bank above was not a sign of dire distress, but
+simply the tragic manner of the family.
+
+Again, when the wind blew, it was impossible to see the little folk
+that chattered and whispered and "dee-dee'd" overhead, and though we
+were absolutely certain a party of tufted tits and chickadees and black
+and white creepers, who always seemed to travel in company, were
+frolicking about, we could not distinguish them from the dancing and
+fluttering leaves.
+
+When the day was favorable, and the wren had gone his way, foraging in
+silence over the low ground at our back, and an old stump that stood
+there, and the sitter had settled herself in her nest for another half
+hour, we could look about at whoever happened to be there. Thus I made
+further acquaintance with the great-crested flycatcher. Hitherto I had
+known these birds only as they travel through a neighborhood not their
+own, appearing on the tops of trees, and crying out in martial tones for
+the inhabitants to bring on their fighters, a challenge to all whom it
+may concern. It was a revelation, then, to see them quietly at home like
+other birds, setting up claims to a tree, driving strangers away from
+it, and spending their time about its foot, seeking food near the
+ground, and indulging in frolics or fights, whichever they might be,
+with squealing cries and a rushing flight around their tree. In the
+latter part of our study, the great-crest babies were out, noisy little
+fellows, who insisted on being fed as peremptorily as their elders
+demand their rights and privileges.
+
+To make the place still more maddening for study, the birds seemed to
+sweep through the woods in waves. For a long time not a peep would be
+heard, not a feather would stir; then all at once
+
+ "The air would throb with wings,"
+
+and birds would pour in from all sides, half a dozen at a time, making
+us want to look six ways at once, and rendering it impossible to confine
+ourselves to one. Then, after half an hour of this superabundance, one
+by one would slip out, and by the time we began to realize it, we were
+alone again.
+
+We had watched the wren for nine days when there came an interruption.
+It happened thus: A little farther up the glen we had another study, a
+wood-thrush nest in a low tree, and every day, either coming or going,
+we were accustomed to spend an hour watching that. Our place of
+observation was a hidden nook in a pile of rocks, where we were entirely
+concealed by thick trees, through which, by a judicious thinning out of
+twigs and leaves, we had made peepholes, for the thrush mamma would not
+tolerate us in her sight. To reach our seats and not alarm the
+suspicious little dame, we always entered from the back, slowly and
+cautiously climbed the rocks by a rude path which already existed, and
+slipped in under cover of our leafy screen.
+
+On the morning of the tenth day we entered the ravine from the upper
+end, and made our first call upon the thrush. We had been seated in
+silence for ten or fifteen minutes, and I was beginning to get uneasy
+because no bird came to the nest, when a diversion occurred that drove
+thrush affairs out of our minds. We heard footsteps! It must be
+remembered that we were alone in this solitary place, far from a house,
+and naturally we listened eagerly. The steps drew nearer, and then we
+heard loud breathing. We exchanged glances of relief--it was a cow! But
+while we were congratulating ourselves began a crashing of branches, a
+fiercer breathing, a rush, and a low bellow!
+
+This was no meek cow! we turned pale,--at any rate we felt pale,--but we
+tried to encourage each other by suggesting in hurried whispers that he
+surely would not see us. Alas! the next instant he broke through the
+bushes, and to our horror started at once up our path to the rocks; in a
+moment he would be upon us! We rose hastily, prepared to sell our lives
+dearly, when, as suddenly as he had come, he turned and rushed back.
+Whether the sight of us was too much for his philosophy, or whether he
+had gone for reinforcements, we did not inquire. We instantly lost our
+interest in birds and birds' nests; we gathered up our belongings and
+fled, not stopping to breathe till we had put the barbiest of barbed
+wire fences between us and the foe.
+
+Once outside, however, we paused to consider: To give up our study was
+not to be thought of; to go every day in fear and dread was equally
+intolerable. I wrote to the authorities of whom I had purchased the
+right to enter the place. They promptly denied the existence of any such
+animal on the premises. I replied to the effect that "seeing is
+believing," but they reaffirmed their former statement, assuring me that
+there were none but harmless cows in the glen. I did not want to waste
+time in an unprofitable correspondence, and I did want to see the wrens,
+and at last a bright thought came,--I would hire an escort, a country
+boy used to cattle, and warranted not afraid of them. I inquired into
+the question of day's wages, I looked about among the college students
+who were working their way to an education, and I found an ideal
+protector,--an intelligent and very agreeable young man, brought up on a
+farm, and just graduated, who was studying up mathematics preparatory to
+school-teaching in the fall. The bargain was soon made, and the next
+morning we started again for the glen, our guardian armed with his
+geometry and a big club. Three days, however, had been occupied in
+perfecting this arrangement, and I approached the spot with anxiety;
+indeed, I am always concerned till I see the whole family I am watching,
+after only a night's interval, and know they have survived the many
+perils which constantly threaten bird-life, both night and day.
+
+
+
+
+XV.
+
+THE WRENLINGS APPEAR.
+
+
+The moment we entered the court I saw there was news. My eyes being
+attracted by a little commotion on a dogwood-tree, I saw a saucy tufted
+titmouse chasing with cries one of the wrens who had food in its beak.
+With most birds this proclaims the arrival of the young family as
+plainly as if a banner had been hung on the castle walls. Whether the
+tit was after the food, or trying to drive the wren off his own ground,
+we could not tell, nor did we much care; the important fact was that
+babies were out in the walnut-tree cottage. The food bearer went to the
+nest, and in a moment came up the ladder, so joyous and full of song
+that he could not wait to get off his own tree, but burst into a
+triumphant ringing "Whit-e-ar!" that must have told his news to all the
+world--who had ears to hear.
+
+The mother did not at once give up her brooding, nor did I wonder when I
+peeped into the nest while she was off with her spouse, and saw what
+appeared to be five big mouths with a small bag of skin attached to
+each. Nothing else could be seen. She sat an hour at a time, and then
+her mate would come and call her off for a rest and a change, while he
+skipped down the ladder and fed the bairns. His way in this matter, as
+in everything else, was characteristic. He never went to the nest till
+he had called her off by his song. It was not till several days later,
+when she had given up brooding, that I ever saw the pair meet at the
+nest, and then it seemed to be accidental, and one of them always left
+immediately.
+
+During the first few days the young parents came and went as of old, by
+way of the ladder, and I learned to know them apart by their way of
+mounting that airy flight of steps. He was more pert in manner, held his
+head and tail more jauntily, though he rarely pointed his tail to the
+sky, as do some of the wren family. He went lightly up in a dancing
+style which she entirely lacked, sometimes jumping to a small shoot that
+grew up quite near the walnut, and running up that as easily as he did
+the tree. Her ascent was of a business character; she was on duty, head
+and tail level with her body, no airs whatever. He was so full of
+happiness in these early days that frequently he could not take time to
+go to the top, but, having reached a height of two or three feet, he
+flew, and at once burst into rapturous song, even sang while flying
+over to the next tree. From this time they almost abandoned the ladder
+they had been so fond of, and flew directly to the nest from the ground,
+where they got all their food. This change was not because they were
+hard worked; I never saw birds who took family cares more easily. At the
+expiration of three days the mother brooded no more, and indeed it would
+have troubled her to find a place for herself, the nest was so full.
+
+Every morning on entering the court I called at the nest, and always
+found five yellow beaks turned to the front. On the third day the heads
+were covered with slate-colored down; on the fourth, wing-feathers began
+to show among the heads, but the body was still perfectly bare; on the
+fifth, the eyes opened on the green world about them,--they were then
+certainly five days old, and may have been seven; owing to our
+unfortunate absence at the critical time I cannot be sure. On the
+seventh day the red-brown of the back began to show, and the white of
+the breast made itself visible, while the heads began to look feathery
+instead of fuzzy. Even then, however, they took no notice when I put my
+finger on them.
+
+Long before this time the manner of the parents had changed. In the
+first place, they were more busy; foraging industriously on the ground,
+coming within ten or fifteen feet of us, without appearing to see us at
+all. In fact they had, after the first day, paid no attention to us, for
+we never had disturbed them, never went to the nest till sure that both
+were away, and kept still and quiet in our somewhat distant seat.
+
+About this time they began to show more anxiety in their manner. The
+first exhibition was on the fourth day since we knew the young were
+hatched (and let me say that I _believe_ they were just out of the shell
+the morning that we found the father feeding). On this fourth day the
+singer perched near the nest-tree, three or four feet from the ground,
+and began a very loud wren "dear-r-r-r! dear-r-r-r! dear-r-r-r!"
+constantly repeated. He jerked himself about with great apparent
+excitement, looking always on the ground as if he saw an enemy there. We
+thought it might be a cat we had seen prowling about, but on examination
+no cat was there. Gradually his tone grew lower and lower, and he calmed
+down so far as a wren can calm, though he did not cease his cries. I did
+not know he could be still so long, but I learned more about wren
+possibilities in that line somewhat later.
+
+During this performance his mate came with food in her beak, and
+evidently saw nothing alarming, for she went to the nest with it. Still
+he stood gazing on the ground. Sometimes he flew down and returned at
+once, then began moving off, a little at a time, still crying, exactly
+as though he were following some one who went slowly. The call, when
+low, was very sweet and tender; very mournful too, and we got much
+wrought up over it, wishing--as bird students so often do--that we could
+do something to help. He was roused at last by the intrusion of a bird
+into his domain, and his discomfiture of this foe seemed to dispel his
+unhappy state of mind, for he at once broke out in joyous song, to our
+great relief. That was not the last exhibition of the wren's
+idiosyncrasy; he repeated it day after day, and finally he went so far
+as to interpolate low "dear-r-r's" into his sweetest songs. Perhaps that
+was his conception of his duty as protector to the family; if so, he was
+certainly faithful in doing it. It was ludicrously like the attitude of
+some people under similar circumstances.
+
+While the young father was manifesting his anxiety in this way, the
+mother showed hers in another; she took to watching, hardly leaving the
+place at all. When she had her babies well fed for the moment, she went
+up the trunk a little, in a loitering way that I had never seen her
+indulge in before,--and a loitering wren is a curiosity. It was plain
+that she simply wished to pass away the time. She stepped from the
+trunk upon a twig on one side, stayed a little while, then passed to one
+on the other side, lingered a few moments, and so she went on. When she
+arrived at the height of two feet she perched on a small dead twig, and
+remained a long time--certainly twenty minutes--absolutely motionless.
+It was hard to see her, and if I had not watched her progress from the
+first, I should not have suspected her presence. A leaf would hide her,
+even the crossing of two twigs was ample screen, and when she was still
+it was hopeless to look for her. The only way we were able to keep track
+of either of the pair was by their incessant motions.
+
+The Great Carolinian had a peculiar custom which showed that his coming
+with song was a ceremony he would not dispense with. He would often
+start off singing, gradually withdraw till fifty or seventy-five feet
+away, singing at every pause, and then, if one watched him closely, he
+might see him stop, drop to the ground, and hunt about in silence. When
+he was ready to come again, he would fly quietly a little way off, and
+then begin his singing and approaching, as if he had been a mile away.
+He never sang when on the ground after food, but so soon as he finished
+eating, he flew to a perch at least two feet high, generally between six
+and ten, and sometimes as high as twenty feet, and sang.
+
+After a day or two of the wren's singular uneasiness, we discovered at
+least one object of his concern. It was a chipmunk, whom we had often
+noticed perched on the highest point of the little ledge of rocks near
+the nest. He seemed to be attending strictly to his own affairs, but
+after a good deal of "dear-r-r"-ing, the wren flew furiously at him,
+almost, if not quite, hitting him, and doing it again and again. The
+little beast did not relish this treatment and ran off, the bird
+following and repeating the assault. This was undoubtedly the foe that
+he had been troubled about all the time.
+
+On the tenth or eleventh day of their lives (as I believe) I examined
+the babies in the nest a little more closely than before. I even touched
+them with my finger on head and beak. They looked sleepily at me, but
+did not resent it. If the mother were somewhat bigger, I should suspect
+her of giving them "soothing syrup," for they had exactly the appearance
+of being drugged. They were not overfed; I never saw youngsters so much
+let alone. The parents had nothing like the work of the robin, oriole,
+or blue jay. They came two or three times, and then left for half an
+hour or more, yet the younglings were never impatient for food.
+
+The morning that the young wrens had reached the age of twelve days
+(that we knew of) was the 22d of July, and the weather was intensely
+warm. On the 21st we had watched all day to see them go, sure that they
+were perfectly well able. Obviously it is the policy of this family to
+prepare for a life of extraordinary activity by an infancy of unusual
+stillness. Never were youngsters so perfectly indifferent to all the
+world. In storm or sunshine, in daylight or darkness, they lay there
+motionless, caring only for food, and even that showed itself only by
+the fact that all mouths were toward the front. The under one of the
+pile seemed entirely contented to be at the bottom, and the top ones not
+to exult in their position; in fact, so far as any show of interest in
+life was concerned, they might have been a nestful of wooden babies.
+
+On this morning, as we dragged ourselves wearily over the hot road to
+the ravine, we resolved that no handful of wrenlings should force us
+over that road again. Go off this day they should, if--as my comrade
+remarked--"we had to raise them by hand." My first call was at the nest,
+indifferent whether parents were there or not, for I had become
+desperate. There they lay, lazily blinking at me, and filling the nest
+overfull. The singer came rushing down a branch, bristled up,
+blustering, and calling "Dear-r-r-r!" at me, and I hoped he would be
+induced to hurry up his very leisurely brood.
+
+We took our usual seats and waited. Both parents remained near the
+homestead, and little singing was indulged in; this morning there was
+serious business on hand, as any one could see. We were desirous of
+seeing the first sign of movement, so we resolved to cut away the last
+few leaves that hid the entrance to the nest. We had not done it before,
+partly not to annoy the birds, and partly not to have them too easily
+discovered by prowlers.
+
+Miss R---- went to the stump, and cut away half a dozen leaves and twigs
+directly before their door. The young ones looked at her, but did not
+move. Then, as I had asked her to do, she pointed a parasol directly at
+the spot, so that I, in my distant seat, might locate the nest exactly.
+This seemed to be the last straw that the birdlings could endure; two of
+them flew off. One went five or six feet away, the other to the ground
+close by. Then she came away, and we waited again. In a moment two more
+ventured out and alighted on twigs near the nest. Then the mother came
+home, and acted as surprised as though she had never expected to have
+them depart. She went from a twig beside the tree to the nest, and back,
+about a dozen times, as if she really could not believe her eyes.
+
+Anxious to see everything that went on, we moved our seats nearer, but
+this so disconcerted the pair that we did not stay long. It was long
+enough to hear the wren baby-cry, a low insect-like noise, and to see
+something that surprised and no less disgusted me, namely, every one of
+those babies hurry back to the tree, climb the trunk, and scramble back
+into the nest!--the whole exit to be begun again! It could not be their
+dislike of the "cold, cold world," for a cold world would be a luxury
+that morning.
+
+Of any one who would go back into that crowded nest, with the
+thermometer on the rampage as it was then, I had my opinion, and I began
+to think I didn't care much about wrens anyway; we stayed, however, as a
+matter of habit, and I suppose they all had a nap after their tremendous
+exertion. But they manifestly got an idea into their heads at last, a
+taste of life. After a proper amount of consideration, one of the
+nestlings took courage to move again, and went so far as a twig that
+grew beside the door, looked around on the world from that post for a
+while, then hopped to another, and so on till he encircled the home
+stump. But when he came again in sight of that delectable nest, he could
+not resist it, and again he added himself to the pile of birds within.
+This youth was apparently as well feathered as his parents, and, except
+in length of tail, looked exactly like them; many a bird baby starts
+bravely out in life not half so well prepared for it as this little
+wren.
+
+After nearly three hours of waiting, we made up our minds that these
+young folk must be out some time during the day, unless they had decided
+to take up permanent quarters in that hole in the stump, and what was
+more to the point, that the weather was too warm to await their very
+deliberate movements. So we left them, to get off the best way they
+could without us, or to stay there all their lives, if they so desired.
+
+The nest, which at first was exceedingly picturesque--and I had resolved
+to bring it away, with the stump that held it--was now so demolished
+that I no longer coveted it. The last and sweetest song of the wren,
+"Shame-ber-ee!" rang out joyously as we turned our faces to the north,
+and bade a long farewell to the Great Carolinians.
+
+
+
+
+XVI.
+
+THE APPLE-TREE NEST.
+
+ All day long in the elm, on their swaying perches swinging,
+   New-fledged orioles utter their restless, querulous notes.
+
+ HARRIET PRESCOTT SPOFFORD.
+
+
+The little folk let out the secret, as little folk often do, and after
+they had called attention to it, I was surprised that I had not myself
+seen the pretty hammock swinging high up in the apple boughs.
+
+It was, however, in a part of the grounds I did not often visit, partly
+because the trees close by, which formed a belt across the back of the
+place, grew so near together that not a breath of air could penetrate,
+and it was intolerable in the hot June days, and partly because my
+appearance there always created a panic. So seldom did a human being
+visit that neglected spot, that the birds did not look for guests, and a
+general stampede followed the approach of one.
+
+On the eventful day of my happy discovery I was returning from my daily
+call upon a blue jay who had set up her home in an apple-tree in a
+neighbor's yard. The moment I entered the grounds I noticed a great
+outcry. It was loud; it was incessant; and it was of many voices.
+Following the sound, I started across the unmown field,
+
+ "Through the bending grasses,
+   Tall and lushy green,
+ All alive with tiny things,
+ Stirring feet and whirring wings
+   Just an instant seen,"
+
+and soon came in sight of the nest near the topmost twig of an old
+apple-tree.
+
+It was about noon of a bright, sunny day, and I could see only that the
+nest was straw-color, apparently run over with little ones, and both the
+parents were industriously feeding. The cries suggested the persistence
+of young orioles, but it was not a Baltimore's swinging cradle, and the
+old birds were so shy, coming from behind the leaves, every one of which
+turned itself into a reflector for the sunlight, that I could not
+identify them.
+
+Later in the day I paid them another visit, and finding a better post of
+observation under the shade of a sweet-briar bush, I saw at once they
+were orchard orioles, and that the young ones were climbing to the edge
+of the nest; I had nearly been too late!
+
+Four o'clock was the unearthly hour at which I rose next morning to
+pursue my acquaintance with the little family in the apple-tree, fearful
+lest they should get the start of me. The youngsters were calling
+vociferously, and both parents were very busy attending to their wants
+and trying to stop their mouths, when I planted my seat before their
+castle in the air, and proceeded to inquire into their manners and
+customs. My call was, as usual, not received with favor. The mother,
+after administering the mouthful she had brought, alighted on a twig
+beside the nest and gave me a "piece of her mind." I admitted my bad
+manners, but I could not tear myself away. The anxious papa, very
+gorgeous in his chestnut and black suit, scenting danger to the little
+brood in the presence of the bird-student with her glass, at once
+abandoned the business of feeding, and devoted himself to the protection
+of his family,--which indeed was his plain duty. His way of doing this
+was to take his position on the tallest tree in the vicinity, and fill
+the serene morning air with his cry of distress, a two-note utterance,
+with a pathetic inflection which could not fail to arouse the sympathy
+of all who heard it. It was not excited or angry, but it proclaimed that
+here was distress and danger, and it had the effect of making me ashamed
+of annoying him. But I hardened my heart, as I often have to do in my
+study, and kept my seat. Occasionally he returned to the lower part of
+his own tree, to see if the monster had been scared or shamed away, but
+finding me stationary, he returned to his post and resumed his mournful
+cry.
+
+At length the happy thought came to me that I might select a position a
+little less conspicuous, yet still within sight, so I moved my seat
+farther off, away back under a low-branched apple-tree, where a redbird
+came around with sharp "tsip's" to ascertain my business, and a catbird
+behind the briar-bush entertained me with delicious song. The oriole
+accepted my retirement as a compromise, and returned to his domestic
+duties, coming, as was natural and easiest, on my side of the tree. His
+habit was to cling to the side of the nest, showing his black and
+red-gold against it, while his mate alighted on the edge, and was seen a
+little above it. After feeding, both perched on neighboring twigs and
+looked about for a moment before the next food-hunting trip. I thought
+the father of the family exhibited an air of resignation, as if he
+concluded that, since the babies made so much noise, there was no use in
+trying longer to preserve the secret.
+
+As a matter of fact, both our orioles need a good stock of patience as
+well as of resignation, for the infants of both are unceasing in their
+cries, and fertile in inventing variations in manner and inflection,
+that would deceive those most familiar with them. Two or three times in
+the weeks that followed, I rushed out of the house to find some very
+distressed bird, who, I was sure, from the cries, must be impaled alive
+on a butcher-bird's meat-hook, or undergoing torture at the hands--or
+beak of somebody. It was rather dangerous going out at that time (just
+at dusk), for it was the chosen hour for young men and maidens, of whom
+there were several, to wander about under the trees. Often, before I
+gave up going out at that hour, my glass, turned to follow a flitting
+wing, would bring before my startled gaze a pair of sentimental young
+persons, who doubtless thought I was spying upon them. My only safety
+was in directing my glass into the trees, where nothing but wings could
+be sentimental, and if a bird flitted below the level of branches, to
+consider him lost. On following up the cry, I always found a young
+oriole and a hard-worked father feeding him. The voice did not even
+suggest an oriole to me, until I had been deceived two or three times
+and understood it.
+
+The young ones of the orchard oriole's nest lived up to the traditions
+of the family by being inveterate cry-babies, and making so much noise
+they could be heard far around. Sometimes their mother addressed them
+in a similar tone to their own, but the father resigned himself to the
+inevitable, and fed with dogged perseverance.
+
+The apple-tree nest looked in the morning sun of a bright flax color,
+and two of the young were mounted on the edge, dressing their yellow
+satin breasts, and gleaming in the sunshine like gold.
+
+A Baltimore oriole, passing over, seemed to be attracted by a familiar
+quality of sound, for he came down, alighted about a foot from the nest,
+and looked with interest upon the charming family scene. The protector
+of the pretty brood was near, but he kept his seat, and made no
+objections to the friendly call. Indeed, he flew away while the guest
+was still there, and having satisfied his curiosity, the Baltimore also
+departed upon his own business.
+
+When the sun appeared over the tree-tops, he came armed with all his
+terrors. The breeze dwindled and died; the very leaves hung lifeless on
+the trees, and though, knowing that
+
+ "Somewhere the wind is blowing,
+   Though here where I gasp and sigh
+ Not a breath of air is stirring,
+   Not a cloud in the burning sky,"
+
+the memory might comfort me, it did not in the slightest degree make me
+comfortable--I wilted, and retired before it. How the birds could
+endure it and carry on their work, I could not understand.
+
+At noon I ventured out over the burning grass. The first youngster had
+left the nest, and was shouting from a tree perhaps twenty feet beyond
+the native apple. The others were fluttering on the edge, crying as
+usual. As is the customary domestic arrangement with many birds, the
+moment the first one flew, the father stopped coming to the nest, and
+devoted himself to the straggler, which was a little hard on the mother
+that hot day, for she had four to feed.
+
+While I looked on, the second infant mustered up courage to start on the
+journey of life. A tall twig led from the nest straight up into the air,
+and this was the ladder he mounted. Step by step he climbed one
+leaf-stem after another, with several pauses to cry and to eat, and at
+last reached the topmost point, where he turned his face to the west,
+and took his first survey of the kingdoms of the earth. A brother
+nestling was close behind him, and the pretty pair, seeing no more steps
+above them, rested a while from their labors. In the mean time the first
+young oriole had gone farther into the trees, and papa with him.
+
+The little dame worked without ceasing, though it must have been an
+anxious time, with nestlings all stirring abroad. I noticed that she
+fed oftenest the birdlings who were out, whether to strengthen them for
+further effort, or to offer an inducement to those in the nest to come
+up higher where food was to be had, she did not tell. I observed, also,
+that when she came home she did not, as before, alight on the level of
+the little ones, but above them. Perhaps this was to coax them upward;
+at any rate, it had that effect: they stretched up and mounted the next
+stem above, and so they kept on ascending. About three o'clock I was
+again obliged to surrender to the power of the sun, and retire for a
+season to a place he could not enter, the house.
+
+Some hours passed before I made my next call, and I found that oriole
+matters had not rested, if I had; the two nestlings had taken flight to
+the tree the first one had chosen, and three were on the top twig above
+the nest, which latter swung empty and deserted. Mamma was feeding the
+three in her own tree, while papa attended as usual to the outsiders,
+and found leisure to drop in a song now and then.
+
+While I watched, number three took his life in his hands (as it were)
+and launched out upon the air. He reached a tree not so far away as his
+brothers had chosen, and his mother sought him out and fed him there.
+But he did not seem to be satisfied with his achievement, or possibly
+he found the position rather lonely; at any rate, the next use of his
+wings was to return to his native apple, to the lower part. During this
+visit, the mother of the little brood, seeing, I suppose, her labors
+growing lighter, indulged herself and delighted me with a scrap of song,
+very sweet, as the song of the female oriole always is.
+
+It was with forebodings that I approached the tree the next morning,
+foreboding speedily confirmed--the whole family was gone! Either I had
+not stayed late enough or I had not got up early enough to see the
+flitting; that song, then, meant something--it was my good-by.
+
+Indeed it turned out to be my farewell, as I thought, for the whole
+tribe seemed to have vanished. Usually it is not difficult to hunt up a
+little bird family in its wanderings, during the month following its
+leaving the nest, but this one I could neither see nor hear, and I was
+very sure those oriole babies had not so soon outgrown their crying;
+they must have been struck dumb or left the place.
+
+Nearly three weeks later I was wandering about in what was called the
+glen, half a mile or more from where the apple-tree babies had first
+seen the light. It was a wild spot, a ravine, through which ran a
+stream, where many wood-birds sang and nested. On approaching a
+linden-tree loaded with blossoms, and humming with swarms of bees, I was
+saluted with a burst of loud song, interspersed with scolding. No one
+but an orchard oriole could so mix things, and sure enough! there he
+was, scrambling over the flowers. Something he found to his taste,
+whether the blossoms or the insects, I could not decide. On waiting a
+little, I heard the young oriole cry, much subdued since nesting days,
+and the tender "ye-ep" of the parent. The whole family was evidently
+there together, and I was very glad to see them once more.
+
+The nest, which I had brought down, was a beautiful structure, made, I
+think, of very fine excelsior of a bright straw-color. It was suspended
+in an upright fork of four twigs, and lashed securely to three of them,
+while a few lines were passed around the fourth. Though it was in a
+fork, it did not rest on it, but was suspended three inches above it, a
+genuine hanging nest. It was three inches deep and wide, but drawn in
+about the top to a width of not more than two inches, with a bit of
+cotton and two small feathers for bedding. How five babies could grow up
+in that little cup is a problem. The material was woven closely
+together, and in addition stitched through and through, up and down, to
+make a firm structure. Around and against it hung still six apples,
+defrauded of their manifest destiny, and remaining the size of
+hickory-nuts. Three twigs that ran up were cut off, but the fourth was
+left, the tallest, the one sustaining the burden of the nest, and upon
+which the young birds, one after another, had mounted to take their
+first flight.
+
+This pretty hammock, in its setting of leaves and apples, still swinging
+from the apple boughs, I brought home as a souvenir of a charming bird
+study.
+
+
+
+
+XVII.
+
+CEDAR-TREE LITTLE FOLK.
+
+ 'T is there that the wild dove has her nest,
+   And whenever the branches stir,
+ She presses closer the eggs to her breast,
+   And her mate looks down on her.
+
+ CLARE BEATRICE COFFEY.
+
+
+One of the voices that helped to make my June musical, and one more
+constantly heard than any other, was that of the
+
+ "Mourning dove who grieves and grieves,
+ And lost! lost! lost! still seems to say,"
+
+as the poet has it.
+
+Now, while I dearly love the poets, and always long to enrich my plain
+prose with gems from their verse, it is sometimes a little embarrassing,
+because one is obliged to disagree with them. If they would only look a
+little into the ways of birds, and not assert, in language so musical
+that one can hardly resist it, that
+
+ "The birds come back to last year's nests,"
+
+when rarely was a self-respecting bird known to shirk the labor of
+building anew for every family; or sing, with Sill,
+
+ "He has lost his last year's love, I know,"
+
+when he did not know any such thing; and add,
+
+ "A thrush forgets in a year,"
+
+which I call a libel on one of our most intelligent birds; or cry, with
+another singer,
+
+ "O voiceless swallow,"
+
+when not one of the whole tribe is defrauded of a voice, and at least
+one is an exquisite singer; or accuse the nightingale of the superfluous
+idiocy of holding his (though they always say her) breast to a thorn as
+he sings, as if he were so foolish as to imitate some forms of human
+self-torture,--if they would only be a little more sure of their facts,
+what a comfort it would be to those who love both poets and birds!
+
+No bird in our country is more persistently misrepresented by our sweet
+singers than the Carolina or wood dove--mourning dove, as he is
+popularly called; and in this case they are not to be blamed, for prose
+writers, even natural history writers, are quite as bad.
+
+"His song consists," says one, "of four notes: the first seems to be
+uttered with an inspiration of the breath, as if the afflicted creature
+were just recovering its voice from the last convulsive sob of distress,
+and followed by three long, deep, and mournful moanings, that no person
+of sensibility can listen to without sympathy." "The solemn voice of
+sorrow," another writer calls it. All this is mere sentimentality, pure
+imagination; and if the writers could sit, as I have, under the tree
+when the bird was singing, they would change their opinion, though they
+would thereby lose a pretty and attractive sentiment for their verse. I
+believe there is
+
+ "No beast or bird in earth or sky,
+ Whose voice doth not with gladness thrill,"
+
+though it may not so express itself to our senses. Certainly the coo of
+the dove is anything but sad when heard very near. It has a rich,
+far-off sound, expressing deep serenity, and a happiness beyond words.
+
+First in the morning, and last at night, all through June, came to me
+the song of the dove. As early as four o'clock his notes began, and
+then, if I got up to look out on the lawn, where I had spread breakfast
+for him and other feathered friends, I would see him walking about with
+dainty steps on his pretty red toes, looking the pink of propriety in
+his Quaker garb, his satin vest smooth as if it had been ironed down,
+and quite worthy his reputed character for meekness and gentleness.
+
+But I wanted to see the dove far from the "madding crowd" of blackbirds,
+blue jays, and red-heads, who, as well as himself, took corn for
+breakfast, and I set out to look him up. At first the whole family
+seemed to consist of the young, just flying about, sometimes accompanied
+by their mother. Apparently the fathers of the race were all off in the
+cooing business.
+
+So early as the second of June I came upon my first pair of young doves,
+two charming little creatures, sitting placidly side by side. Grave,
+indeed, and very much grown-up looked these drab-coated little folk,
+silent and motionless, returning my gaze with an innocent openness that,
+it seemed to me, must disarm their most bitter enemy. When I came upon
+such a pair, as I frequently did, on the low branch of an apple-tree or
+a limb of their native cedar, I stopped instantly to look at them. Not
+an eyelid of the youngsters would move; if a head were turned as they
+heard me coming, it would remain at precisely that angle as long as I
+had patience to stay. They were invariably sitting down with the
+appearance of being prepared to stay all day, and almost always side by
+side, though looking in different directions, and one was always larger
+than the other. A lovely and picturesque group they never failed to
+make, and as for any show of hunger or impatience, one could hardly
+imagine they ever felt either. In every way they were a violent
+contrast to all their neighbors, the boisterous blue jays, lively
+catbirds, blustering robins, and vulgar-mannered blackbirds.
+
+Sometimes I chanced upon a mother sitting by her youngling, and although
+when I found her alone she always flew, beside her little charge she was
+dignified and calm in bearing, and looked at me with fearless eyes,
+relying, as it appeared, upon absolute stillness, and the resemblance of
+her color to the branches, to escape observation; a ruse which must
+generally be successful.
+
+The nest, the remains of which I often saw on the tree where I found an
+infant, was the merest apology, hardly more than a platform, just enough
+to hold the pair of eggs which they are said always to contain. Indeed,
+no baby but a serene dove, with the repose of thirty generations behind
+it, could stay in it till his wings grew. As it is, he must be forced to
+perch, whether ready or not, for the structure cannot hold together
+long. The wonder is that the eggs do not roll out before they are
+hatched.
+
+Several things made the bird an interesting subject for study; his
+reputation for meekness, his alleged silence,--except at wooing
+time,--and the halo of melancholy with which the poets have invested
+him. I resolved to make acquaintance with my gentle neighbor, and I
+sought and found a favorite retreat of the silent family. This was a
+grove away down in the southeast corner of the grounds, little visited
+by people, and beloved by birds of several kinds. Till June was half
+over, the high grass, that I could not bear to trample, prevented
+exploration in that direction, but as soon as it was cut I made a trip
+to the little grove, and found it a sort of doves' headquarters, and
+there, in many hours of daily study, I learned to know him a little, and
+respect him a good deal.
+
+It was a delightful spot the doves had chosen to live in, and so
+frequented by birds that whichever way I turned my face, in two minutes
+I wished I had turned it the other, or that I had eyes in the back of my
+head. With reason, too, for the residents skipped around behind me, and
+all the interesting things went on at my back. I could hear the flit of
+wings, low, mysterious sounds, whispering, gentle complaints and
+hushings, but if I turned--lo! the scene shifted, and the drama of life
+was still enacted out of my sight. Yet I managed, in spite of this
+difficulty, to learn several things I did not know before.
+
+No one attends to his own business more strictly than the dove. On the
+ground, where he came for corn, he seemed to see no other bird, and paid
+not the slightest heed to me in my window, but went about his own
+affairs in the most matter-of-fact way. Yet I cannot agree with the
+common opinion, which has made his name a synonym for all that is meek
+and gentle. He has a will of his own, and a "mild but firm" way of
+securing it. Sometimes, when all were busy at the corn, one of my
+Quaker-clad guests would take a notion, for what reason I could not
+discover, that some other dove must not stay, and he would drive him (or
+her) off. He was not rude or blustering, like the robin, nor did he make
+offensive remarks, after the manner of a blackbird; he simply signified
+his intention of having his neighbor go, and go he did, _nolens volens_.
+
+It was droll to see how this "meek and gentle" fellow met blackbird
+impudence. If one of the sable gentry came down too near a dove, the
+latter gave a little hop and rustled his feathers, but did not move one
+step away. For some occult reason the blackbird seemed to respect this
+mild protest, and did not interfere again.
+
+Would one suspect so solemn a personage of joking? yet what else could
+this little scene mean? A blackbird was on the ground eating, when a
+dove flew down and hovered over him as though about to alight upon him.
+It evidently impressed the blackbird exactly as it did me, for he
+scrambled out from under, very hastily. But the dove had no intention
+of the sort; he came calmly down on one side.
+
+The first dove baby who accompanied its parent to the ground to be fed
+was the model of propriety one would expect from the demure infant
+already mentioned. He stood crouching to the ground in silence,
+fluttering his wings a little, but making no sound, either of begging,
+or when fed. A blackbird came to investigate this youngster, so
+different from his importunate offspring, upon which both doves flew.
+
+There is a unique quality claimed for the dove: that with the exception
+of the well-known coo in nesting time he is absolutely silent, and that
+the noise which accompanies his flight is the result of a peculiar
+formation of the wing that causes a whistle. Of this I had strong
+doubts. I could not believe that a bird who has so much to say for
+himself during wooing and nesting time could be utterly silent the rest
+of the year; nor, indeed, do I believe that any living creature, so
+highly organized as the feathered tribes, can be entirely without
+expression.
+
+I thought I would experiment a little, and one day, observing that a
+young dove spent most of his time alone on a certain cedar-tree, where a
+badly used-up nest showed that he had probably been hatched, or feeding
+on the ground near it, I resolved to see if I could draw him out. I
+passed him six times a day, going and coming from my meals, and I always
+stopped to look at him--a scrutiny which he bore unmoved, in dove
+fashion. So one morning, when I stood three feet from him, I began a
+very low whistle to him. He was at once interested, and after about
+three calls he answered me, very low, it is true, but still
+unmistakably. Though he replied, however, it appeared to make him
+uneasy, for while he had been in the habit of submitting to my staring
+without being in any way disconcerted, he now began to fidget about. He
+stood up, changed his place, flew to a higher branch, and in a few
+moments to the next tree; all the time, however, answering my calls.
+
+I was greatly interested in my new acquaintance, and the next day I
+renewed my advances. As before, he answered, looking bright and eager,
+as I had never seen one of his kind look, and after three or four
+replies he became uneasy, as on the previous day, and in a moment he
+flew. But I was surprised and startled by his starting straight for me.
+I thought he would certainly alight on me, and such, I firmly believe,
+was his inclination, but he apparently did not quite dare trust me, so
+he passed over by a very few inches, and perched on the tree I was
+under. Then--still replying to me--he flew to the ground not six feet
+from me, and step by step, slowly moved away perhaps fifteen feet, when
+he turned and flew back to his own tree beside me. I was pleased to
+notice that the voice of this talkative dovekin was of the same quality
+as the "whistling" said to be of the wings, when a dove flies.
+
+The last interview I had with the dear baby, I found him sitting with
+his back toward me, but the instant I whistled he turned around to face
+me, and seated himself again. He replied to me, and fluttered his wings
+slightly, yet he soon became restless, as usual. He did not fly,
+however, and he answered louder than he had done previously, but I found
+that my call must be just right to elicit a response. I might whistle
+all day and he would pay no attention, till I uttered a two-note call,
+the second note a third above the first and the two slurred together. I
+was delighted to find that even a dove, and a baby at that, could "talk
+back." He was unique in other ways; for example, in being content to
+pass his days in, and around, his own tree. I do not believe he had ever
+been farther than a small group of cedars, ten feet from his own. I
+always found him there, though he could fly perfectly well. This
+interview was, I regret to say, the last; the next morning my little
+friend was nowhere to be seen. Perhaps mamma thought he was getting too
+friendly with one of a race capable of eating a baby dove.
+
+After this episode in my dove acquaintance, I was more than ever
+interested in getting at the mode of expression in the family, and I
+listened on every occasion. One day two doves alighted over my head when
+I was sitting perfectly still, and I distinctly heard very low talk,
+like that of my lost baby; there was, in addition, a note or two like
+the coo, but exceedingly low. I could not have heard a sound ten feet
+from the tree, nor if I had been stirring myself. I observed also that a
+dove can fly in perfect silence; and, moreover, that the whistle of the
+wings sometimes continues after the bird has become still. I heard the
+regular coo--the whole four-note performance--both in a whisper and in
+the ordinary tone, and the latter, though right over my head, sounded a
+mile away. At the end of my month's study I was convinced that the dove
+is far from being a silent bird; on the contrary, he is quite a talker,
+with the "low, sweet voice" so much desired in other quarters. And
+further, that the whistling is not produced wholly (if at all) by the
+wings, and it is a gross injustice to assert that he is not capable of
+expressing himself at all times and seasons.
+
+
+
+
+BESIDE THE GREAT SALT LAKE.
+
+
+
+
+ Up!--If thou knew'st who calls
+ To twilight parks of beach and pine
+ High o'er the river intervals,
+ Above the plowman's highest line,
+ Over the owner's farthest walls!
+ Up! where the airy citadel
+ O'erlooks the surging landscape's swell!
+
+ EMERSON.
+
+
+
+
+XVIII.
+
+IN A PASTURE.
+
+
+The word "pasture," as used on the shore of the Great Salt Lake, conveys
+no true idea to one whose associations with that word have been formed
+in States east of the Rocky Mountains. Imagine an extensive inclosure on
+the side of a mountain, with its barren-looking soil strewn with rocks
+of all sizes, from a pebble to a bowlder, cut across by an irrigating
+ditch or a mountain brook, dotted here and there by sage bushes, and
+patches of oak-brush, and wild roses, and one has a picture of a Salt
+Lake pasture. Closely examined, it has other peculiarities. There is no
+half way in its growths, no shading off, so to speak, as elsewhere; not
+an isolated shrub, not a solitary tree, flourishes in the strange soil,
+but trees and shrubs crowd together as if for protection, and the clump,
+of whatever size or shape, ends abruptly, with the desert coming up to
+its very edge. Yet the soil, though it seems to be the driest and most
+unpromising of baked gray mud, needs nothing more than a little water,
+to clothe itself luxuriantly; the course of a brook or even an
+irrigating ditch, if permanent, is marked by a thick and varied border
+of greenery. What the poor creatures who wandered over those dreary
+wastes could find to eat was a problem to be solved only by close
+observation of their ways.
+
+"H. H." said some years ago that the magnificent yucca, the glory of the
+Colorado mesas, was being exterminated by wandering cows, who ate the
+buds as soon as they appeared. The cattle of Utah--or their owners--have
+a like crime to answer for; not only do they constantly feed upon
+rose-buds and leaves, notwithstanding the thorns, but they regale
+themselves upon nearly every flower-plant that shows its head; lupines
+were the chosen dainty of my friend's horse. The animals become expert
+at getting this unnatural food; it is curious to watch the deftness with
+which a cow will go through a currant or gooseberry bush, thrusting her
+head far down among the branches, and carefully picking off the tender
+leaves, while leaving the stems untouched, and the matter-of-course way
+in which she will bend over and pull down a tall sapling, to despoil it
+of its foliage.
+
+In a pasture such as I have described, on the western slope of one of
+the Rocky Mountains, desolate and forbidding though it looked, many
+hours of last summer's May and June "went their way," if not
+
+ "As softly as sweet dreams go down the night,"
+
+certainly with interest and pleasure to two bird-students whose ways I
+have sometimes chronicled.
+
+Most conspicuous, as we toiled upward toward our breezy pasture, was a
+bird whose chosen station was a fence--a wire fence at that. He was a
+tanager; not our brilliant beauty in scarlet and black, but one far more
+gorgeous and eccentric in costume, having, with the black wings and tail
+of our bird, a breast of shining yellow and a cap of crimson. His
+occupation on the sweet May mornings that he lingered with us, on his
+way up the mountains for the summer, was the familiar one of getting his
+living, and to that he gave his mind without reserve. Not once did he
+turn curious eyes upon us as we sauntered by or rested awhile to watch
+him. Eagerly his pretty head turned this way and that, but not for us;
+it was for the winged creatures of the air he looked, and when one that
+pleased his fancy fluttered by he dashed out and secured it, returning
+to a post or the fence just as absorbed and just as eager for the next
+one. Every time he alighted it was a few feet farther down the fence,
+and thus he worked his way out of our sight, without seeming aware of
+our existence.
+
+This was not stupidity on the part of the crimson-head, nor was it
+foolhardiness; it was simply trust in his guardian, for he had one,--one
+who watched every movement of ours with close attention, whose vigilance
+was never relaxed, and who appeared, when we saw her, to be above the
+need of food. A plain personage she was, clad in modest, dull
+yellow,--the female tanager. She was probably his mate; at any rate, she
+gradually followed him down the fence, keeping fifteen or twenty feet
+behind him, all the time with an eye on us, ready to give warning of the
+slightest aggressive movement on our part. It would be interesting to
+know how my lord behaves up in those sky-parlors where their summer
+homes are made. No doubt he is as tender and devoted as most of his race
+(all his race, I would say, if Mr. Torrey had not shaken our faith in
+the ruby-throat), and I have no doubt that the little red-heads in the
+nest will be well looked after and fed by their fly-catching papa.
+
+Far different from the cool unconcern of the crimson-headed tanager were
+the manners of another red-headed dweller on the mountain. The
+green-tailed towhee he is called in the books, though the red of his
+head is much more conspicuous than the green of his tail. In this bird
+the high-bred repose of his neighbor was replaced by the most fussy
+restlessness. When we surprised him on the lowest wire of the fence, he
+was terribly disconcerted, not to say thrown into a panic. He usually
+stood a moment, holding his long tail up in the air, flirted his wings,
+turned his body this way and that in great excitement, then hopped to
+the nearest bowlder, slipped down behind it, and ran off through the
+sage bushes like a mouse. More than this we were never able to see, and
+where he lived and how his spouse looked we do not know to this day.
+
+Most interesting of the birds that we saw on our daily way to the
+pasture were the gulls; great, beautiful, snowy creatures, who looked
+strangely out of place so far away from the seashore. Stranger, too,
+than their change of residence was their change of manners from the
+wild, unapproachable sea-birds, soaring and diving, and apparently
+spending their lives on wings such as the poet sings,--
+
+ "When I had wings, my brother,
+   Such wings were mine as thine;"
+
+and of whose lives he further says,--
+
+ "What place man may, we claim it,
+ But thine,--whose thought may name it?
+ Free birds live higher than freemen,
+ And gladlier ye than we."
+
+From this high place in our thoughts, from this realm of poetry and
+mystery, to come down almost to the tameness of the barnyard fowl is a
+marvelous transformation, and one is tempted to believe the solemn
+announcement of the Salt Lake prophet, that the Lord sent them to his
+chosen people.
+
+The occasion of this alleged special favor to the Latter Day Saints was
+the advent, about twenty years ago, of clouds of grasshoppers, before
+which the crops of the Western States and Territories were destroyed as
+by fire. It was then, in their hour of greatest need, when the food upon
+which depended a whole people was threatened, that these beautiful
+winged messengers appeared. In large flocks they came, from no one knows
+where, and settled, like so many sparrows, all over the land, devouring
+almost without ceasing the hosts of the foe. The crops were saved, and
+all Deseret rejoiced. Was it any wonder that a people trained to regard
+the head of their church as the direct representative of the Highest
+should believe these to be really birds of God, and should accordingly
+cherish them? Well would it be for themselves if other Christian peoples
+were equally believing, and protected and cherished other winged
+messengers, sent just as truly to protect their crops.
+
+The shrewd man who wielded the destinies of his people beside the Salt
+Lake secured the future usefulness of what they considered the
+miraculous visitation by fixing a penalty of five dollars upon the head
+of every gull in the Territory. And now, the birds having found
+congenial nesting-places on solitary islands in the lake, their
+descendants are so fearless and so tame that they habitually follow the
+plow like a flock of chickens, rising from almost under the feet of the
+indifferent horses and settling down at once in the furrow behind,
+seeking out and eating greedily all the worms and grubs and larvæ and
+mice and moles that the plow has disturbed in its passage. The Mormon
+cultivator has sense enough to appreciate such service, and no man or
+boy dreams of lifting a finger against his best friend.
+
+Extraordinary indeed was this sight to eyes accustomed to seeing every
+bird who attempts to render like service shot and snared and swept from
+the face of the earth. Our hearts warmed toward the "Sons of Zion," and
+our respect for their intelligence increased, as we hurried down to the
+field to see this latter-day wonder.
+
+Whether the birds distinguished between "saints" and sinners, or whether
+their confidence extended only to plow-boys, they would not let us come
+near them. But our glasses brought them close, and we had a very good
+study of them, finding exceeding interest in their ways: their quaint
+faces as they flew toward us; their dignified walk; their expression of
+disapproval, lifting the wings high above the back till they met; their
+queer and constant cries in the tone of a child who whines; and, above
+all, their use of the wonderful wings,--"half wing, half wave," Mrs.
+Spofford calls them.
+
+To rise from the earth upon these beautiful great arms, seemed to be not
+so easy as it looks. Some of the graceful birds lifted them, and ran a
+little before leaving the ground, and all of them left both legs
+hanging, and both feet jerking awkwardly at every wing-beat, for a few
+moments on starting, before they carefully drew each flesh-colored foot
+up into its feather pillow,
+
+ "And gray and silver up the dome
+   Of gray and silver skies went sailing,"
+
+in ever-widening circles, without moving a feather that we could
+perceive. It was charming to see how nicely they folded down their
+splendid wings on alighting, stretching each one out, and apparently
+straightening every feather before laying it into its place.
+
+Several hours this interesting flock accompanied the horses and man
+around the field, taking possession of each furrow as it was laid open,
+and chattering and eating as fast as they could; and the question
+occurred to me, if a field that is thoroughly gleaned over every spring
+furnishes so great a supply of creatures hurtful to vegetation, what
+must be the state of grounds which are carefully protected from such
+gleaning, on which no bird is allowed to forage?
+
+As noon approached, the hour when "birds their wise siesta take,"
+although the plow did not cease its monotonous round, the birds retired
+in a body to the still untouched middle of the field, and settled
+themselves for their "nooning," dusting themselves--their snowy
+plumes!--like hens on an ash heap, sitting about in knots like parties
+of ducks, preening and shaking themselves out, or going at once to
+sleep, according to their several tastes. Half an hour's rest sufficed
+for the more active spirits, and then they treated us, their patient
+observers, to an aërial exhibition. A large number, perhaps three
+quarters of the flock, rose in a body and began a spiral flight. Higher
+and higher they went, in wider and wider circles, till, against the
+white clouds, they looked like a swarm of midges, and against the blue
+the eye could not distinguish them. Then from out of the sky dropped one
+after another, leaving the soaring flock looking wonderfully ethereal
+and gauzy in the clear air, with the sun above him, almost like a spirit
+bird gliding motionless through the ether till he alighted at last
+quietly beside his fellows on the ground. In another half hour they were
+all behind the plow again, hard at work.
+
+When we had looked our fill, we straightway sought out and questioned
+some of the wise men among the "peculiar people." This is what we
+learned: that when plowing is over the birds retire to their home, an
+island in the lake, where, being eminently social birds, their nests are
+built in a community. Their beneficent service to mankind does not end
+with the plowing season, for when that is over they turn their attention
+to the fish that are brought into the lake by the fresh-water streams,
+at once strangled by its excess of salt, and their bodies washed up on
+the shore. What would become of the human residents if that animal
+deposit were left for the fierce sun to dispose of, may perhaps be
+imagined. The gull should, indeed, be a sacred bird in Utah.
+
+What drew us first to the pasture--which we came to at last--was our
+search for a magpie's nest. The home of this knowing fellow is the Rocky
+Mountain region, and, naturally, he was the first bird we thought of
+looking for. There would be no difficulty in finding nests, we thought,
+for we came upon magpies everywhere in our walks. Now one alighted on a
+fence-post a few yards ahead of us, earnestly regarding our approach,
+tilting upward his long, expressive tail, the black of his plumage
+shining with brilliant blue reflections, and the white fairly dazzling
+the eyes. Again we caught glimpses of two or three of the beautiful
+birds walking about on the ground, holding their precious tails well up
+from the earth, and gleaning industriously the insect life of the horse
+pasture. At one moment we were saluted from the top of a tall tree, or
+shrieked at by one passing over our heads, looking like an immense
+dragonfly against the sky. Magpie voices were heard from morning till
+night; strange, loud calls of "mag! mag!" were ever in our ears. "Oh,
+yes," we had said, "we must surely go out some morning and find a nest."
+
+First we inquired. Everybody knew where they built, in oak-brush or in
+apple-trees, but not a boy in that village knew where there was a nest.
+Oh, no, not one! A man confessed to the guilty secret, and, directed by
+him, we took a long walk through the village with its queer little
+houses, many of them having the two front doors which tell the tale of
+Mormondom within; up the long sidewalk, with a beautiful bounding
+mountain brook running down the gutter, as if it were a tame irrigating
+ditch, to a big gate in a "combination fence." What this latter might be
+we had wondered, but relied upon knowing it when we saw it,--and we did:
+it was a fence of laths held together by wires woven between them, and
+we recognized the fitness of the name instantly. Then on through the
+big gate, down a long lane where we ran the gauntlet of the family cows;
+over or under bars, where awaited us a tribe of colts with their anxious
+mammas; and at last to the tree and the nest. There our guide met us and
+climbed up to explore. Alas! the nest robber had anticipated us.
+
+Slowly we took our way home, resolved to ask no more help, but to seek
+for ourselves, for the nest that is _known_ is the nest that is robbed.
+So the next morning, armed with camp-chairs and alpenstocks,
+drinking-cups and notebooks, we started up the mountain, where we could
+at least find solitude, and the fresh air of the hills. We climbed till
+we were tired, and then, as was our custom, sat down to rest and
+breathe, and see who lived in that part of the world. Without thought of
+the height we had reached, we turned our backs to the mountain, rising
+bare and steep before us, and behold! the outlook struck us dumb.
+
+There at our feet lay the village, smothered in orchards and
+shade-trees, the locusts, just then huge bouquets of graceful bloom and
+delicious odor, buzzing with hundreds of bees and humming-birds; beyond
+was a stretch of cultivated fields in various shades of green and brown;
+and then the lake,--beautiful and wonderful Salt Lake,--glowing with
+exquisite colors, now hyacinth blue, changing in places to tender green
+or golden brown, again sparkling like a vast bed of diamonds. In the
+foreground lay Antelope Island, in hues of purple and bronze, with its
+chain of hills and graceful sky-line; and resting on the horizon beyond
+were the peaks of the grand Oquirrhs, capped with snow. Well might we
+forget our quest while gazing on this impressive scene, trying to fix
+its various features in our memories, to be an eternal possession.
+
+We were recalled to the business in hand by the sudden appearance on the
+top of a tree below us of one of the birds we sought. The branch bent
+and swayed as the heavy fellow settled upon it, and in a moment a
+comrade came, calling vigorously, and alighted on a neighboring branch.
+A few minutes they remained, with flirting tails, conversing in
+garrulous tones, then together they rose on broad wings, and passed
+away--away over the fields, almost out of sight, before they dropped
+into a patch of oak-brush. After them appeared others, and we sat there
+a long time, hoping to see at least one that had its home within our
+reach. But every bird that passed over turned its face to the mountains;
+some seemed to head for the dim Oquirrhs across the lake, while others
+disappeared over the top of the Wasatch behind us; not one paused in
+our neighborhood, excepting long enough to look at us, and express its
+opinion in loud and not very polite tones.
+
+It was then and there that we noticed our pasture; the entrance was
+beside us. Shall we go in? was always the question before an inclosure.
+We looked over the wall. It was plainly the abode of horses, meek
+work-a-day beings, who certainly would not resent our intrusion.
+Oak-brush was there in plenty, and that is the chosen home of the
+magpie. We hesitated; we started for the gate. It was held in place by a
+rope elaborately and securely tied in many knots; but we had learned
+something about the gates of this "promised land,"--that between the
+posts and the stone wall may usually be found space enough to slip
+through without disturbing the fastenings.
+
+In that country no one goes through a gate who can possibly go around
+it, and well is it indeed for the stranger and the wayfarer in "Zion"
+that such is the custom, for the idiosyncrasies of gates were endless;
+they agreed only in never fitting their place and never opening
+properly. If the gate was in one piece, it sagged so that it must be
+lifted; or it had lost one hinge, and fell over on the rash individual
+who loosened the fastenings; or it was about falling to pieces, and must
+be handled like a piece of choice bric-a-brac. If it had a latch, it
+was rusty or did not fit; and if it had not, it was fastened, either by
+a board slipped in to act as a bar and never known to be of proper size,
+or in some occult way which would require the skill of "the lady from
+Philadelphia" to undo. If it was of the fashion that opens in the
+middle, each individual gate had its particular "kink," which must be
+learned by the uninitiated before he--or, what is worse, she--could
+pass. Many were held together by a hoop or link of iron, dropped over
+the two end posts; but whether the gate must be pulled out or pushed in,
+and at exactly what angle it would consent to receive the link, was to
+be found out only by experience.
+
+But not all gates were so simple even as this: the ingenuity with which
+a variety of fastenings,--all to avoid the natural and obvious one of a
+hook and staple,--had been evolved in the rural mind was fairly
+startling. The energy and thought that had been bestowed upon this
+little matter of avoiding a gate-hook would have built a bridge across
+Salt Lake, or tunneled the Uintas for an irrigating ditch.
+
+Happily, we too had learned to "slip through," and we passed the gate
+with its rope puzzle, and the six or eight horses who pointed inquiring
+ears toward their unwonted visitors, and hastened to get under cover
+before the birds, if any lived there, should come home.
+
+The oak-brush, which we then approached, is a curious and interesting
+form of vegetation. It is a mass of oak-trees, all of the same age,
+growing as close as they can stand, with branches down to the ground. It
+looks as if each patch had sprung from a great fall of acorns from one
+tree, or perhaps were shoots from the roots of a perished tree. The
+clumps are more or less irregularly round, set down in a barren piece of
+ground, or among the sage bushes. At a distance, on the side of a
+mountain, they resemble patches of moss of varying shape. When two or
+three feet high, one is a thick, solid mat; when it reaches an altitude
+of six to eight feet, it is an impenetrable thicket; except, that is,
+when it happens to be in a pasture. Horses and cattle find such scanty
+pickings in the fields, that they nibble every green thing, even oak
+leaves, and so they clear the brush as high as they can reach. When
+therefore it is fifteen feet high, there is a thick roof the animals are
+not able to reach, and one may look through a patch to the light beyond.
+The stems and lower branches, though kept bare of leaves, are so close
+together and so intertwined and tangled, that forcing one's way through
+it is an impossibility. But the horses have made and kept open paths in
+every direction, and this turns it into a delightful grove, a cool
+retreat, which others appreciate as well as the makers.
+
+Selecting a favorable-looking clump of oak-brush, we attempted to get in
+without using the open horse paths, where we should be in plain sight.
+Melancholy was the result; hats pulled off, hair disheveled, garments
+torn, feet tripped, and wounds and scratches innumerable. Several
+minutes of hard work and stubborn endurance enabled us to penetrate not
+more than half a dozen feet, when we managed, in some sort of fashion,
+to sit down, on opposite sides of the grove. Then, relying upon our
+"protective coloring" (not evolved, but carefully selected in the
+shops), we subsided into silence, hoping not to be observed when the
+birds came home, for there was the nest before us.
+
+A wise and canny builder is Madam Mag, for though her home must be large
+to accommodate her size, and conspicuous because of the shallowness of
+the foliage above her, it is, in a way, a fortress, to despoil which the
+marauder must encounter a weapon not to be despised,--a stout beak,
+animated and impelled by indignant motherhood. The structure was made of
+sticks, and enormous in size; a half-bushel measure would hardly hold
+it. It was covered, as if to protect her, and it had two openings under
+the cover, toward either of which she could turn her face. It looked
+like a big, coarsely woven basket resting in a crotch up under the
+leaves, with a nearly close cover supported by a small branch above.
+The sitting bird could draw herself down out of sight, or she could
+defend herself and her brood, at either entrance.
+
+In my retreat, I had noted all these points before any sign of life
+appeared in the brush. Then there came a low cry of "mag! mag!" and the
+bird entered near the ground. She alighted on a dead branch, which swung
+back and forth, while she kept her balance with her beautiful tail. She
+did not appear to look around; apparently she had no suspicions and did
+not notice us, sitting motionless and breathless in our respective
+places. Her head was turned to the nest, and by easy stages and with
+many pauses, she made her way to it. I could not see that she had a
+companion, for I dared not stir so much as a finger; but while she moved
+about near the nest there came to the eager listeners on the ground low
+and tender utterances in the sweetest of voices,--whether one or two I
+know not,--and at last a song, a true melody, of a yearning, thrilling
+quality that few song-birds, if any, can excel. I was astounded! Who
+would suspect the harsh-voiced, screaming magpie of such notes! I am
+certain that the bird or birds had no suspicion of listeners to the home
+talk and song, for after we were discovered, we heard nothing of the
+sort.
+
+This little episode ended, madam slipped into her nest, and all became
+silent, she in her place and I in mine. If this state of things could
+only remain; if she would only accept me as a tree-trunk or a misshapen
+bowlder, and pay no attention to me, what a beautiful study I should
+have! Half an hour, perhaps more, passed without a sound, and then the
+silence was broken by magpie calls from without. The sitting bird left
+the nest and flew out of the grove, quite near the ground; I heard much
+talk and chatter in low tones outside, and they flew. I slipped out as
+quickly as possible, wishing indeed that I had wings as she had, and
+went home, encouraged to think I should really be able to study the
+magpie.
+
+But I did not know my bird. The next day, before I knew she was about,
+she discovered me, though it was plain that she hoped I had not
+discovered her. Instantly she became silent and wary, coming to her nest
+over the top of the trees, so quietly that I should not have known it
+except for her shadow on the leaves. No talk or song now fell upon my
+ear; calls outside were few and subdued. Everything was different from
+the natural unconsciousness of the previous day; the birds were on
+guard, and henceforth I should be under surveillance.
+
+From this moment I lost my pleasure in the study, for I feel little
+interest in the actions of a bird under the constraint of an unwelcome
+presence, or in the shadow of constant fear and dread. What I care to
+see is the natural life, the free, unstudied ways of birds who do not
+notice or are not disturbed by spectators. Nor have I any pleasure in
+going about the country staring into every tree, and poking into every
+bush, thrusting irreverent hands into the mysteries of other lives, and
+rudely tearing away the veils that others have drawn around their
+private affairs. That they are only birds does not signify to me; for me
+they are fellow-creatures; they have rights, which I am bound to
+respect.
+
+I prefer to make myself so little obvious, or so apparently harmless to
+a bird, that she will herself show me her nest, or at least the leafy
+screen behind which it is hidden. Then, if I take advantage of her
+absence to spy upon her treasures, it is as a friend only,--a friend who
+respects her desire for seclusion, who never lays profane hands upon
+them, and who shares the secret only with one equally reverent and
+loving. Naturally I do not find so many nests as do the vandals to whom
+nothing is sacred, but I enjoy what I do find, in a way it hath not
+entered into their hearts to conceive.
+
+In spite of my disinclination, we made one more call upon the magpie
+family, and this time we had a reception. This bird is intelligent and
+by no means a slave to habit; because he has behaved in a certain way
+once, there is no law, avian or divine, that compels him to repeat that
+conduct on the next occasion. Nor is it safe to generalize about him, or
+any other bird for that matter. One cannot say, "The magpie does thus
+and so," because each individual magpie has his own way of doing, and
+circumstances alter cases, with birds as well as with people.
+
+On this occasion we placed ourselves boldly, though very quietly, in the
+paths that run through the oak-brush. We had abandoned all attempt at
+concealment; we could hope only for tolerance. The birds readily
+understood; they appreciated that they were seen and watched, and their
+manners changed accordingly. The first one of the black-and-white gentry
+who entered the grove discovered my comrade, and announced the presence
+of the enemy by a loud cry, in what somebody has aptly called a
+"frontier tone of voice." Instantly another appeared and added his
+remarks; then another, and still another, till within five minutes there
+were ten or twelve excited magpies, shouting at the top of their voices,
+and hopping and flying about her head, coming ever nearer and nearer, as
+if they meditated a personal attack. I did not really fear it, but I
+kept close watch, while remaining motionless, in the hope that they
+would not notice me. Vain hope! nothing could escape those sharp eyes
+when once the bird was aroused. After they had said what they chose to
+my friend, who received the taunts and abuse of the infuriated mob in
+meek silence, lifting not her voice to reply, they turned the stream of
+their eloquence upon me.
+
+I was equally passive, for indeed I felt that they had a grievance. We
+have no right to expect birds to tell one human being from another, so
+long as we, with all our boasted intelligence, cannot tell one crow or
+one magpie from another; and all the week they had suffered persecution
+at the hands of the village boys. Young magpies, nestlings, were in
+nearly every house, and the birds had endured pillage, and doubtless
+some of them death. I did not blame the grieved parents for the
+reception they gave us; from their point of view we belonged to the
+enemy.
+
+After the storm had swept by, and while we sat there waiting to see if
+the birds would return, one of the horses of the pasture made his
+appearance on the side where I sat, now eating the top of a rosebush,
+now snipping off a flower plant that had succeeded in getting two leaves
+above the ground, but at every step coming nearer me. It was plain that
+he contemplated retiring to this shady grove, and, not so observing as
+the magpies, did not see that it was already occupied. When he was not
+more than ten feet away, I snatched off my sun hat and waved it before
+him, not wishing to make a noise. He stopped instantly, stared wildly
+for a moment, as if he had never seen such an apparition, then wheeled
+with a snort, flung out his heels in disrespect, and galloped off down
+the field.
+
+The incident was insignificant, but the result was curious. So long as
+we stayed in that bit of brush, not a horse attempted to enter, though
+they all browsed around outside. They avoided it as if it were haunted,
+or, as my comrade said, "filled with beckoning forms." Nor was that all;
+I have reason to think they never again entered that particular patch of
+brush, for, some weeks after we had abandoned the study of magpies and
+the pasture altogether, we found the spot transformed, as if by the wand
+of enchantment. From the burned-up desert outside we stepped at once
+into a miniature paradise, to our surprise, almost our consternation.
+Excepting the footpaths through it, it bore no appearance of having ever
+been a thoroughfare. Around the foot of every tree had grown up clumps
+of ferns or brakes, a yard high, luxuriant, graceful, and exquisite in
+form and color; and peeping out from under them were flowers, dainty
+wildings we had not before seen there. A bit of the tropics or a gem out
+of fairyland it looked to our sun and sand weary eyes. Outside were the
+burning sun of June, a withering hot wind, and yellow and dead
+vegetation; within was cool greenness and a mere rustle of leaves
+whispering of the gale. It was the loveliest bit of greenery we saw on
+the shores of the Great Salt Lake. It was marvelous; it was almost
+uncanny.
+
+Our daily trips to the pasture had ceased, and other birds and other
+nests had occupied our thoughts for a week or two, when we resolved to
+pay a last visit to our old haunts, to see if we could learn anything of
+the magpies. We went through the pasture, led by the voices of the birds
+away over to the farther side, and there, across another fenced pasture,
+we heard them plainly, calling and chattering and making much noise, but
+in different tones from any we had heard before. Evidently a magpie
+nursery had been established over there. We fancied we could distinguish
+maternal reproof and loving baby talk, beside the weaker voices of the
+young, and we went home rejoicing to believe, that in spite of nest
+robbers, and the fright we had given them, some young magpies were
+growing up to enliven the world another summer.
+
+
+
+
+XIX.
+
+THE SECRET OF THE WILD ROSE PATH.
+
+     "Shall I call thee Bird,
+ Or but a wandering Voice?"
+
+
+Wordsworth's lines are addressed to the cuckoo of the Old World, a bird
+of unenviable reputation, notorious for imposing his most sacred duties
+upon others; naturally, therefore, one who would not court observation,
+and whose ways would be somewhat mysterious. But the American
+representative of the family is a bird of different manners. Unlike his
+namesake across the water, our cuckoo never--or so rarely as practically
+to be never--shirks the labor of nest-building and raising a family. He
+has no reason to skulk, and though always a shy bird, he is no more so
+than several others, and in no sense is he a mystery.
+
+There is, however, one American bird for whom Wordsworth's verse might
+have been written; one whose chief aim seems to be, reversing our
+grandmothers' rule for little people, to be heard, and not seen. To be
+seen is, with this peculiar fellow, a misfortune, an accident, which he
+avoids with great care, while his voice rings out loud and clear above
+all others in the shrubbery. I refer to the yellow-breasted chat
+(_Icteria virens_), whose summer home is the warmer temperate regions of
+our country, from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast, and whose
+unbirdlike utterances prepare one to believe the stories told of his
+eccentric actions; this, for example, by Dr. Abbott:--
+
+ "Aloft in the sunny air he springs;
+     To his timid mate he calls;
+ With dangling legs and fluttering wings
+     On the tangled smilax falls;
+       He mutters, he shrieks--
+         A hopeless cry;
+       You think that he seeks
+         In peace to die,
+ But pity him not; 't is the ghostly chat,
+ An imp if there is one, be sure of that."
+
+I first knew the chat--if one may be said to know a creature so shy--in
+a spot I have elsewhere described, a deserted park at the foot of
+Cheyenne Mountain. I became familiar with his various calls and cries
+(one can hardly call them songs); I secured one or two fleeting glimpses
+of his graceful form; I sought and discovered the nest, which thereupon
+my Lady Chat promptly abandoned, though I had not laid a finger upon it;
+and last of all, I had the sorrow and shame of knowing that my
+curiosity had driven the pair from the neighborhood. This was the
+Western form of _Icteria_, differing from the Eastern only in a greater
+length of tail, which several of our Rocky Mountain birds affect, for
+the purpose, apparently, of puzzling the ornithologist.
+
+Two years after my unsuccessful attempt to cultivate friendly relations
+with "the ghostly chat," the middle of May found me on the shore of the
+Great Salt Lake, where I settled myself at the foot of the Wasatch
+Mountains, at that point bare, gray, and unattractive, showing miles of
+loose bowlders and great patches of sage-bush. In the monotonous
+stretches of this shrub, each plant of which looks exactly like every
+other, dwelt many shy birds, as well hidden as bobolinks in the meadow
+grass, or meadow-larks in the alfalfa.
+
+But on this mountain side no friendly cover existed from which I could
+spy out bird secrets. Whatever my position, and wherever I placed
+myself, I was as conspicuous as a tower in the middle of a plain; again,
+no shadow of protection was there from the too-ardent sun of Utah, which
+drew the vitality from my frame as it did the color from my gown; worse
+than these, the everywhere present rocks were the chosen haunts of the
+one enemy of a peaceful bird lover, the rattlesnake, and I hesitated to
+pursue the bird, because I invariably forgot to watch and listen for the
+reptile. Bird study under these conditions was impossible, but the place
+presented a phase of nature unfamiliar to me, and for a time so
+fascinating that every morning my steps turned of themselves "up the
+stony pathway to the hills."
+
+The companion of my walks, a fellow bird-student, was more than
+fascinated; she was enraptured. The odorous bush had associations for
+her; she reveled in it; she inhaled its fragrance as a delicious
+perfume; she filled her pockets with it; she lay for hours at a time on
+the ground, where she could bask in the sunshine, and see nothing but
+the gray leaves around her and the blue sky above.
+
+I can hardly tell what was the fascination for me. It was certainly not
+the view of the mountains, though mountains are beyond words in my
+affections. The truth is, the Rocky Mountains, many of them, need a
+certain distance to make them either picturesque or dignified. The range
+then daily before our eyes, the Wasatch, was, to dwellers at its feet,
+bleak, monotonous, and hopelessly prosaic. The lowest foothills, being
+near, hid the taller peaks, as a penny before the eye will hide a whole
+landscape.
+
+Let me not, however, be unjust to the mountains I love. There is a
+range which satisfies my soul, and will rest in my memory forever, a
+beautiful picture, or rather a whole gallery of pictures. I can shut my
+eyes and see it at this moment, as I have seen it a thousand times. In
+the early morning, when the level sun shines on its face, it is like one
+continuous mountain reaching across the whole western horizon; it has a
+broken and beautiful sky line; Pike's Peak looms up toward the middle,
+and lovely Cheyenne ends it in graceful slope on the south; lights and
+shadows play over it; its colors change with the changing sky or
+atmosphere,--sometimes blue as the heavens, sometimes misty as a dream;
+it is wonderfully beautiful then. But wait till the sun gets higher;
+look again at noon, or a little later. Behold the whole range has sprung
+into life, separated into individuals; gorges are cut where none had
+appeared; chasms come to light; cañons and all sorts of divisions are
+seen; foothills move forward to their proper places, and taller peaks
+turn at angles to each other; shapes and colors that one never suspected
+come out in the picture: the transformation is marvelous. But the sun
+moves on, the magical moment passes, each mountain slips back into line,
+and behold, you see again the morning's picture.
+
+Indulge me one moment, while I try to show you the last picture
+impressed upon my memory as the train bore me, unwilling, away. It was
+cloudy, a storm was coming up, and the whole range was in deep shadow,
+when suddenly through some rift in the clouds a burst of sunshine fell
+upon the "beloved mountain" Cheyenne, and upon it alone. In a moment it
+was a smiling picture,
+
+                                   "Glad
+ With light as with a garment it was clad;"
+
+all its inequalities, its divisions, its irregularities emphasized, its
+greens turned greener, its reds made more glowing,--an unequaled gem for
+a parting gift.
+
+To come back to Utah. One morning, on our way up to the heights, as we
+were passing a clump of oak-brush, a bird cry rang out. The voice was
+loud and clear, and the notes were of a peculiar character: first a
+"chack" two or three times repeated, then subdued barks like those of a
+distressed puppy, followed by hoarse "mews" and other sounds suggesting
+almost any creature rather than one in feathers. But with delight I
+recognized the chat; my enthusiasm instantly revived. I unfolded my camp
+chair, placed myself against a stone wall on the opposite side of the
+road, and became silent and motionless as the wall itself.
+
+My comrade, on the contrary, as was her custom, proceeded with equal
+promptness to follow the bird up, to hunt him out. She slipped between
+the barbed wires which, quite unnecessarily, one would suppose, defended
+the bleak pasture from outside encroachment, and passed out of sight
+down an obscure path that led into the brush where the bird was hidden.
+Though our ways differ, or rather, perhaps, _because_ our ways differ,
+we are able to study in company. Certainly this circumstance proved
+available in circumventing the wily chat, and that happened which had
+happened before: in fleeing from one who made herself obvious to him, he
+presented himself, an unsuspecting victim, to another who sat like a
+statue against the wall. To avoid his pursuer, the bird slipped through
+the thick foliage of the low oaks, and took his place on the outside, in
+full view of me, but looking through the branches at the movements
+within so intently that he never turned his eyes toward me. This gave me
+an opportunity to study his manners that is rare indeed, for a chat off
+his guard is something inconceivable.
+
+He shouted out his whole _répertoire_ (or so it seemed) with great
+vehemence, now "peeping" like a bird in the nest, then "chacking" like a
+blackbird, mewing as neatly as pussy herself, and varying these calls by
+the rattling of castanets and other indescribable sounds. His perch was
+half way down the bush; his trim olive-drab back and shining golden
+breast were in their spring glory, and he stood nearly upright as he
+sang, every moment stretching up to look for the invader behind the
+leaves. The instant she appeared outside, he vanished within, and I
+folded my chair and passed on. His disturber had not caught a glimpse of
+him.
+
+My next interview with a chat took place a day or two later. Between the
+cottage which was our temporary home and the next one was a narrow
+garden bordered by thick hedges, raspberry bushes down each side, and a
+mass of flowering shrubs next the street. From my seat within the house,
+a little back from the open window, I was startled by the voice of a
+chat close at hand. Looking cautiously out, I saw him in the garden,
+foraging about under cover of the bushes, near the ground, and there for
+some time I watched him. He had not the slightest repose of manner; the
+most ill-bred tramp in the English sparrow family was in that respect
+his superior, and the most nervous and excitable of wrens could not
+outdo him in posturing, jerking himself up, flirting his tail, and
+hopping from twig to twig. When musically inclined, he perched on the
+inner side of the bushes against the front fence, a foot or two above
+the ground, and within three feet of any one who might pass, but
+perfectly hidden.
+
+The performance of the chat was exceedingly droll; first a whistle,
+clear as an oriole note, followed by chacks that would deceive a
+red-wing himself, and then, oddest of all, the laugh of a feeble old
+man, a weak sort of "yah! yah! yah!" If I had not seen him in the act, I
+could not have believed the sound came from a bird's throat. He
+concluded with a low, almost whispered "chur-r-r," a sort of private
+chuckle over his unique exhibition. After a few minutes' singing he
+returned to his foraging on the ground, or over the lowest twigs of the
+bushes, all the time bubbling over with low joyous notes, his graceful
+head thrown up, and his beautiful golden throat swelling with the happy
+song. The listener and looker behind the screen was charmed to absolute
+quiet, and the bird so utterly unsuspicious of observers that he was
+perfectly natural and at his ease, hopping quickly from place to place,
+and apparently snatching his repast between notes.
+
+The chat's secret of invisibility was thus plainly revealed. It is not
+in his protective coloring, for though his back is modest of hue, his
+breast is conspicuously showy; nor is it in his size, for he is almost
+as large as an oriole; it is in his manners. The bird I was watching
+never approached the top of a shrub, but invariably perched a foot or
+more below it, and his movements, though quick, were silence itself. No
+rustle of leaves proclaimed his presence; indeed, he seemed to avoid
+leaves, using the outside twigs near the main stalk or trunk, where they
+are usually quite bare, and no flit of wing or tail gave warning of his
+change of position. There was a seemingly natural wariness and
+cautiousness in every movement and attitude, that I never saw equaled in
+feathers.
+
+Then, too, the clever fellow was so constantly on his guard and so alert
+that the least stir attracted his attention. Though inside the house, as
+I said, not near the window, and further veiled by screens, I had to
+remain as nearly motionless as possible, and use my glass with utmost
+caution. The smallest movement sent him into the bushes like a shot,--or
+rather, like a shadow, for the passage was always noiseless. Suspicion
+once aroused, the bird simply disappeared. One could not say of him, as
+of others, that he flew, for whether he used his wings, or melted away,
+or sank into the earth, it would be hard to tell. All I can be positive
+about is, that whereas one moment he was there, the next he was gone.
+
+After this exhibition of the character of the chat, his constant
+watchfulness, his distrust, his love of mystery, it may appear strange
+that I should try again to study him at home, to find his nest and see
+his family. But there is something so bewitching in his individuality,
+that, though I may be always baffled, I shall never be discouraged.
+Somewhat later, when it was evident that his spouse had arrived and
+domestic life had begun, and I became accustomed to hearing a chat in a
+certain place every day as I passed, I resolved to make one more effort
+to win his confidence, or, if not that, at least his tolerance.
+
+The chat medley for which I was always listening came invariably from
+one spot on my pathway up the mountain. It was the lower end of a large
+horse pasture, and near the entrance stood a small brick house, in which
+no doubt dwelt the owner, or care-taker, of the animals. The wide gate,
+in a common fashion of that country, opened in the middle, and was
+fastened by a link of iron which dropped over the two centre posts. The
+rattle of the iron as I touched it, on the morning I resolved to go in,
+brought to the door a woman. She was rather young, with hair cut close
+to her head, and wore a dark cotton gown, which was short and scant of
+skirt, and covered with a "checked apron." She was evidently at work,
+and was probably the mistress, since few in that "working-bee" village
+kept maids.
+
+I made my request to go into the pasture to look at the birds.
+
+"Why, certainly," she said, with a courtesy that I have found everywhere
+in Utah, though with a slow surprise growing in her face. "Come right
+in."
+
+I closed and fastened the gate, and started on past her. Three feet
+beyond the doorsteps I was brought to a standstill: the ground as far as
+I could see was water-soaked; it was like a saturated sponge. Utah is
+dominated by Irrigation; she is a slave to her water supply. One going
+there from the land of rains has much to learn of the possibilities and
+the inconveniences of water. I was always stumbling upon it in new
+combinations and unaccustomed places, and I never could get used to its
+vagaries. Books written in the interest of the Territory indulge in
+rhapsodies over the fact that every man is his own rain-maker; and I
+admit that the arrangement has its advantages--to the cultivator. But
+judging from the standpoint of an outsider, I should say that man is not
+an improvement upon the original providence which distributes the staff
+of life to plants elsewhere, spreading the vital fluid over the whole
+land, so evenly that every grass blade gets its due share; and as all
+parts are wet at once, so all are dry at the same time, and the surplus,
+if there be any, runs in well-appointed ways, with delight to both eye
+and ear. All this is changed when the office of Jupiter Pluvius devolves
+upon man; different indeed are his methods. A man turns a stream loose
+in a field or pasture, and it wanders whither it will over the ground.
+The grass hides it, and the walker, bird-student or botanist, steps
+splash into it without the slightest warning. This is always unpleasant,
+and is sometimes disastrous, as when one attempts to cross the edge of a
+field of some close-growing crop, and instantly sinks to the top of the
+shoes in the soft mud.
+
+On the morning spoken of, I stopped before the barrier, considering how
+I should pass it, when the woman showed me a narrow passage between the
+house and the stone wall, through which I could reach the higher ground
+at the back. I took this path, and in a moment was in the grove of young
+oaks which made her out-of-doors kitchen and yard. A fire was burning
+merrily in the stove, which stood under a tree; frying-pans and
+baking-tins, dippers and dishcloths, hung on the outer wall of her
+little house, and the whole had a camping-out air that was captivating,
+and possible only in a rainless land. I longed to linger and study this
+open-air housekeeping; if that woman had only been a bird!
+
+But I passed on through the oak-grove back yard, following a path the
+horses had made, till I reached an open place where I could overlook
+the lower land, filled with clumps of willows with their feet in the
+water, and rosebushes
+
+ "O'erburdened with their weight of flowers,
+   And drooping 'neath their own sweet scent."
+
+A bird was singing as I took my seat, a grosbeak,--perhaps the one who
+had entertained me in the field below, while I had waited hour after
+hour, for his calm-eyed mate to point out her nest. He sang there from
+the top of a tall tree, and she busied herself in the low bushes, but up
+to that time they had kept their secret well. He was a beautiful bird,
+in black and orange-brown and gold,--the black-headed grosbeak; and his
+song, besides being very pleasing, was interesting because it seemed
+hard to get out. It was as if he had conceived a brilliant and beautiful
+strain, and found himself unable to execute it. But if he felt the
+incompleteness of his performance as I did, he did not let it put an end
+to his endeavor. I sat there listening, and he came nearer, even to a
+low tree over my head; and as I had a glimpse or two of his mate in a
+tangle of willow and roses far out in the wet land, I concluded he was
+singing to her, and not to me. Now that he was so near, I heard more
+than I had before, certain low, sweet notes, plainly not intended for
+the public ear. This undertone song ended always in "sweet! sweet!
+sweet!" usually followed by a trill, and was far more effective than
+his state performances. Sometimes, after the "sweet" repeated half a
+dozen times, each note lower than the preceding one, he ended with a
+sort of purr of contentment.
+
+I became so absorbed in listening that I had almost forgotten the object
+of my search, but I was suddenly recalled by a loud voice at one side,
+and the lively genius of the place was on hand in his usual rôle.
+Indeed, he rather surpassed himself in mocking and taunting cries that
+morning, either because he wished, as my host, to entertain me, or, what
+was more probable, to reproach me for disturbing the serenity of his
+life. Whatever might have been his motive, he delighted me, as always,
+by the spirit and vigor with which he poured out his chacks and whistles
+and rattles and calls. Then I tried to locate him by following up the
+sound, picking my way through the bushes, and among the straggling arms
+of the irrigating stream. After some experiments, I discovered that he
+was most concerned when I came near an impenetrable tangle that skirted
+the lower end of the lot. I say "near:" it was near "as the crow flies,"
+but for one without wings it may have been half a mile; for between me
+and that spot was a great gulf fixed, the rallying point of the most
+erratic of wandering streamlets, and so given over to its vagaries that
+no bird-gazer, however enthusiastic, and indifferent to wet feet and
+draggled garments, dared attempt to pass. There I was forced to pause,
+while the bird flung out his notes as if in defiance, wilder, louder,
+and more vehement than ever.
+
+In that thicket, I said to myself, as I took my way home, behind that
+tangle, if I can manage to reach it, I shall find the home of the chat.
+The situation was discouraging, but I was not to be discouraged; to
+reach that stronghold I was resolved, if I had to dam up the irrigator,
+build a bridge, or fill up the quagmire.
+
+No such heroic treatment of the difficulty was demanded; my problem was
+very simply solved. As I entered the gate the next morning, my eyes fell
+upon an obscure footpath leading away from the house and the watery way
+beyond it, down through overhanging wild roses, and under the great
+tangle in which the chat had hidden. It looked mysterious, not to say
+forbidding, and, from the low drooping of the foliage above, it was
+plainly a horse path, not a human way. But it was undoubtedly the key to
+the secrets of the tangle, and I turned into it without hesitation.
+Stooping under the branches hanging low with their fragrant burden, and
+stopping every moment to loosen the hold of some hindering thorn, I
+followed in the footsteps of my four-footed pioneers till I reached the
+lower end of the marsh that had kept me from entering on the upper side.
+On its edge I placed my chair and seated myself.
+
+It was an ideal retreat; within call if help were needed, yet a solitude
+it was plain no human being, in that land where (according to the
+Prophet) every man, woman, and child is a working bee, ever invaded;
+
+                               "A leafy nook
+ Where wind never entered, nor branch ever shook,"
+
+known only to my equine friends and to me. I exulted in it! No
+discoverer of a new land, no stumbler upon a gold mine, was ever more
+exhilarated over his find than I over my solitary wild rose path.
+
+The tangle was composed of a varied growth. There seemed to have been
+originally a straggling row of low trees, chokecherry, peach, and
+willow, which had been surrounded, overwhelmed, and almost buried by a
+rich growth of shoots from their own roots, bound and cemented together
+by the luxuriant wild rose of the West, which grows profusely everywhere
+it can get a foothold, stealing up around and between the branches, till
+it overtops and fairly smothers in blossoms a fair-sized oak or other
+tree. Besides these were great ferns, or brakes, three or four feet
+high, which filled up the edges of the thicket, making it absolutely
+impervious to the eye, as well as to the foot of any straggler. Except
+in the obscure passages the horses kept open, no person could penetrate
+my jungle.
+
+I had hardly placed myself, and I had not noted half of these details,
+when it became evident that my presence disturbed somebody. A chat cried
+out excitedly, "chack! chack! whe-e-w!" whereupon there followed an
+angry squawk, so loud and so near that it startled me. I turned quickly,
+and saw madam herself, all ruffled as if from the nest. She was plainly
+as much startled as I was, but she scorned to flee. She perked up her
+tail till she looked like an exaggerated wren; she humped her shoulders;
+she turned this way and that, showing in every movement her anger at my
+intrusion; above all, she repeated at short intervals that squawk, like
+an enraged hen. Hearing a rustle of wings on the other side, I turned my
+eyes an instant, and when I looked again she had gone! She would not run
+while I looked at her, but she had the true chat instinct of keeping out
+of sight.
+
+She did not desert her grove, however. The canopy over my head, the roof
+to my retreat, was of green leaves, translucent, almost transparent. The
+sun was the sun of Utah; it cast strong shadows, and not a bird could
+move without my seeing it. I could see that she remained on guard,
+hopping and flying silently from one point of view to another, no doubt
+keeping close watch of me all the time.
+
+Meanwhile the chat himself had not for a moment ceased calling. For some
+time his voice would sound quite near; then it would draw off, growing
+more and more distant, as if he were tired of watching one who did
+absolutely nothing. But he never got far away before madam recalled him,
+sometimes by the squawk alone, sometimes preceding it by a single clear
+whistle, exactly in his own tone. At once, as if this were a
+signal,--which doubtless it was,--his cries redoubled in energy, and
+seemed to come nearer again.
+
+Above the restless demonstrations of the chats I could hear the clear,
+sweet song of the Western meadow-lark in the next field. Well indeed
+might his song be serene; the minstrel of the meadow knew perfectly well
+that his nest and nestlings were as safely hidden in the middle of the
+growing lucern as if in another planet; while the chat, on the contrary,
+was plainly conscious of the ease with which his homestead might be
+discovered. A ruthless destroyer, a nest-robbing boy, would have had the
+whole thing in his pocket days ago. Even I, if I had not preferred to
+have the owners show it to me: if I had not made excuses to myself, of
+the marsh, of bushes too low to go under; if I had not hated to take it
+by force, to frighten the little folk I wished to make friends
+with,--even I might have seen the nest long before that morning. Thus I
+meditated as, after waiting an hour or two, I started for home.
+
+Outside the gate I met my fellow-student, and we went on together. Our
+way lay beside an old orchard that we had often noticed in our walks.
+The trees were not far apart, and so overgrown that they formed a deep
+shade, like a heavy forest, which was most attractive when everything
+outside was baking in the June sun. It was nearly noon when we reached
+the gate, and looking into a place
+
+               "So curtained with trunks and boughs
+ That in hours when the ringdove coos to his spouse
+ The sun to its heart scarce a way could win,"
+
+we could not resist its inviting coolness; we went in.
+
+As soon as we were quiet, we noticed that there were more robins than we
+had heretofore seen in one neighborhood in that part of the world; for
+our familiar bird is by no means plentiful in the Rocky Mountain
+countries, where grassy lawns are rare, and his chosen food is not
+forthcoming. The old apple-trees seemed to be a favorite nesting-place,
+and before we had been there five minutes we saw that there were at
+least two nests within fifty feet of us, and a grosbeak singing his
+love song, so near that we had hopes of finding his home, also, in this
+secluded nook.
+
+The alighting of a bird low down on the trunk of a tree, perhaps twenty
+feet away, called the attention of my friend to a neighbor we had not
+counted upon, a large snake, with, as we noted with horror, the color
+and markings of the dreaded rattler. He had, as it seemed, started to
+climb one of the leaning trunks, and when he had reached a point where
+the trunk divided into two parts, his head about two feet up, and the
+lower part of his body still on the ground, had stopped, and now rested
+thus, motionless as the tree itself. It may be that it was the sudden
+presence of his hereditary enemy that held him apparently spellbound, or
+it is possible that this position served his own purposes better than
+any other. Our first impulse was to leave his lordship in undisputed
+possession of his shady retreat; but the second thought, which held us,
+was to see what sort of reception the robins would give him. There was a
+nest full of young on a neighboring tree, and it was the mother who had
+come down to interview the foe. Would she call her mate? Would the
+neighbors come to the rescue? Should we see a fight, such as we had read
+of? We decided to wait for the result.
+
+Strange to say, however, this little mother did not call for help. Not
+one of the loud, disturbed cries with which robins greet an innocent
+bird-student or a passing sparrow hawk was heard from her; though her
+kinsfolk sprinkled the orchard, she uttered not a sound. For a moment
+she seemed dazed; she stood motionless, staring at the invader as if
+uncertain whether he were alive. Then she appeared to be interested; she
+came a little nearer, still gazing into the face of her enemy, whose
+erect head and glittering eyes were turned toward her. We could not see
+that he made the slightest movement, while she hopped nearer and nearer;
+sometimes on one division of the trunk, and sometimes on the other, but
+always, with every hop, coming a little nearer. She did not act
+frightened nor at all anxious; she simply seemed interested, and
+inclined to close investigation. Was she fascinated? Were the old
+stories of snake power over birds true? Our interest was most intense;
+we did not take our eyes from her; nothing could have dragged us away
+then.
+
+Suddenly the bird flew to the ground, and, so quickly that we did not
+see the movement, the head of the snake was turned over toward her,
+proving that it was the bird, and not us, he was watching. Still she
+kept drawing nearer till she was not more than a foot from him, when our
+sympathy with the unfortunate creature, who apparently was unable to
+tear herself away, overcame our scientific curiosity. "Poor thing,
+she'll be killed! Let us drive her away!" we cried. We picked up small
+stones which we threw toward her; we threatened her with sticks; we
+"shooed" at her with demonstrations that would have quickly driven away
+a robin in possession of its senses. Not a step farther off did she
+move; she hopped one side to avoid our missiles, but instantly fluttered
+back to her doom. Meanwhile her mate appeared upon the scene, hovering
+anxiously about in the trees overhead, but not coming near the snake.
+
+By this time we had lost all interest in the question whether a snake
+can charm a bird to its destruction; we thought only of saving the
+little life in such danger. We looked around for help; my friend ran
+across the street to a house, hurriedly secured the help of a man with a
+heavy stick, and in two minutes the snake lay dead on the ground.
+
+The bird, at once relieved, flew hastily to her nest, showing no signs
+of mental aberration, or any other effect of the strain she had been
+under. The snake was what the man called a "bull snake," and so closely
+resembled the rattler in color and markings that, although its
+exterminator had killed many of the more famous reptiles, he could not
+tell, until it was stretched out in death, which of the two it was. This
+tragedy spoiled the old orchard for me, and never again did I enter its
+gates.
+
+Down the wild rose path I took my way the next morning. Silently and
+quickly I gained my seat of yesterday, hoping to surprise the chat
+family. No doubt my hope was vain; noiseless, indeed, and deft of
+movement must be the human being who could come upon this alert bird
+unawares. He greeted me with a new note, a single clear call, like "ho!"
+Then he proceeded to study me, coming cautiously nearer and nearer, as I
+could see out of the corner of my eye, while pretending to be closely
+occupied with my notebook. His loud notes had ceased, but it is not in
+chat nature to be utterly silent; many low sounds dropped from his beak
+as he approached. Sometimes it was a squawk, a gentle imitation of that
+which rang through the air from the mouth of his spouse; again it was a
+hoarse sort of mewing, followed by various indescribable sounds in the
+same undertone; and then he would suddenly take himself in hand, and be
+perfectly silent for half a minute.
+
+After a little, madam took up the matter, uttering her angry squawk, and
+breaking upon my silence almost like a pistol shot. At once I forgot her
+mate, and though he retired to a little distance and resumed his
+brilliant musical performance, I did not turn my head at his
+beguilements. She was the business partner of the firm whose movements I
+wished to follow. She must, sooner or later, go to her nest, while he
+might deceive me for days. Indeed, I strongly suspected him of that very
+thing, and whenever he became bolder in approaching, or louder and more
+vociferous of tongue, I was convinced that it was to cover her
+operations. I redoubled my vigilance in watching for her, keeping my
+eyes open for any slight stirring of a twig, tremble of a leaf, or quick
+shadow near the ground that should point her out as she skulked to her
+nest. I had already observed that whenever she uttered her squawks he
+instantly burst into energetic shouts and calls. I believed it a
+concerted action, with the intent of drawing my attention from her
+movements.
+
+On this day the disturbed little mother herself interviewed me. First
+she came silently under the green canopy, in plain sight, stood a moment
+before me, jerking up her beautiful long tail and letting it drop slowly
+back, and posing her mobile body in different positions; then suddenly
+flying close past me, she alighted on one side, and stared at me for
+half a dozen seconds. Then, evidently, she resolved to take me in hand.
+She assumed the rôle of deceiver, with all the wariness of her family;
+her object being, as I suppose, carefully to point out where her nest
+was _not_. She circled about me, taking no pains to avoid my gaze. Now
+she squawked on the right; then she acted "the anxious mother" on the
+left; this time it was from the clump of rosebushes in front that she
+rose hurriedly, as if that was her home; again it was from over my head,
+in the chokecherry-tree, that she bustled off, as if she had been
+"caught in the act." It was a brilliant, a wonderful performance, a
+thousand times more effective than trailing or any of the similar
+devices by which an uneasy bird mother draws attention from her brood.
+It was so well done that at each separate manoeuvre I could hardly be
+convinced by my own eyes that the particular spot indicated did not
+conceal the little homestead I was seeking. Several times I rose
+triumphant, feeling sure that "now indeed I _do_ know where it is," and
+proceeded at once to the bush she had pointed out with so much simulated
+reluctance, parted the branches, and looked in, only to find myself
+deceived again. Her acting was marvelous. With just the properly
+anxious, uneasy manner, she would steal behind a clump of leaves into
+some retired spot admirably adapted for a chat's nest, and after a
+moment sneak out at the other side, and fly away near the ground,
+exactly as all bird-students have seen bird mothers do a thousand
+times.
+
+After this performance a silence fell upon the tangle and the solitary
+nook in which I sat,--and I meditated. It was the last day of my stay.
+Should I set up a search for that nest which I was sure was within
+reach? I could go over the whole in half an hour, examine every shrub
+and low tree and inch of ground in it, and doubtless I should find it.
+No; I do not care for a nest thus forced. The distress of parents, the
+panic of nestlings, give me no pleasure. I know how a chat's nest looks.
+I have seen one with its pinky-pearl eggs; why should I care to see
+another? I know how young birds look; I have seen dozens of them this
+very summer. Far better that I never lay eyes upon the nest than to do
+it at such cost.
+
+As I reached this conclusion, into the midst of my silence came the
+steady tramp of a horse. I knew the wild rose path was a favorite
+retreat from the sun, and it was very hot. The path was narrow; if a
+horse came in upon me, he could not turn round and retreat, nor was
+there room for him to pass me. Realizing all this in an instant, I
+snatched up my belongings, and hurried to get out before he should get
+in.
+
+When I emerged, the chat set up his loudest and most triumphant shouts.
+"Again we have fooled you," he seemed to say; "again we have thrown
+your poor human acuteness off the scent! We shall manage to bring up our
+babies in safety, in spite of you!"
+
+So indeed they might, even if I had seen them; but this, alas, I could
+not make him understand. So he treated me--his best friend--exactly as
+he treated the nest-robber and the bird-shooter.
+
+I shall never know whether that nest contained eggs or young birds; or
+whether perchance there was no nest at all, and I had been deceived from
+the first by the most artful and beguiling of birds. And through all
+this I had never once squarely seen the chat I had been following.
+
+ "Even yet thou art to me
+ No bird, but, an invisible thing,
+ A voice, a mystery."
+
+
+
+
+XX.
+
+ON THE LAWN.
+
+
+The first thing that strikes an Eastern bird-student in the Rocky
+Mountain region, as I have already said, is the absence of the birds he
+is familiar with. Instead of the chipping sparrow everywhere, one sees
+the lazuli-painted finch, or the Rocky Mountain bluebird; in place of
+the American robin's song, most common of sounds in country
+neighborhoods on the Atlantic side of the continent, is heard the silver
+bell of the towhee bunting, sometimes called marsh robin, or the harsh
+"chack" of Brewer's blackbird; the music that opens sleepy eyes at
+daybreak is not a chorus of robins and song-sparrows, but the ringing
+notes of the chewink, the clear-cut song of the Western meadow-lark, or
+the labored utterance of the black-headed grosbeak; it is not by the
+melancholy refrain of the whippoorwill or the heavenly hymns of thrushes
+that the approach of night is heralded, but by the cheery trill of the
+house wren or the dismal wail of the Western wood-pewee.
+
+Most of all does the bird-lover miss the thrushes from the feathered
+orchestra. Some of them may dwell in that part of the world,--the books
+affirm it, and I cannot deny it,--but this I know: one whose eye is
+untiring, and whose ear is open night and day to bird-notes, may spend
+May, June, July, yes, and even August, in the haunts of Rocky Mountain
+birds, and not once see or hear either of our choice singing thrushes.
+
+However the student may miss the birds he knows at home, he must rejoice
+in the absence of one,--the English sparrow. When one sees the charming
+purple finch and summer yellow-bird, nesting and singing in the streets
+of Denver, and the bewitching Arkansas goldfinch and the beautiful
+Western bluebird perfectly at home in Colorado Springs, he is reminded
+of what might be in the Eastern cities, if only the human race had not
+interfered with Nature's distribution of her feathered families. In
+Utah, indeed, we meet again the foreigner, for in that unfortunate
+Territory the man, wise in his own conceit, was found to introduce him,
+and Salt Lake, the city of their pride and glory, is as completely
+infested by the feathered tramp as New York itself. Happy is Colorado
+that great deserts form her borders, and that chains of mountains
+separate her from her neighbors; for, since the sparrow is as fond of
+the city as Dr. Johnson, it may be hoped that neither he, nor his
+children, nor his grandchildren, will ever cross the barriers.
+
+In Utah, as everywhere, the English sparrows are sharp-witted rogues,
+and they have discovered and taken possession of the most comfortable
+place for bird quarters to be found, for protection from the terrible
+heat of summer, and the wind and snow of winter; it is between the roof
+and the stone or adobe walls of the houses. Wherever the inequalities of
+the stones or the shrinkage of the wood has left an opening, and made
+penetration possible, there an English sparrow has established a
+permanent abode.
+
+The first bird I noticed in the quiet Mormon village where I settled
+myself to study was a little beauty in blue. I knew him instantly, for I
+had met him before in Colorado. He was dining luxuriously on the
+feathery seeds of a dandelion when I discovered him, and at no great
+distance was his olive-clad mate, similarly engaged. They were
+conversing cheerfully in low tones, and in a few minutes I suppose he
+called her attention to the superior quality of his dandelion; for she
+came to his side, and he at once flew to a neighboring bush and burst
+into song. It was a pretty little ditty, or rather a musical rattle on
+one note, resembling the song of the indigo bird, his near relative.
+
+The lazuli-painted finch should be called the blue-headed finch, for the
+exquisite blueness of his whole head, including throat, breast, and
+shoulders, as if he had been dipped so far into blue dye, is his
+distinguishing feature. The bluebird wears heaven's color; so does the
+jay, and likewise the indigo bird; but not one can boast the lovely and
+indescribable shade, with its silvery reflections, that adorns the
+lazuli. Across the breast, under the blue, is a broad band of chestnut,
+like the breast color of our bluebird, and back of that is white, while
+the wings and tail are dark. Altogether, he is charming to look upon.
+Who would not prefer him about the yard to the squawking house sparrow,
+or even the squabbling chippy?
+
+My catching the pair at dinner was not an accident; I soon found out
+that they lived there, and had settled upon a row of tall raspberry
+bushes that separated the garden from the lawn for their summer home.
+Madam was already at work collecting her building materials, and very
+soon the fragile walls of her pretty nest were formed in an upright
+crotch of the raspberries, about a foot below the top.
+
+Naturally, I was greatly interested in the fairy house building, and
+often inspected the work while the little dame was out of sight. One
+day, however, as I was about to part the branches to look in, I heard
+an anxious "phit," and glanced up to see the owner alight on the lowest
+limb of a peach-tree near by. Of course I turned away at once,
+pretending that I was just passing, and had no suspicion of her precious
+secret in the raspberries, and hoping that she would not mind. But she
+did mind, very seriously; she continued to stand on that branch with an
+aggrieved air, as if life were no longer worth living, now that her home
+was perhaps discovered. Without uttering a sound or moving a muscle, so
+far as I could see, she remained for half an hour before she accepted my
+taking a distant seat and turning my attention to dragonflies as an
+apology, and ventured to visit her nest again. After that I made very
+sure that she was engaged elsewhere before I paid my daily call.
+
+The dragonflies, by the way, were well worth looking at; indeed, they
+divided my interest with the birds. So many and such variety I never
+noticed elsewhere, and they acted exactly like fly-catching birds,
+staying an hour at a time on one perch, from which every now and then
+they sallied out, sweeping the air and returning to the perch they had
+left. Sometimes I saw four or five of them at once, resting on different
+dead twigs in the yard the other side of the lawn, and I have even seen
+one knock a fellow-dragonfly off a favorite perch and take it himself.
+
+They were very beautiful, too: some with wings of transparent white or
+light amber barred off by wide patches of rich dark brown or black;
+others, again, smaller, and all over blue as the lazuli's head; and a
+third of brilliant silver, which sparkled as it flew, as if covered with
+spangles. One alighted there with wings which seemed to be covered with
+a close and intricate design in the most brilliant gold thread. I went
+almost near enough to put my hand on him, and I never saw a more
+gorgeous creature; beside his beautiful wings his back was of old gold,
+coming down in scallops over the black and dark blue under part.
+
+In due time four lovely blue eggs filled the nest of the lazuli, and
+about the middle of June madam began to sit, and I had to be more
+careful than ever in timing my visits.
+
+Some birds approach their nest in a loitering, aimless sort of way, as
+if they had no particular business, in that quarter, and, if they see
+any cause for alarm, depart with an indifferent air that reveals nothing
+of their secret. Not thus the ingenuous lazuli. She showed her anxiety
+every moment; coming in the most businesslike way, and proclaiming her
+errand to the most careless observer, till I thought every boy on the
+street would know where her eggs were to be found. She had a very pretty
+way of going to the nest; indeed, all her manners were winning. She
+always alighted on the peach-tree branch, looked about on all sides,
+especially at me in my seat on the piazza, flirted her tail, uttered an
+anxious "phit," and then jumped off the limb and dived under the bushes
+near the ground. It is to be presumed that she ascended to her nest
+behind the leaves by hopping from twig to twig, though this I could
+never manage to see.
+
+And what of her gay little spouse all this time? Did he spend his days
+cheering her with music, as all the fathers of feathered families are
+fabled to do? Indeed he did not, and until I watched very closely, and
+saw him going about over the poplars in silence, I thought he had left
+the neighborhood. Once in the day he had a good singing time, about five
+o'clock in the morning, two hours before the sun rose over the
+mountains. If one happened to be awake then, he would hear the most
+rapturous song, delivered at the top of his voice, and continuing for a
+long time. But as it grew lighter, and the human world began to stir, he
+became quiet again, and, if he sang at all, he went so far from home
+that I did not hear him.
+
+But the wise little blue-head had not deserted; he was merely cautious.
+Every time that the little sitter went off for food she met him
+somewhere, and he came back with her. Occasionally he took a peep at the
+treasures himself, but he never entered by her roundabout way. He always
+flew directly in from above.
+
+Ten days passed away in this quiet manner, my attention divided between
+the birds, the dragonflies, and the clacking grasshopper, who went
+jerking himself about with a noise like a subdued lawn-mower, giving one
+the impression that his machinery was out of order.
+
+The tenth day of sitting we had a south wind. That does not seem very
+terrible, but a south wind on the shore of the Great Salt Lake is
+something to be dreaded.
+
+ "A wind that is dizzy with whirling play,
+ A dozen winds that have lost their way."
+
+It starts up suddenly, and comes with such force as to snap off the
+leaves of trees, and even the tender twigs of shrubs. As it waxes
+powerful it bends great trees, and tries the strength of roofs and
+chimneys. From the first breath it rolls up tremendous clouds of dust,
+that come and come, and never cease, long after it seems as if every
+particle in that rainless land must have been driven by. It is in the
+"Great Basin," and the south wind is the broom that sweeps it clean. Not
+only dust does the south wind bring, but heat, terrible and
+suffocating, like that of a fiery furnace. Before it the human and the
+vegetable worlds shrink and wither, and birds and beasts are little
+seen.
+
+Such a day was the birthday in the little nest in the raspberries, and
+on my usual morning call I found four featherless birdlings, with beaks
+already yawning for food. Every morning, of course, I looked at the
+babies, but it was not till the eighth day of their life that I found
+their eyes open. Before this they opened their mouths when I jarred the
+nest in parting the branches, thus showing they were not asleep, but did
+not open their eyes, and I was forced to conclude that they were not yet
+unclosed.
+
+Sometimes the daily visit was made under difficulties, and I was
+unpleasantly surprised when I stepped upon the grass of the little lawn
+that I was obliged to cross. The grass looked as usual; the evening
+before we had been sitting upon it. But all night a stream had been
+silently spreading itself upon it, and my hasty step was into water two
+or three inches deep, which swished up in a small fountain and filled a
+low shoe in an instant.
+
+This is one of the idiosyncrasies of irrigation, which it seemed I
+should never get accustomed to, and several times I was obliged to turn
+back for overshoes before I could pay my usual call. A lawn asoak is a
+curious sight, and always reminds me of Lanier's verses,
+
+                               "A thousand rivulets run
+ 'Twixt the roots of the soil; the blades of the marsh grass stir;
+     ... and the currents cease to run,
+     And the sea and the marsh are one."
+
+The morning the lazulis were ten days old, before I came out of the
+house, that happened which so often puts an end to a study of bird
+life,--the nest was torn out of place and destroyed, and the little
+family had disappeared. The particulars will never be known. Whether a
+nest-robbing boy or a hungry cat was the transgressor, and whether the
+nestlings were carried off or eaten, or had happily escaped, who can
+tell? I could only judge by the conduct of the birds themselves, and as
+they did not appear disturbed, and continued to carry food, it is to be
+presumed that part, if not all, of the brood was saved from the wreck of
+their home.
+
+Happily, to console me in my sorrow for this catastrophe, the lazuli was
+not the only bird to be seen on the lawn, though his was the only nest.
+I had for some time been greatly interested in the daily visits of a
+humming-bird, a little dame in green and white, who had taken possession
+of a honeysuckle vine beside the door, claiming the whole as her own,
+and driving away, with squeaky but fierce cries, any other of her race
+who ventured to sip from the coral cups so profusely offered.
+
+The season for humming-birds opened with the locust blossoms next door,
+which were for days a mass of blooms and buzzings, of birds and bees.
+But when the fragrant flowers began to fall and the ground was white
+with them, one bird settled herself on our honeysuckle, and there took
+her daily meals for a month. Being not six feet from where I sat for
+hours every day, I had the first good opportunity of my life to learn
+the ways of one of these queer little creatures in feathers.
+
+After long searching and much overhauling of the books, I made her out
+to be the female broad-tailed humming-bird, who is somewhat larger than
+the familiar ruby-throat of the East. Her mate, if she had one, never
+came to the vine; but whether she drove him away and discouraged him, or
+whether he had an independent source of supply, I never knew. She was
+the only one whose acquaintance I made, and in a month's watching I came
+to know her pretty well.
+
+In one way she differed strikingly from any humming-bird I have seen:
+she alighted, and rested frequently and for long periods. Droll enough
+it looked to see such an atom, such a mere pinch of feathers, conduct
+herself after the fashion of a big bird; to see her wipe that
+needle-like beak, and dress those infinitesimal feathers, combing out
+her head plumage with her minute black claws, running the same useful
+appendages through her long, gauzy-looking wings, and carefully removing
+the yellow pollen of the honeysuckle blooms which stuck to her face and
+throat. Her favorite perch was a tiny dead twig on the lowest branch of
+a poplar-tree, near the honeysuckle. There she spent a long time each
+day, sitting usually, though sometimes she stood on her little wiry
+legs.
+
+But though my humming friend might sit down, there was no repose about
+her; she was continually in motion. Her head turned from side to side,
+as regularly, and apparently as mechanically, as an elephant weaves his
+great head and trunk. Sometimes she turned her attention to me, and
+leaned far over, with her large, dark eyes fixed upon me with interest
+or curiosity. But never was there the least fear in her bearing; she
+evidently considered herself mistress of the place, and reproved me if I
+made the slightest movement, or spoke too much to a neighbor. If she
+happened to be engaged among her honey-pots when a movement was made,
+she instantly jerked herself back a foot or more from the vine, and
+stood upon nothing, as it were, motionless, except the wings, while she
+looked into the cause of the disturbance, and often expressed her
+disapproval of our behavior in squeaky cries.
+
+The toilet of this lilliputian in feathers, performed on her chosen twig
+as it often was, interested me greatly. As carefully as though she were
+a foot or two, instead of an inch or two long, did she clean and put in
+order every plume on her little body, and the work of polishing her beak
+was the great performance of the day. This member was plainly her pride
+and her joy; every part of it, down to the very tip, was scraped and
+rubbed by her claws, with the leg thrown over the wing, exactly as big
+birds do. It was astonishing to see what she could do with her leg. I
+have even seen her pause in mid-air and thrust one over her vibrating
+wing to scratch her head.
+
+Then when the pretty creature was all in beautiful order, her
+emerald-green back and white breast immaculate, when she had shaken
+herself out, and darted out and drawn back many times her long
+bristle-like tongue, she would sometimes hover along before the tips of
+the fence-stakes, which were like laths, held an inch apart by
+wires,--collecting, I suppose, the tiny spiders which were to be found
+there. She always returned to the honeysuckle, however, to finish her
+repast, opening and closing her tail as one flirts a fan, while the
+breeze made by her wings agitated the leaves for two feet around her.
+Should a blossom just ready to fall come off on her beak like a coral
+case, as it sometimes did, she was indignant indeed; she jerked herself
+back and flung it off with an air that was comical to see.
+
+When the hot wind blew, the little creature seemed to feel the
+discomfort that bigger ones did: she sat with open beak as though
+panting for breath; she flew around with legs hanging, and even alighted
+on a convenient leaf or cluster of flowers, while she rifled a blossom,
+standing with sturdy little legs far apart, while stretching up to reach
+the bloom she desired.
+
+Two statements of the books were not true in the case of this bird: she
+did not sit on a twig upright like an owl or a hawk, but held her body
+exactly as does a robin or sparrow; and she did fly backward and
+sideways, as well as forward.
+
+Toward the end of June my tiny visitor began to make longer intervals
+between her calls, and when she did appear she was always in too great
+haste to stop; she passed rapidly over half a dozen blossoms, and then
+flitted away. Past were the days of loitering about on poplar twigs or
+preening herself on the peach-tree. It was plain that she had set up a
+home for herself, and the mussy state of her once nicely kept breast
+feathers told the tale,--she had a nest somewhere. Vainly, however, did
+I try to track her home: she either took her way like an arrow across
+the garden to a row of very tall locusts, where a hundred humming-birds'
+nests might have been hidden, or turned the other way over a neighbor's
+field to a cluster of thickly grown apple-trees, equally impossible to
+search. If she had always gone one way I might have tried to follow, but
+to look for her infinitesimal nest at opposite poles of the earth was
+too discouraging, even if the weather had been cool enough for such
+exertion.
+
+When at last I could endure the wind and the dust and the heat no
+longer, and stood one morning on the porch, waiting for the most
+deliberate of drivers with his carriage to drive me to the station, that
+I might leave Utah altogether, the humming-bird appeared on the scene,
+took a sip or two out of her red cups, flirted her feathers saucily in
+my very face, then darted over the top of the cottage and disappeared;
+and that was the very last glimpse I had of the little dame in green.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX.
+
+
+ Acadian flycatcher, 161.
+
+ Arkansas goldfinch, 23.
+
+ At four o'clock in the morning, 95.
+
+
+ Barbed wire fence, 157.
+
+ Behind the tangle, 246.
+
+ Birds:
+   and poets, 194.
+   a strange song, 73.
+   different ways, 264.
+   hard to study, 20.
+   in Colorado, 18.
+   in Colorado Springs, 260.
+   in Denver, 260.
+   in the "Wrens' Court," 161, 166, 168.
+   leave nesting place, 154.
+   morning chorus, 21, 22, 105.
+   music in Colorado, 32.
+   not on exhibition, 19.
+   not sing alike, 34.
+   panic among, 39.
+   unfamiliar, 23, 259.
+   Utah, 260.
+
+ Black-headed grosbeak, 244, 251.
+   song of, 244.
+
+ Blue jay, 126.
+   and doll, 103.
+   and red-headed woodpecker, 104.
+   apple-tree nest, 151.
+   a struggle, 149.
+   attentive to mate, 127.
+   bad name, 147.
+   devoted mother, 127.
+   eating, 144.
+   getting over the ground, 145.
+   home deserted, 140.
+   interview with, 146.
+   joke or war-cry? 134.
+   manners, 130, 132, 144.
+   my search for nest, 126.
+   no pretense, 130.
+   pine-tree nest, 126.
+   vocabulary, 133.
+   when babies are noisy, 131.
+   with a stranger, 148.
+   with catbirds, 150.
+
+ Blue jay, the young:
+   accident to, 140.
+   beauty of, 143.
+   climber, 141.
+   first outing, 138.
+   imperfect, 152.
+   intelligence in house, 152.
+   on edge of nest, 137.
+   returned to parents, 153.
+
+ Bobolink song, 120.
+
+ Burro an investigator, 89.
+
+
+ Camp Harding, 9.
+
+ Camping in Colorado, 3.
+
+ Cañon wren, the, 74.
+   manners, 86, 87.
+   song, 74.
+
+ Cardinal grosbeak, 107.
+   abandoning the nest, 120.
+   as a father, 113.
+   confidence in people, 121.
+   delight of parents, 123.
+   eating corn, 109, 115.
+   importance of the builder, 119.
+   kindness to young, 117.
+   manners, 107.
+   nest, 122.
+   on grass, 105, 107.
+   politeness to mate, 116.
+   reception of woodpecker, 108.
+   rose trellis nest, 121.
+   speeding the parting guest, 125.
+   victim of English sparrow, 114.
+
+ Cardinal, the young, 113.
+   characteristics, 114.
+   first baby out, 122.
+   food of, 123.
+   song of, 116.
+   training, 116.
+   with sparrows, 114, 115.
+
+ Carolina wren, the great:
+   babies appear, 172.
+   ceremony of approaching, 177.
+   father disturbed, 175.
+   first sight of, 159.
+   fighting a chipmunk, 178.
+   hard to see, 177.
+   interruption to study, 168.
+   manners, 163, 173, 175.
+   mother anxious, 176.
+   nest, 149, 182.
+   song, 162, 164.
+   trailing, 162.
+   "Wrens' Court," 160.
+
+ Carolina wren, the young:
+   cries of, 181.
+   delay in taking flight, 179.
+   development of, 174.
+   first sallies, 180, 181.
+   manners, 178.
+
+ Catbird song, 23.
+
+ Cat on lawn, 112.
+
+ Cedar-tree little folk, 194.
+
+ Charming nook, a, 124.
+
+ Chat, long-tailed, yellow-breasted, 40, 232.
+   alertness of, 240.
+   bewitching, 241.
+   comes in sight, 237.
+   eccentric, 232.
+   egg stolen, 50.
+   farewell, 51.
+   first sight of, 45.
+   hard to study, 47.
+   haunts of, 241.
+   home of, 246.
+   humor, 40.
+   manners, 44, 46, 238, 239, 240.
+   nest, 47, 48.
+   on hand, 245.
+   saucy, 41.
+   secret of invisibility, 239.
+   studies me, 254,
+   triumphant, 257.
+   voice, 40, 43, 45, 236, 237, 239.
+
+ Chat, the madam:
+   interviews me, 255.
+   keeps her mate up to duty, 249.
+   manners, 248.
+   squawks, 254.
+   wonderful acting, 256.
+
+ Chewink, or towhee bunting:
+   babies, 31.
+   green-tailed towhee, 210.
+   husky cry, 30.
+   manners, 28, 29.
+   nest, 30.
+   song, 29.
+
+ Cheyenne Cañon, 15.
+   solitary possession of, 75.
+
+ Cheyenne Mountain, 43.
+
+ Chipmunk, 78.
+
+ Cinderella among the flowers, a, 60.
+
+ Cliff-dwellers in the cañon, 70.
+
+ Colorado, a restful way to see, 13.
+   the wonderland, 14.
+
+ Cotton storm, a, 17.
+
+ Cottonwoods, in the, 17.
+
+ Cuckoo, 157, 231.
+
+
+ Doll as a bogy, 103.
+
+ Dragonflies in Utah, 263.
+
+
+ English or house sparrow:
+   as a climber, 110.
+   autocrat, 129.
+   in Utah, 261.
+   robbing blackbirds, 100.
+   robbing red-headed woodpecker, 110.
+
+
+ Feast of flowers, the, 52.
+
+ Flicker a character, 106.
+
+ Flowers:
+   abundance of bloom, 54.
+   anemone, 61.
+   cactus, 56, 62, 74.
+   castilleia, 67.
+   cleome, 67.
+   columbine, 58, 67.
+   cyclamen, 67.
+   extermination by cattle, 208.
+   extermination by tourists, 68.
+   geranium, 58.
+   gilia, 64.
+   golden prince's feather, 65.
+   gummy and clinging stems, 66.
+   harebells, 67.
+   in a niche, 73.
+   in Kansas, 52.
+   mariposa lily, 65.
+   mentzelia, 60.
+   mertensia, 67.
+   Mexican poppy, 62.
+   milky juice, 66.
+   moccasin plant, 54, 75.
+   nasturtium, self-willed, 149.
+   ox-eye daisy, 66.
+   painter of, 68.
+   paradise of, 53.
+   pentstemon, 58.
+   pink stranger, 62.
+   primrose, 58, 67.
+   roses, 58, 63, 75.
+   spiderwort, 52.
+   symphony in green, 55.
+   varieties, 53, 57.
+   vetches, 67.
+   wild garden, 57.
+   wild mignonette, 62.
+   yellow daisies, 52.
+   yucca, 55, 62.
+
+
+ Gates, idiosyncrasies of, 220.
+
+ Getting up in the morning, 95.
+
+ Glen, a beautiful, 155.
+   frightened out of, 169.
+
+ Grasshopper, a clacking, 266.
+
+ Grave of "H. H.," 90, 91.
+
+ Great-crested flycatcher, 167.
+
+ Gull, the herring, 211.
+   following the plow, 213.
+   flight, 215.
+   manners, 213.
+   nesting, 216.
+   nooning, 215.
+   penalty for killing, 212.
+   sent to the "Chosen People," 212.
+   value of, 216.
+
+
+ Horned lark:
+   horns, 36.
+   nest, 36.
+   song, 35.
+
+ Horse, a scared, and result, 228.
+   drive me away, 257.
+
+ House wren, the Western, 24.
+   babies, 27, 28.
+   disturbed, 27.
+   manners, 24.
+   nest, 25.
+   song, 27.
+   strange cry, 25.
+
+ Humming-bird:
+   collecting spiders, 271.
+   different from the Eastern, 38.
+   dislike of heat, 272.
+   in cañon, 76.
+   last glimpse, 273.
+   manners, 269.
+   nesting, 272.
+   noisy, 38.
+   precious beak, 271.
+   scolding, 42.
+   surveillance, 40.
+   the broad-tailed, 268.
+   toilet of, 271.
+
+
+ Ideal retreat, an, 247.
+
+ In a pasture, 207.
+
+ In the Middle Country, 93.
+
+ In the Rocky Mountains, 1.
+
+ Irrigation vagaries, 242, 245, 267.
+
+
+ Kansas, 7.
+
+ Kitchen, an al fresco, 243.
+
+ Kitten, a lost, 39.
+
+
+ Lazuli-painted finch, 261.
+   anxiety of mother, 263.
+   babies, 267.
+   manners, 262, 265.
+   nest, 262.
+   nest destroyed, 268.
+
+
+ Magpie:
+   discover us, 225.
+   manners, 216, 219, 224.
+   nest, 223.
+   nursery, 230.
+   reception to us, 227.
+   search for nest, 216.
+   song, 224.
+
+ Meadow-lark, the Western, 249.
+   cry, 120.
+   song, 24, 32, 34.
+
+ Morning tramp, a, 156.
+
+ Mosquito, absence of, 20.
+   a lonely, 21.
+
+ Mourning dove, 103.
+   headquarters, 199.
+   joke of, 200.
+   manners, 196, 198, 199.
+   nest, 198.
+   silence of, 201, 204.
+   song, 195, 204.
+   talk, 204.
+   wing whistle, 204.
+   young, interview with, 201.
+   young, manners of, 197, 201.
+
+
+ Oak-brush, the, 222.
+
+ On the lawn, 259.
+
+ Orchard, an old, 250.
+
+ Orchard oriole:
+   a later view, 191.
+   anxiety of parents, 185.
+   baby cries, 186.
+   babies' first flight, 189, 190.
+   call from a Baltimore, 188.
+   called by nestlings, 184.
+   manners, 186, 190.
+   nest, 184, 192.
+   song of female, 191.
+   song of male, 192.
+
+
+ Park, a deserted, 42.
+
+ Pewee, Western wood, 22.
+   nest, 38.
+   song, 22, 37.
+   voice, 37.
+
+ Purple grackle, the, 96.
+   discouraging them, 104.
+   eating, 100.
+   greeting to me, 97.
+   husky tones, 98.
+   humor, 99.
+   no repose of manner, 101.
+   plumage, 99.
+   robbed by sparrows, 100.
+   strange utterances, 98.
+   treatment of young, 101.
+   young, 98, 101, 102.
+   young, persistence of, 102.
+
+
+ Red-headed woodpecker:
+   autocrat, 106.
+   eating corn, 109.
+   protecting the place, 110.
+   treatment of cardinal grosbeak, 108.
+   treatment of doll, 104.
+
+ Rest, to find, 3, 4, 5, 6, 11.
+
+ Robin, absence of, 28.
+   and corn, 103.
+   and doll, 103.
+   not plentiful, 250.
+   reception of snake, 250.
+
+ Rocky Mountains:
+   a pasture on, 207.
+   Cheyenne range, 235.
+   Wasatch range, 233, 234.
+
+
+ Sage-bush, 233.
+
+ Sage the delight of my friend, 234.
+
+ Salt Lake, view of, 218.
+
+ Secret of the Wild Rose Path, 231.
+
+ Seven Sisters' Falls, 72.
+
+ Sight-seeing travelers, 12.
+
+ South wind, 266.
+
+ Strange character of feathered world, 128.
+
+ Strangers not allowed, 129.
+
+ Study of birds, my way, 226.
+
+ Study of birds, two ways, 236.
+
+
+ Tents to live in, 11.
+
+ Thrushes absent, 260.
+
+ Tourist, 89, 91.
+
+ Tourist, the unscrupulous, 68.
+
+ Towhee (see Chewink).
+
+ Tragedy of a nest, 42.
+
+
+ Uproar of song, an, 32.
+
+
+ Vagaries of name-givers, 160.
+
+ View, a beautiful, 136.
+
+
+ Walks from the camp, 70.
+   the evening, 70.
+   the morning, 72.
+   up to the cañon, 72.
+
+ Water ouzel, or American dipper:
+   baby, 80, 85.
+   cry, 79.
+   "dipping," 80.
+   feats in the water, 83.
+   manners, 80, 81.
+   nest, 77.
+   song, 79, 81.
+   the mother, 82.
+
+ Wood-thrush nest, 168.
+
+
+ Yellow warbler:
+   nest, 36, 37.
+   song, 23, 36.
+
+
+
+
+    +----------------------------------------------+
+    |             Transcriber's Note:              |
+    |                                              |
+    | Letters with a macron above are represented  |
+    | by [=x].                                     |
+    |                                              |
+    | Typographical errors corrected in the text:  |
+    |                                              |
+    | Page  72  standstone changed to sandstone    |
+    | Page 153  Word "to" added before "one side"  |
+    | Page 250  cooes changed to coos              |
+    | Page 277  " added to "Wrens' Court,          |
+    +----------------------------------------------+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Bird-Lover in the West, by 
+Olive Thorne Miller and Harriet Mann Miller
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+
+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Bird-Lover in the West, by 
+Olive Thorne Miller and Harriet Mann Miller
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: A Bird-Lover in the West
+
+Author: Olive Thorne Miller
+        Harriet Mann Miller
+
+Release Date: January 27, 2009 [EBook #27902]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A BIRD-LOVER IN THE WEST ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Stephen Hope, Barbara Kosker, Joseph Cooper
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<h1> A BIRD-LOVER IN THE WEST</h1>
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<h4> BY</h4>
+
+<h2> OLIVE THORNE MILLER</h2>
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<h5>BOSTON AND NEW YORK<br />
+ HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY<br />
+ The Riverside Press, Cambridge<br />
+ 1900</h5>
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+
+<h5>Copyright, 1894,<br />
+By H. M. MILLER.<br />
+<br />
+<i>All rights reserved.</i></h5>
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<h5><i>The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A.</i><br />
+Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton &amp; Co.</h5>
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<hr />
+<br />
+<h2>INTRODUCTORY.</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>The studies in this volume were all made, as the title indicates, in the
+West; part of them in Colorado (1891), in Utah (1893), and the remainder
+(1892) in what I have called "The Middle Country," being Southern Ohio,
+and West only relatively to New England and New York, where most of my
+studies have been made.</p>
+
+<p>Several chapters have appeared in the "Atlantic Monthly" and other
+magazines, and in the "Independent" and "Harper's Bazar," while others
+are now for the first time published.</p>
+
+
+<p class="right">OLIVE THORNE MILLER.</p>
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<hr /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[Pg v]</a></span>
+<br />
+<h2>CONTENTS.</h2>
+
+<div class="centered">
+<table border="0" width="80%" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="Table of Contents">
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdc" colspan="4">IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" width="8%">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdl" width="5%">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdl" width="79%">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdr" width="8%"><span style="font-size: 80%;">PAGE</span></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 0.5em;"><a href="#I">I.</a></td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Camping in Colorado</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr">3</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 0.5em;"><a href="#II">II.</a></td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">In the Cottonwoods</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr">17</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">&nbsp;</span></td>
+  <td class="tdl">Western wood-pewee. <i>Contopus richardsonii.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdr">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">&nbsp;</span></td>
+  <td class="tdl">Western house wren. <i>Troglodytes a&euml;don aztecus.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdr">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">&nbsp;</span></td>
+  <td class="tdl">Towhee. <i>Pipilo erythrophthalmus.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdr">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 0.5em;"><a href="#III">III.</a></td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">An Uproar of Song</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr">32</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">&nbsp;</span></td>
+  <td class="tdl">Western meadow-lark. <i>Sturnella magna neglecta.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdr">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">&nbsp;</span></td>
+  <td class="tdl">Horned lark. <i>Otocoris alpestris leucol&aelig;ma.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdr">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">&nbsp;</span></td>
+  <td class="tdl">Yellow warbler. <i>Dendroica &aelig;stiva.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdr">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">&nbsp;</span></td>
+  <td class="tdl">Western wood-pewee. <i>Contopus richardsonii.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdr"></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">&nbsp;</span></td>
+  <td class="tdl">Humming-bird. <i> Trochilus colubris.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdr">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">&nbsp;</span></td>
+  <td class="tdl">Long-tailed chat. <i>Icteria virens longicauda.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdr">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 0.5em;"><a href="#IV">IV.</a></td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">The Tragedy of a Nest</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr">42</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">&nbsp;</span></td>
+  <td class="tdl">Long-tailed chat. <i>Icteria virens longicauda.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdr"></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 0.5em;"><a href="#V">V.</a></td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">A Feast of Flowers</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr">52</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 0.5em;"><a href="#VI">VI.</a></td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">A Cinderella among Flowers</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr">60</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 0.5em;"><a href="#VII">VII.</a></td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Cliff-Dwellers in the Ca&ntilde;on</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr">70</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">&nbsp;</span></td>
+  <td class="tdl">Ca&ntilde;on wren. <i>Catherpes mexicanus conspersus.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdr">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">&nbsp;</span></td>
+  <td class="tdl">American dipper. <i>Cinclus mexicanus.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdr">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="4">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdc" colspan="4">IN THE MIDDLE COUNTRY.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[Pg vi]</a></span></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 0.5em;"><a href="#VIII">VIII.</a></td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">At Four O'Clock in the Morning</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr">95</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">&nbsp;</span></td>
+  <td class="tdl">Purple grackle. <i>Quiscalus quiscula.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdr">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">&nbsp;</span></td>
+  <td class="tdl">Mourning dove. <i>Zenaidura macroura.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdr">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">&nbsp;</span></td>
+  <td class="tdl">Red-headed woodpecker. <i>Melanerpes erythrocephalus.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdr">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">&nbsp;</span></td>
+  <td class="tdl">Blue jay. <i>Cyanocitta cristata.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdr">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">&nbsp;</span></td>
+  <td class="tdl">Cardinal grosbeak. <i>Cardinalis cardinalis.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdr">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">&nbsp;</span></td>
+  <td class="tdl">American robin. <i>Merula migratoria.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdr">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">&nbsp;</span></td>
+  <td class="tdl">Golden-wing woodpecker. <i>Colaptes auratus.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdr">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">&nbsp;</span></td>
+  <td class="tdl">House sparrow. <i>Passer domesticus.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdr">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 0.5em;"><a href="#IX">IX.</a></td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">The Little Redbirds</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr">113</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">&nbsp;</span></td>
+  <td class="tdl">Cardinal grosbeak. <i>Cardinalis cardinalis.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdr">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">&nbsp;</span></td>
+  <td class="tdl">House sparrow. <i>Passer domesticus.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdr">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 0.5em;"><a href="#X">X.</a></td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">The Cardinal's Nest</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr">119</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">&nbsp;</span></td>
+  <td class="tdl">Cardinal grosbeak. <i>Cardinalis cardinalis.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdr">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">&nbsp;</span></td>
+  <td class="tdl">Bobolink. <i>Dolichonyx oryzivorus.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdr">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">&nbsp;</span></td>
+  <td class="tdl">Meadow-lark. <i>Sturnella magna.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdr">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 0.5em;"><a href="#XI">XI.</a></td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Little Boy Blue</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr">126</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">&nbsp;</span></td>
+  <td class="tdl">Blue jay. <i>Cyanocitta cristata.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdr">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 0.5em;"><a href="#XII">XII.</a></td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Story of the Nestlings</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr">136</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">&nbsp;</span></td>
+  <td class="tdl">Blue jay. <i>Cyanocitta cristata.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdr">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 0.5em;"><a href="#XIII">XIII.</a></td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Blue Jay Manners</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr">144</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">&nbsp;</span></td>
+  <td class="tdl">Blue jay. <i>Cyanocitta cristata.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdr">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 0.5em;"><a href="#XIV">XIV.</a></td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">The Great Carolinian</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr">154</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">&nbsp;</span></td>
+  <td class="tdl">Great Carolina wren. <i>Thryothorus ludovicianus.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdr">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">&nbsp;</span></td>
+  <td class="tdl">Yellow-billed cuckoo. <i>Coccyzus americanus.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdr">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">&nbsp;</span></td>
+  <td class="tdl">Crested flycathcer. <i>Myiarchus crinitus.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdr">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 0.5em;"><a href="#XV">XV.</a></td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">The Wrenlings Appear</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr">172</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">&nbsp;</span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span></td>
+  <td class="tdl">Great Carolina wren. <i>Thryothorus ludovicianus.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdr">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 0.5em;"><a href="#XVI">XVI.</a></td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">The Apple-tree Nest</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr">183</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">&nbsp;</span></td>
+  <td class="tdl">Orchard oriole. <i>Icterus spurius.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdr">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 0.5em;"><a href="#XVII">XVII.</a></td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Cedar-tree Little Folk</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr">194</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">&nbsp;</span></td>
+  <td class="tdl">Mourning dove. <i>Zenaidura macroura.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdr">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="4">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdc" colspan="4">BESIDE THE GREAT SALT LAKE.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 0.5em;"><a href="#XVIII">XVIII.</a></td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">In a Pasture</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr">207</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">&nbsp;</span></td>
+  <td class="tdl">Louisiana tanager <i>Piranga ludoviciana.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdr">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">&nbsp;</span></td>
+  <td class="tdl">Green-tailed towhee. <i>Pipilo chlorurus.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdr">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">&nbsp;</span></td>
+  <td class="tdl">Magppie. <i>Pica pica hudsonica.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdr">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 0.5em;"><a href="#XIX">XIX.</a></td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">The Secret of the Wild Rose Path</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr">231</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">&nbsp;</span></td>
+  <td class="tdl">Long-tailed chat. <i>Icteria virens longicauda.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdr">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">&nbsp;</span></td>
+  <td class="tdl">Western robin. <i>Merula migratoria propinqua.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdr">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">&nbsp;</span></td>
+  <td class="tdl">Black-headed grosbeak. <i>Habia melanocephala.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdr">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 0.5em;"><a href="#XX">XX.</a></td>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">On the Lawn</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr">259</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">&nbsp;</span></td>
+  <td class="tdl">Lazuli-painted finch. <i>Passerina am&oelig;na.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdr">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">&nbsp;</span></td>
+  <td class="tdl">Broad-tailed humming-bird. <i>Trochilus platycercus.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdr">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">&nbsp;</span></td>
+  <td class="tdl">House sparrow. <i>Passer domesticus.</i></td>
+  <td class="tdr">&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+<br />
+<br />
+<br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[Pg viii]</a></span>
+<br />
+
+<hr /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[Pg ix]</a></span>
+<a name="Page_1" id="Page_1"></a><br />
+<h2>IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.</h2>
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<p class="noin">
+<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">Trust me, 't is something to be cast</span><br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[Pg x]</a></span>
+<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">Face to face with one's self at last,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">To be taken out of the fuss and strife,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">The endless clatter of plate and knife,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 11.5em;">The bore of books, and the bores of the street,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">From the singular mess we agree to call Life.</span></p><br />
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 11.5em;">And to be set down on one's own two feet</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">So nigh to the great warm heart of God,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 11.5em;">You almost seem to feel it beat</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">Down from the sunshine and up from the sod;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 11.5em;">To be compelled, as it were, to notice</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">All the beautiful changes and chances</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">Through which the landscape flits and glances,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 12.5em;">And to see how the face of common day</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 12.5em;">Is written all over with tender histories.</span></p>
+
+<p style="margin-left: 17.5em;"><span class="smcap">James Russell Lowell.</span></p>
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<hr /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span>
+<br />
+<h2>A BIRD-LOVER IN THE WEST.</h2>
+<br />
+<br /><a name="I" id="I"></a>
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<hr />
+<br />
+<h2>I.</h2>
+
+<h2>CAMPING IN COLORADO.</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>This chronicle of happy summer days with the birds and the flowers, at
+the foot of the Rocky Mountains, begins in the month of May, in the year
+eighteen hundred and ninety-two.</p>
+
+<p>As my train rolled quietly out of Jersey City late at night, I uttered a
+sigh of gratitude that I was really off; that at last I could rest. Up
+to the final moment I had been hurried and worried, but the instant I
+was alone, with my "section" to myself, I "took myself in hand," as is
+my custom.</p>
+
+<p>At the risk of seeming to stray very far from my subject, I want at this
+point to say something about rest, the greatly desired state that all
+busy workers are seeking, with such varying success.</p>
+
+<p>A really re-creative recreation I sought for years, and</p>
+
+<p class="noin">
+<span style="margin-left: 12.5em;">"I've found some wisdom in my quest</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 12.7em;">That's richly worth retailing,"</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noin"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span>and that cannot be too often repeated, or too urgently insisted upon.
+What is imperatively needed, the sole and simple secret of rest, is
+this: To go to our blessed mother Nature, and to go with the whole
+being, mind and heart as well as body. To deposit one's physical frame
+in the most secret and sacred "garden of delights," and at the same time
+allow the mind to be filled, and the thoughts to be occupied, with the
+concerns of the world we live in year after year, is utterly useless;
+for it is not the external, but the internal man that needs recreation;
+it is not the body, but the spirit that demands refreshment and relief
+from the wearing cares of our high-pressure lives. "It is of no use,"
+says a thoughtful writer, "to carry my body to the woods, unless I get
+there myself."</p>
+
+<p>Let us consult the poets, our inspired teachers, on this subject. Says
+Lowell,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="noin">
+<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">"In June 't is good to lie beneath a tree</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">While the blithe season comforts every sense,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">Steeps all the brain in rest, and heals the heart,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">Brimming it o'er with sweetness unawares,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">Fragrant and silent as that rosy snow</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">Wherewith the pitying apple-tree fills up</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">And tenderly lines some last-year's robin's nest."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>And our wise Emerson, in his strong and wholesome, if sometimes rugged
+way,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="noin">
+<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">"Quit thy friends as the dead in doom,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">And build to them a final tomb.</span></p><br />
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">Behind thee leave thy merchandise,</span><br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span>
+<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">Thy churches and thy charities.</span></p><br />
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">Enough for thee the primal mind</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">That flows in streams&mdash;that breathes in wind."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Even the gentle Wordsworth, too; read his exquisite sonnet, beginning,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="noin">
+<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">"The world is too much with us; late and soon,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>All recognize that it is a mental and spiritual change that is needed.</p>
+
+<p>With the earnest desire of suggesting to tired souls a practicable way
+of resting, I will even give a bit of personal history; I will tell the
+way in which I have learned to find recreation in nature.</p>
+
+<p>When I turn my back upon my home, I make a serious and determined effort
+to leave behind me all cares and worries. As my train, on that beautiful
+May evening, passed beyond the brick and stone walls, and sped into the
+open country, and I found myself alone with night, I shook off, as well
+as I was able, all my affairs, all my interests, all my
+responsibilities, leaving them in that busy city behind me, where a few
+burdens more or less would not matter to anybody. With my trunks
+checked, and my face turned toward the far-off Rocky Mountains, I left
+the whole work-a-day world behind me, departing&mdash;so far as possible&mdash;a
+liberated <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span>soul, with no duties excepting to rejoice and to recruit.
+This is not an easy thing to do; it is like tearing apart one's very
+life; but it can be done by earnest endeavor, it has been done, and it
+is a charm more potent than magic to bring restoration and recreation to
+the brain and nerve-weary worker.</p>
+
+<p>To insure any measure of success I always go alone; one familiar face
+would make the effort of no avail; and I seek a place where I am a
+stranger, so that my ordinary life cannot be recalled to me. When I
+reach my temporary home I forget, or at least ignore, my notions as to
+what I shall eat or drink, or how I shall sleep. I take the goods the
+gods provide, and adjust myself to them. Even these little things help
+one out of his old ways of thought and life. To still further banish
+home concerns, I mark upon my calendar one week before the day I shall
+start for home, and sternly resolve that not until I reach that day will
+I give one thought to my return, but will live as though I meant to stay
+always. I take no work of any sort, and I banish books, excepting a few
+poets and studies of nature.</p>
+
+<p>Such is the aim of my honest and earnest striving; that I do not quite
+reach my goal is merely to say I am human. Letters from home and friends
+will drag me back to old interests, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span>and times will come, in sleepless
+nights and unguarded moments, when the whole world of old burdens and
+cares sweep in and overwhelm me. But I rouse my will, and resolutely,
+with all my power, push them back, refuse to entertain them for a
+moment.</p>
+
+<p>The result, even under these limitations, is eminently satisfactory.
+Holding myself in this attitude of mind, I secure a change almost as
+complete as if I stepped out of my body and left it resting, while I
+refreshed myself at the fountain of life. A few weeks in the country
+make me a new being; all my thoughts are turned into fresh channels; the
+old ruts are smoothed over, if not obliterated; nerves on the strain all
+the year have a chance to recreate themselves; old worries often weaken
+and fade away.</p>
+
+<p>The morning after I left home that balmy evening in May dawned upon me
+somewhere in western New York, and that beautiful day was passed in
+speeding through the country, and steadily getting farther and farther
+from work and care.</p>
+
+<p>And so I went on, day after day, night after night, till I entered
+Kansas, which was new to me. By that time I had succeeded in banishing
+to the farthest corner of my memory, behind closed and locked doors, all
+the anxieties, all the perplexities and problems, all the concerns, in
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span>fact, of my home life. I was like a newly created soul, fresh and eager
+to see and enjoy everything. I refused the morning papers; I wished to
+forget the world of strife and crime, and to get so into harmony with
+the trees and flowers, the brooks and the breezes, that I would realize
+myself</p>
+
+<p class="cen">
+"Kith and kin to every wild-born thing that thrills and blows."
+</p>
+
+<p>In one word, I wished as nearly as possible to walk abroad out of my
+hindering body of clay.</p>
+
+<p>I looked out of the windows to see what the Cyclone State had to give
+me. It offered flowers and singing birds, broad fields of growing grain,
+and acres of rich black soil newly turned up to the sun. Everything was
+fresh and perfect, as if just from the hands of its maker; it seemed the
+paradise of the farmer.</p>
+
+<p>From the fertile fields and miles of flowers the train passed to bare,
+blossomless earth; from rich soil to rocks; from Kansas to Colorado.
+That part of the State which appeared in the morning looked like a vast
+body of hardly dry mud, with nothing worth mentioning growing upon it.
+Each little gutter had worn for itself a deep channel with precipitous
+sides, and here and there a great section had sunken, as though there
+was no solid foundation. Soon, however, the land showed inclination to
+draw itself up into hills, tiny ones with sharp peaks, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span>as though
+preparing for mountains. Before long they retreated to a distance and
+grew bigger, and at last, far off, appeared the mountains, overtopping
+all one great white peak, the</p>
+
+<p class="cen">
+"Giver of gold, king of eternal hills."
+</p>
+
+<p>A welcome awaited me in the summer home of a friend at Colorado Springs,
+in the presence of the great Cheyenne Range, with the snow-cap of Pike's
+Peak ever before me. Four delightful days I gave to friendship, and then
+I sought and found a perfect nook for rest and study, in a cottonwood
+grove on the banks of the Minnelowan (or Shining Water). This is a mad
+Colorado stream which is formed by the junction of the North and South
+Cheyenne Ca&ntilde;on brooks, and comes tumbling down from the Cheyenne,
+rushing and roaring as if it had the business of the world on its
+shoulders, and must do it man-fashion, with confusion and noise enough
+to drown all other sounds.</p>
+
+<p>Imagine a pretty, one-story cottage, set down in a grove of
+cottonwood-trees, with a gnarly oak and a tall pine here and there, to
+give it character, and surrounded as a hen by her chickens, by tents,
+six or eight in every conceivable position, and at every possible angle
+except a right angle. Add to this picture the sweet voices of birds, and
+the music of water rushing and hurrying over the stones; let your
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span>glance take in on one side the grand outlines of Cheyenne Mountain,</p>
+
+<p class="noin">
+<span style="margin-left: 13.5em;">"Made doubly sacred by the poet's pen</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 13.5em;">And poet's grave,"</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noin">and on the other the rest of the range, overlooked by Pike's Peak,
+fourteen thousand feet higher than the streets of New York. Do this, and
+you will come as near to realizing Camp Harding as one can who is
+hundreds of miles away and has never seen a Colorado camp.</p>
+
+<p>Do not think, however, that such camps are common, even in that land of
+outdoors, where tents are open for business in the streets of the towns,
+and where every householder sets up his own canvas in his yard, for the
+invalids to sleep in, from June to November. The little settlement of
+tents was an evolution, the gradual growth of the tent idea in the mind
+of one comfort-loving woman. She went there seven or eight years before,
+bought a grove under the shadow of Cheyenne, put up a tent, and passed
+her first summer thus. The next year, and several years thereafter, she
+gradually improved her transient abode in many ways that her womanly
+taste suggested,&mdash;as a wooden floor, a high base-board, partitions of
+muslin or cretonne, door and windows of wire gauze. The original
+dwelling thus step by step grew to a framed and rough-plastered house,
+with doors and windows <i>en r&egrave;gle</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span>Grouped picturesquely around the house, however, were some of the most
+unique abiding-places in Colorado. On the outside they were permanent
+tents with wooden foundations; on the inside they were models of
+comfort, with regular beds and furniture, rugs on the floor, gauzy
+window curtains, drapery wardrobes, and even tiny stoves for cool
+mornings and evenings. They combined the comforts of a house with the
+open air and delightful freshness of a tent, where one might hear every
+bird twitter, and see the dancing leaf shadows in the moonlight. Over
+the front platform the canvas cover extended to form an awning, and a
+wire-gauze door, in addition to one of wood, made them airy or snug as
+the weather demanded.</p>
+
+<p>The restfulness craved by the weary worker was there to be had for both
+soul and body, if one chose to take it. One might swing in a hammock all
+day, and be happy watching "the clouds that cruise the sultry sky"&mdash;a
+sky so blue one never tires of it; or beside the brook he might "lie
+upon its banks, and dream himself away to some enchanted ground." Or he
+might study the ever-changing aspect of the mountains,&mdash;their dreamy,
+veiled appearance, with the morning sun full upon them; their deep
+violet blueness in the evening, with the sun behind them, and the
+mystery of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span>moonlight, which "sets them far off in a world of their
+own," as tender and unreal as mountains in a dream.</p>
+
+<p>He <i>might</i> do all these things, but he is far more likely to become
+excited, and finally bewitched by guide-books, and photographs, and talk
+all about him of this or that ca&ntilde;on, this or that pass, the Garden of
+the Gods, Manitou, the Seven Sisters' Falls, the grave of "H. H.;" and
+unless a fool or a philosopher, before he knows it to be in the full
+swing of sight-seeing, and becoming learned in the ways of burros, the
+"Ship of the Rockies," so indispensable, and so common that even the
+babies take to them.</p>
+
+<p>This traveler will climb peaks, and drive over nerve-shaking roads, a
+steep wall on one side and a frightful precipice on the other; he will
+toil up hundreds of steps, and go quaking down into mines; he will look,
+and admire, and tremble, till sentiment is worn to threads, purse
+depleted, and body and mind alike a wreck. For this sort of a traveler
+there is no rest in Colorado; there always remains another mountain to
+thrill him, another ca&ntilde;on to rhapsodize over; to one who is greedy of
+"sights," the tameness of Harlem, or the mud flats of Canarsie, will
+afford more rest.</p>
+
+<p>For myself I can always bear to be near <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span>sights without seeing them. I
+believed what I heard&mdash;never were such grand mountains! never such
+soul-stirring views! never such hairbreadth roads! I believed&mdash;and
+stayed in my cottonwood grove content. I knew how it all looked; did I
+not peer down into one ca&ntilde;on, holding my breath the while? and, with
+slightly differing arrangement of rocks and pine-trees and brooks, are
+not all ca&ntilde;ons the same? Did I not gaze with awe at the "trail to the
+grave of H. H.," and watch, without envy, the sight-seeing tourist
+struggle with its difficulties? Could I not supply myself with
+photographs, and guide-books, and poems, and "H. H.'s" glowing words,
+and picture the whole scene? I could, I did, and to me Colorado was a
+delightful place of rest, with mountain air that it was a luxury to
+breathe (after the machinery adjusted itself to the altitude), with
+glorious sunshine every morning, with unequaled nights of coolness, and
+a new flower or two for every day of the month.</p>
+
+<p>If to "see Colorado" one must ascend every peak, toil through every
+ca&ntilde;on, cast the eyes on every waterfall, shudder over each precipice,
+wonder at each eccentric rock, drink from every spring, then I have not
+seen America's Wonderland. But if to steep my spirit in the beauty of
+its mountains so that they shall henceforth <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span>be a part of me; to inhale
+its enchanting air till my body itself seemed to have wings; if to paint
+in my memory its gorgeous procession of flowers, its broad mesa crowned
+with the royal blossoms of the yucca, its cosy cottonwood groves, its
+brooks rushing between banks of tangled greenery; if this is to "see
+Colorado," then no one has ever seen it more thoroughly.</p>
+
+<p>The "symphony in yellow and red," which "H. H." calls this wonderland,
+grows upon the sojourner in some mysterious way, till by the time he has
+seen the waxing and waning of one moon he is an enthusiast. It is
+charming alike to the sight-seer whose jaded faculties pine for new and
+thrilling emotions, to the weary in brain and body who longs only for
+peace and rest, and to the invalid whose every breath is a pain at home.
+To the lover of flowers it is an exhaustless panorama of beauty and
+fragrance, well worth crossing the continent to enjoy; to the mountain
+lover it offers endless attractions.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing is more fascinating to the stranger in Colorado than the
+formation of its ca&ntilde;ons, not only the grand ones running up into the
+heart of the mountains, but the lesser ones cutting into the high
+table-land, or mesa, at the foot of the hills. The above mentioned
+cottonwood grove, for example, with its dozen of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span>dwellings and a
+natural park of a good many acres above it, with tall pines that bear
+the marks of age, is so curiously hidden that one may come almost upon
+it without seeing it. It is reached from Colorado Springs by an electric
+road which runs along the mesa south of the town. As the car nears the
+end of the line, one begins to look around for the grove. Not a tree is
+in sight; right and left as far as can be seen stretches the treeless
+plain to the foot of the eternal hills; not even the top of a tall pine
+thrusts itself above the dead level. Before you is Cheyenne&mdash;grim,
+glorious, but impenetrable. The conductor stops. "This is your place,"
+he says. You see no place; you think he must be mistaken.</p>
+
+<p>"But where is Camp Harding?" you ask. He points to an obscure
+path&mdash;"trail" he calls it&mdash;which seems to throw itself over an edge. You
+approach that point, and there, to your wonder and your surprise, at
+your feet nestles the loveliest of smiling ca&ntilde;on-like valleys, filled
+with trees, aspen, oak, and pine, with here and there a tent or red roof
+gleaming through the green, and a noisy brook hurrying on its way
+downhill. By a steep scramble you reach the lower level, birds singing,
+flowers tempting on every side, and the picturesque, narrow trail
+leading you on, around the ledge of rock, over <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span>the rustic bridge, till
+you reach the back entrance of the camp. Before it, up the narrow
+valley, winds a road, the carriage-way to the Cheyenne ca&ntilde;ons.</p>
+<br />
+<br /><a name="II" id="II"></a>
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<hr /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span>
+<br />
+<h2>II.</h2>
+
+<h2>IN THE COTTONWOODS.</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>A cottonwood grove is the nearest approach to our Eastern rural
+districts to be found in Colorado, and a cotton storm, looking exactly
+like a snowstorm, is a common sight in these groves. The white, fluffy
+material grows in long bunches, loosely attached to stems, and the fibre
+is very short. At the lightest breeze that stirs the branches, tiny bits
+of it take to flight, and one tree will shed cotton for weeks. It clings
+to one's garments; it gets into the houses, and sticks to the carpets,
+often showing a trail of white footprints where a person has come in; it
+clogs the wire-gauze screens till they keep out the air as well as the
+flies; it fills the noses and the eyes of men and beasts. But its most
+curious effect is on the plants and flowers, to which it adheres, being
+a little gummy. Some flowers look as if they were encased in ice, and
+others seem wrapped in the gauziest of veils, which, flimsy as it looks,
+cannot be completely cleared from the leaves.</p>
+
+<p>It covers the ground like snow, and strangely <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span>enough it looks in June,
+but it does not, like snow, melt, even under the warm summer sunshine.
+It must be swept from garden and walks, and carted away. A heavy rain
+clears the air and subdues it for a time, but the sun soon dries the
+bunches still on the trees, and the cotton storm is again in full blast.
+This annoyance lasts through June and a part of July, fully six weeks,
+and then the stems themselves drop to, the ground, still holding enough
+cotton to keep up the storm for days. After this, the first rainfall
+ends the trouble for that season.</p>
+
+<p>In the midst of the cottonwoods, in beautiful Camp Harding, I spent the
+June that followed the journey described in the last chapter,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="noin">
+<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">"Dreaming sweet, idle dreams of having strayed</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">To Arcady with all its golden lore."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>The birds, of course, were my first concern. Ask of almost any resident
+not an ornithologist if there are birds in Colorado, and he will shake
+his head.</p>
+
+<p>"Not many, I think," he will probably say. "Camp birds and magpies. Oh
+yes, and larks. I think that's about all."</p>
+
+<p>This opinion, oft repeated, did not settle the matter in my mind, for I
+long ago discovered that none are so ignorant of the birds and flowers
+of a neighborhood as most of the people who live among them. I sought
+out my post, and I looked for myself.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span>There are birds in the State, plenty of them, but they are not on
+exhibition like the mountains and their wonders. No driver knows the way
+to their haunts, and no guide-book points them out. Even a bird student
+may travel a day's journey, and not encounter so many as one shall see
+in a small orchard in New England. He may rise with the dawn, and hear
+nothing like the glorious morning chorus that stirs one in the Atlantic
+States. He may search the trees and shrubberies for long June days, and
+not find so many nests as will cluster about one cottage at home.</p>
+
+<p>Yet the birds are here, but they are shy, and they possess the true
+Colorado spirit,&mdash;they are mountain-worshipers. As the time approaches
+when each bird leaves society and retires for a season to the bosom of
+its own family, many of the feathered residents of the State bethink
+them of their inaccessible ca&ntilde;ons. The saucy jay abandons the
+settlements where he has been so familiar as to dispute with the dogs
+for their food, and sets up his homestead in a tall pine-tree on a slope
+which to look at is to grow dizzy; the magpie, boldest of birds, steals
+away to some secure retreat; the meadow-lark makes her nest in the
+monotonous mesa, where it is as well hidden as a bobolink's nest in a
+New England meadow.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span>The difficulties in the way of studying Colorado birds are several,
+aside from their excessive suspicion of every human being. In the first
+place, observations must be made before ten o'clock, for at that hour
+every day a lively breeze, which often amounts to a gale, springs up,
+and sets the cottonwood and aspen leaves in a flutter that hides the
+movements of any bird. Then, all through the most interesting month of
+June the cottonwood-trees are shedding their cotton, and to a person on
+the watch for slight stirrings among the leaves the falling cotton is a
+constant distraction. The butterflies, too, wandering about in their
+aimless way, are all the time deceiving the bird student, and drawing
+attention from the bird he is watching.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand, one of the maddening pests of bird study at the East
+is here almost unknown,&mdash;the mosquito. Until the third week in June I
+saw but one. That one was in the habit of lying in wait for me when I
+went to a piece of low, swampy ground overgrown with bushes. Think of
+the opportunity this combination offers to the Eastern mosquito, and
+consider my emotions when I found but a solitary individual, and even
+that one disposed to coquette with me.</p>
+
+<p>I had hidden myself, and was keeping motionless, in order to see the
+very shy owners of a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span>nest I had found, when the lonely mosquito came as
+far as the rim of my shade hat, and hovered there, evidently meditating
+an attack&mdash;a mosquito hesitating! I could not stir a hand, or even shake
+my leafy twig; but it did not require such violent measures; a light
+puff of breath this side or that was enough to discourage the gentle
+creature, and in all the hours I sat there it never once came any
+nearer. The race increased, however, and became rather troublesome on
+the veranda after tea; but in the grove they were never annoying; I
+rarely saw half a dozen. When I remember the tortures endured in the
+dear old woods of the East, in spite of "lollicopop" and pennyroyal, and
+other horrors with which I have tried to repel them, I could almost
+decide to live and die in Colorado.</p>
+
+<p>The morning bird chorus in the cottonwood grove where I spent my June
+was a great shock to me. If my tent had been pitched near the broad
+plains in which the meadow-lark delights, I might have wakened to the
+glorious song of this bird of the West. It is not a chorus, indeed, for
+one rarely hears more than a single performer, but it is a solo that
+fully makes up for want of numbers, and amply satisfies the lover of
+bird music, so strong, so sweet, so moving are his notes.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span>But on my first morning in the grove, what was my dismay&mdash;I may almost
+say despair&mdash;to find that the Western wood-pewee led the matins! Now,
+this bird has a peculiar voice. It is loud, pervasive, and in quality of
+tone not unlike our Eastern ph&oelig;be, lacking entirely the sweet
+plaintiveness of our wood-pewee. A pewee chorus is a droll and dismal
+affair. The poor things do their best, no doubt, and they cannot prevent
+the pessimistic effect it has upon us. It is rhythmic, but not in the
+least musical, and it has a weird power over the listener. This morning
+hymn does not say, as does the robin's, that life is cheerful, that
+another glorious day is dawning. It says, "Rest is over; another day of
+toil is here; come to work." It is monotonous as a frog chorus, but
+there is a merry thrill in the notes of the amphibian which are entirely
+wanting in the song. If it were not for the light-hearted tremolo of the
+chewink thrown in now and then, and the loud, cheery ditty of the summer
+yellow-bird, who begins soon after the pewee, one would be almost
+superstitious about so unnatural a greeting to the new day. The evening
+call of the bird is different. He will sit far up on a dead twig of an
+old pine-tree, and utter a series of four notes, something like "do, mi,
+mi, do," repeating them without pausing till it is too dark to see him,
+all the time <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span>getting lower, sadder, more deliberate, till one feels
+like running out and committing suicide or annihilating the bird of
+ill-omen.</p>
+
+<p>I felt myself a stranger indeed when I reached this pleasant spot, and
+found that even the birds were unfamiliar. No robin or bluebird greeted
+me on my arrival; no cheerful song-sparrow tuned his little pipe for my
+benefit; no ph&oelig;be shouted the beloved name from the peak of the barn.
+Everything was strange. One accustomed to the birds of our Eastern
+States can hardly conceive of the country without robins in plenty; but
+in this unnatural corner of Uncle Sam's dominion I found but one pair.</p>
+
+<p>The most common song from morning till night was that of the summer
+yellow-bird, or yellow warbler. It was not the delicate little strain we
+are accustomed to hear from this bird, but a loud, clear carol, equal in
+volume to the notes of our robin. These three birds, with the addition
+of a vireo or two, were our main dependence for daily music, though we
+were favored occasionally by others. Now the Arkansas goldfinch uttered
+his sweet notes from the thick foliage of the cottonwood-trees; then the
+charming aria of the catbird came softly from the tangle of rose and
+other bushes; the black-headed grosbeak now and then saluted us from the
+top of a pine-tree; and rarely, too rarely, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span>alas! a passing meadow-lark
+filled all the grove with his wonderful song.</p>
+
+<p>And there was the wren! He interested me from the first; for a wren is a
+bird of individuality always, and his voice reminded me, in a feeble
+way, of the witching notes of the winter wren, the</p>
+
+<p class="noin">
+<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">"Brown wren from out whose swelling throat</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">Unstinted joys of music float."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>This bird was the house wren, the humblest member of his musical family;
+but there was in his simple melody the wren quality, suggestive of the
+thrilling performances of his more gifted relatives; and I found it and
+him very pleasing.</p>
+
+<p>The chosen place for his vocal display was a pile of brush beside a
+closed-up little cottage, and I suspected him of having designs upon
+that two-roomed mansion for nesting purposes. After hopping all about
+the loose sticks, delivering his bit of an aria a dozen times or more,
+in a most rapturous way, he would suddenly dive into certain secret
+passages among the dead branches, when he was instantly lost to sight.
+Then, in a few seconds, a close watcher might sometimes see him pass
+like a shadow, under the cottage, which stood up on corner posts, dart
+out the farther side, and fly at once to the eaves.</p>
+
+<p>One day I was drawn from the house by a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span>low and oft-repeated cry, like
+"Hear, hear, hear!" It was emphatic and imperative, as if some
+unfortunate little body had the business of the world on his shoulders,
+and could not get it done to his mind. I carefully approached the
+disturbed voice, and was surprised to find it belonged to the wren, who
+was so disconcerted at sight of me, that I concluded this particular
+sort of utterance must be for the benefit of his family alone. Later,
+that kind of talk, his lord-and-master style as I supposed, was the most
+common sound I heard from him, and not near the cottage and the brush
+heap, but across the brook. I thought that perhaps I had displeased him
+by too close surveillance, and he had set up housekeeping out of my
+reach. Across the brook I could not go, for between "our side" and the
+other raged a feud, which had culminated in torn-up bridges and barbed
+wire protections.</p>
+
+<p>One day, however, I had a surprise. In studying another bird, I was led
+around to the back of the still shut-up cottage, and there I found, very
+unexpectedly, an exceedingly busy and silent wren. He did sing
+occasionally while I watched him from afar, but in so low a tone that it
+could not be heard a few steps away. Of course I understood this
+unnatural circumspection, and on observing him cautiously, I saw that
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span>he made frequent visits to the eaves of the cottage, the very spot I
+had hoped he would nest. Then I noted that he carried in food, and on
+coming out he alighted on a dead bush, and sang under his breath. Here,
+then, was the nest, and all his pretense of scolding across the brook
+was but a blind! Wary little rogue! Who would ever suspect a house wren
+of shyness?</p>
+
+<p>I had evidently done him injustice when I regarded the scolding as his
+family manner, for here in his home he was quiet as a mouse, except when
+his joy bubbled over in trills.</p>
+
+<p>To make sure of my conclusions I went close to the house, and then for
+the first time (to know it) I saw his mate. She came with food in her
+beak, and was greatly disturbed at sight of her uninvited guest. She
+stood on a shrub near me fluttering her wings, and there her anxious
+spouse joined her, and fluttered his in the same way, uttering at the
+same time a low, single note of protest.</p>
+
+<p>On looking in through the window, I found that the cottage was a mere
+shell, all open under the eaves, so that the birds could go in and out
+anywhere. The nest was over the top of a window, and the owner thereof
+ran along the beam beside it, in great dudgeon at my impertinent
+staring. Had ever a pair of wrens quarters so ample,&mdash;a whole cottage to
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span>themselves? Henceforth, it was part of my daily rounds to peep in at
+the window, though I am sorry to say it aroused the indignation of the
+birds, and always brought them to the beam nearest me, to give me a
+piece of their mind.</p>
+
+<p>Bird babies grow apace, and baby wrens have not many inches to achieve.
+One day I came upon a scene of wild excitement: two wrenlings flying
+madly about in the cottage, now plump against the window, then tumbling
+breathless to the floor, and two anxious little parents, trying in vain
+to show their headstrong offspring the way they should go, to the
+openings under the eaves which led to the great out-of-doors. My face at
+the window seemed to be the "last straw." A much-distressed bird came
+boldly up to me behind the glass, saying by his manner&mdash;and who knows
+but in words?&mdash;"How can you be so cruel as to disturb us? Don't you see
+the trouble we are in?" He had no need of Anglo-Saxon (or even of
+American-English!). I understood him at once; and though exceedingly
+curious to see how they would do it, I had not the heart to insist. I
+left them to manage their willful little folk in their own way.</p>
+
+<p>The next morning I was awakened by the jolliest wren music of the
+season. Over and over the bird poured out his few notes, louder, madder,
+more rapturously than I had supposed <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span>he could. He had guided his family
+safely out of their imprisoning four walls, I was sure. And so I found
+it when I went out. Not a wren to be seen about the house, but soft
+little "churs" coming from here and there among the shrubbery, and every
+few minutes a loud, happy song proclaimed that wren troubles were over
+for the summer. Far in among the tangle of bushes and vines, I came upon
+him, as gay as he had been of yore:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="noin">
+<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">"Pausing and peering, with sidling head,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">As saucily questioning all I said;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">While the ox-eye danced on its slender stem,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">And all glad Nature rejoiced with them."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>The chewink is a curious exchange for the robin. When I noticed the
+absence of the red-breast, whom&mdash;like the poor&mdash;we have always with us
+(at the East), I was pleased, in spite of my fondness for him, because,
+as every one must allow, he is sometimes officious in his attentions,
+and not at all reticent in expressing his opinions. I did miss his voice
+in the morning chorus,&mdash;the one who lived in the grove was not much of a
+singer,&mdash;but I was glad to know the chewink, who was almost a stranger.
+His peculiar trilling song was heard from morning till night; he came
+familiarly about the camp, eating from the dog's dish, and foraging for
+crumbs at the kitchen door. Next to the wood-pewee, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span>he was the most
+friendly of our feathered neighbors.</p>
+
+<p>He might be seen at any time, hopping about on the ground, one moment
+picking up a morsel of food, and the next throwing up his head and
+bursting into song:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="noin">
+<span style="margin-left: 12.5em;">"But not for you his little singing,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 12.5em;">Soul of fire its flame is flinging,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 12.5em;">Sings he for himself alone,"</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noin">as was evident from the unconscious manner in which he uttered his notes
+between two mouthfuls, never mounting a twig or making a "performance"
+of his music. I have watched one an hour at a time, going about in his
+jerky fashion, tearing up the ground and searching therein, exactly
+after the manner of a scratching hen. This, by the way, was a droll
+operation, done with both feet together, a jump forward and a jerk back
+of the whole body, so rapidly one could hardly follow the motion, but
+throwing up a shower of dirt every time. He had neither the grace nor
+the dignity of our domestic biddy.</p>
+
+<p>Matter of fact as this fussy little personage was on the ground, taking
+in his breakfast and giving out his song, he was a different bird when
+he got above it. Alighting on the wren's brush heap, for instance, he
+would bristle up, raising the feathers on head and neck, his red <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span>eyes
+glowing eagerly, his tail a little spread and standing up at a sharp
+angle, prepared for instant fight or flight, whichever seemed desirable.</p>
+
+<p>I was amused to hear the husky cry with which this bird expresses most
+of his emotions,&mdash;about as nearly a "mew," to my ears, as the catbird
+executes. Whether frolicking with a comrade among the bushes, reproving
+a too inquisitive bird student, or warning the neighborhood against some
+monster like a stray kitten, this one cry seemed to answer for all his
+needs, and, excepting the song, was the only sound I heard him utter.</p>
+
+<p>Familiar as the chewink might be about our quarters, his own home was
+well hidden, on the rising ground leading up to the mesa,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 20.5em;">"An unkempt zone,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">Where vines and weeds and scrub oaks intertwine,"</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noin">which no one bigger than a bird could penetrate. Whenever I appeared in
+that neighborhood, I was watched and followed by anxious and disturbed
+chewinks; but I never found a nest, though, judging from the conduct of
+the residents, I was frequently "very warm" (as the children say).</p>
+
+<p>About the time the purple aster began to unclose its fringed lids, and
+the mariposa lily to unfold its delicate cups on the lower
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span>mesa,&mdash;nearly the middle of July,&mdash;full-grown chewink babies, in brown
+coats and streaked vests, made their appearance in the grove, and after
+that the whole world might search the scrub oaks and not a bird would
+say him nay.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 19.0em;">"All is silent now</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">Save bell-note from some wandering cow,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">Or rippling lark-song far away."</span><br />
+</p>
+<br />
+<br /><a name="III" id="III"></a>
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<hr /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span>
+<br />
+<h2>III.</h2>
+
+<h2>AN UPROAR OF SONG.</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>The bird music of Colorado, though not so abundant as one could wish, is
+singularly rich in quality, and remarkable for its volume. At the
+threshold of the State the traveler is struck by this peculiarity. As
+the train thunders by, the Western meadow-lark mounts a telegraph pole
+and pours out such a peal of melody that it is distinctly heard above
+the uproar of the iron wheels.</p>
+
+<p>This bird is pre&euml;minently the bird of the mesa, or high table-land of
+the region, and only to hear his rare song is well worth a journey to
+that distant wonderland. Not of his music could Lucy Larcom say, as she
+so happily does of our bird of the meadow,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="noin">
+<span style="margin-left: 12.5em;">"Sounds the meadow-lark's refrain</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 14.0em;">Just as sad and clear."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Nor could his sonorous song be characterized by Clinton Scollard's
+exquisite verse,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="cen">
+"From whispering winds your plaintive notes were drawn."
+</p>
+
+<p>For the brilliant solo of Colorado's bird is not <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span>in the least like the
+charming minor chant of our Eastern lark. So powerful that it is heard
+at great distances in the clear air, it is still not in the slightest
+degree strained or harsh, but is sweet and rich, whether it be close at
+one's side in the silence, or shouted from the housetop in the tumult of
+a busy street. It has, moreover, the same tender winsomeness that charms
+us in our own lark song; something that fills the sympathetic listener
+with delight, that satisfies his whole being; a siren strain that he
+longs to listen to forever. The whole breadth and grandeur of the great
+West is in this song, its freedom, its wildness, the height of its
+mountains, the sweep of its rivers, the beauty of its flowers,&mdash;all in
+the wonderful performance. Even after months of absence, the bare memory
+of the song of the mesa will move its lover to an almost painful
+yearning. Of him, indeed, Shelley might truthfully say,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="noin">
+<span style="margin-left: 13.5em;">"Better than all measures</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 14.5em;">Of delightful sound,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 13.5em;">Better than all treasures</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 14.5em;">That in books are found,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 13.5em;">Thy skill to poet were,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 14.5em;">Thou scorner of the ground."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Nor is the variety of the lark song less noteworthy than its quality.
+That each bird has a large <i>r&eacute;pertoire</i> I cannot assert, for my
+opportunities for study have been too limited; but it <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>is affirmed by
+those who know him better, that he has, and I fully believe it.</p>
+
+<p>One thing is certainly true of nearly if not quite all of our native
+birds, that no two sing exactly alike, and the close observer soon
+learns to distinguish between the robins and the song-sparrows of a
+neighborhood, by their notes alone. The Western lark seems even more
+than others to individualize his utterances, so that constant surprises
+reward the discriminating listener. During two months' bird-study in
+that delightful ca&ntilde;on-hidden grove at the foot of Cheyenne Mountain, one
+particular bird song was for weeks an unsolved mystery. The strain
+consisted of three notes in loud, ringing tones, which syllabled
+themselves very plainly in my ear as "Whip-for-her."</p>
+
+<p>This unseemly, and most emphatic, demand came always from a distance,
+and apparently from the top of some tall tree, and it proved to be most
+tantalizing; for although the first note invariably brought me out,
+opera-glass in hand, I was never able to come any nearer to a sight of
+the unknown than the sway of a twig he had just left.</p>
+
+<p>One morning, however, before I was up, the puzzling songster visited the
+little grove under my windows, and I heard his whole song, of which it
+now appeared the three notes were merely the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span>conclusion. The
+performance was eccentric. It began with a soft warble, apparently for
+his sole entertainment, then suddenly, as if overwhelmed by memory of
+wrongs received or of punishment deserved, he interrupted his tender
+melody with a loud, incisive "Whip-for-her!" in a totally different
+manner. His nearness, however, solved the mystery; the ring of the
+meadow-lark was in his tones, and I knew him at once. I had not
+suspected his identity, for the Western bird does not take much trouble
+to keep out of sight, and, moreover, his song is rarely less than six or
+eight notes in length.</p>
+
+<p>Another unique singer of the highlands is the horned lark. One morning
+in June a lively carriage party passing along the mountain side, on a
+road so bare and bleak that it seemed nothing could live there, was
+startled by a small gray bird, who suddenly dashed out of the sand
+beside the wheels, ran across the path, and flew to a fence on the other
+side. Undisturbed, perhaps even stimulated, by the clatter of two horses
+and a rattling mountain wagon, undaunted by the laughing and talking
+load, the little creature at once burst into song, so loud as to be
+heard above the noisy procession, and so sweet that it silenced every
+tongue.</p>
+
+<p>"How exquisite! What is it?" we asked each other, at the end of the
+little aria.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span>"It's the gray sand bird," answered the native driver.</p>
+
+<p>"Otherwise the horned lark," added the young naturalist, from his
+broncho behind the carriage.</p>
+
+<p>Let not his name mislead: this pretty fellow, in soft, gray-tinted
+plumage, is not deformed by "horns;" it is only two little tufts of
+feathers, which give a certain piquant, wide-awake expression to his
+head, that have fastened upon him a title so incongruous. The nest of
+the desert-lover is a slight depression in the barren earth, nothing
+more; and the eggs harmonize with their surroundings in color. The whole
+is concealed by its very openness, and as hard to find, as the
+bobolink's cradle in the trackless grass of the meadow.</p>
+
+<p>Most persistent of all the singers of the grove beside the house was the
+yellow warbler, a dainty bit of featherhood the size of one's thumb. On
+the Atlantic coast his simple ditty is tender, and so low that it must
+be listened for; but in that land of "skies so blue they flash," he
+sings it at the top of his voice, louder than the robin song as we know
+it, and easily heard above the roar of the wind and the brawling of the
+brook he haunts.</p>
+
+<p>Before me at this moment is the nest of one of these little sprites,
+which I watched till the last <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span>dumpy infant had taken flight, and then
+secured with the branchlet it was built upon. It was in a young oak, not
+more than twelve feet from the ground, occupying a perpendicular fork,
+where it was concealed and shaded by no less than sixteen twigs,
+standing upright, and loaded with leaves. The graceful cup itself, to
+judge by its looks, might be made of white floss silk,&mdash;I have no
+curiosity to know the actual material,&mdash;and is cushioned inside with
+downy fibres from the cottonwood-tree. It is dainty enough for a fairy's
+cradle.</p>
+
+<p>The wood-pewee, in dress and manners nearly resembling his Eastern
+brother,</p>
+
+<p class="noin">
+<span style="margin-left: 12.5em;">"The pewee of the loneliest woods,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 12.5em;">Sole singer in the solitudes,"</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noin">has a strange and decidedly original utterance. While much louder and
+more continuous, it lacks the sweetness of our bird's notes; indeed, it
+resembles in quality of tone the voice of our ph&oelig;be, or his beautiful
+relative, the great-crested flycatcher. The Westerner has a great deal
+to say for himself. On alighting, he announces the fact by a single
+note, which is a habit also of our ph&oelig;be; he sings the sun up in the
+morning, and he sings it down in the evening, and he would be a
+delightful neighbor if only his voice were pleasing. But there is little
+charm in the music, for it is in truth a dismal chant, with the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span>air and
+cheerfulness of a funeral dirge&mdash;a pessimistic performance that inspires
+the listener with a desire to choke him then and there.</p>
+
+<p>This bird's nest, as well as his song, is unlike that of our wood-pewee.
+Instead of a delicate, lichen-covered saucer set lightly upon a
+horizontal crotch of a dead branch,&mdash;our bird's chosen home,&mdash;it is a
+deeper cup, fastened tightly upon a large living branch, and, at least
+in a cottonwood grove, decorated on the outside with the fluffy cotton
+from the trees.</p>
+
+<p>Even the humming-bird, who contents himself in this part of the world
+with a modest hum, heard but a short distance away, at the foot of the
+Rocky Mountains may almost be called a noisy bird. The first one I
+noticed dashed out of a thickly leaved tree with loud, angry cries,
+swooped down toward me, and flew back and forth over my head, scolding
+with a hum which, considering his size, might almost be called a roar. I
+could not believe my ears until my eyes confirmed their testimony. The
+sound was not made by the wings, but was plainly a cry strong and harsh
+in an extraordinary degree.</p>
+
+<p>The Western ruby-throat has other singularities which differentiate him
+from his Eastern brother. It is very droll to see one of his family take
+part in the clamors of a bird mob, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span>perching like his bigger fellows,
+and adding his excited cries to the notes of catbird and robin, chewink
+and yellow-bird. Attracted one morning by a great bird outcry in a dense
+young oak grove across the road, I left my seat under the cottonwoods
+and strolled over toward it. It was plain that some tragedy was in the
+air, for the winged world was in a panic. Two robins, the only pair in
+the neighborhood, uttered their cry of distress from the top of the
+tallest tree; a catbird hopped from branch to branch, flirting his tail
+and mewing in agitation; a chewink or two near the ground jerked
+themselves about uneasily, adding their strange, husky call to the
+hubbub; and above the din rose the shrill voice of a humming-bird. Every
+individual had his eyes fixed upon the ground, where it was evident that
+some monster must be lurking. I expected a big snake at the very least,
+and, putting the lower branches aside, I, too, peered into the
+semi-twilight of the grove.</p>
+
+<p>No snake was there; but my eyes fell upon an anxious little gray face,
+obviously much disturbed to find itself the centre of so much attention.
+As I appeared, this bugaboo, who had caused all the excitement,
+recognized me as a friend and ran toward me, crying piteously. It was a
+very small lost kitten!</p>
+
+<p>I took up the stray little beastie, and a silence <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span>fell upon the
+assembly in the trees, which began to scatter, each one departing upon
+his own business in a moment. But the humming-bird refused to be so
+easily pacified; he was bound to see the end of the affair, and he
+followed me out of the grove, still vigorously speaking his mind about
+the enemy in fur. I suspected that the little creature had wandered away
+from the house on the hill above, and I went up to see. The hummer
+accompanied me every step of the way, sometimes flying over my head, and
+again alighting for a minute on a branch under which I passed. Not until
+he saw me deliver pussy into the hands of her own family, and return to
+my usual seat in the grove, did he release me from surveillance and take
+his leave.</p>
+
+<p>The yellow-breasted chat, the long-tailed variety belonging to the West,
+delivers his strange medley of "chacks" and whistles, and rattles and
+other indescribable cries, in a voice that is loud and distinct, as well
+as sweet and rich. He is a bird of humor, too, with a mocking spirit not
+common in his race. One day, while sitting motionless in a hidden nook,
+trying to spy upon the domestic affairs of this elusive individual, I
+was startled by the so-called "laugh" of a robin, which was instantly
+repeated by a chat, unseen, but quite near. The robin, apparently
+surprised or interested, called again, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span>was a second time mocked.
+Then he lost his temper, and began a serious reproof to the levity of
+his neighbor, which ended in a good round scolding, as the saucy chat
+continued to repeat his taunting laugh. This went on till the red-breast
+flew away in high dudgeon.</p>
+
+<p>Why our little brothers in feathers are so much more boisterous than
+elsewhere,</p>
+
+<p class="noin">
+<span style="margin-left: 12.5em;">"Up in the parks and the mesas wide,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 12.5em;">Under the blue of the bluest sky,"</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noin">has not, so far as I know, been discovered.</p>
+
+<p>Whether it be the result of habitual opposition to the strong winds
+which, during the season of song, sweep over the plains every day, or
+whether the exhilaration of the mountain air be the cause&mdash;who can
+tell?</p>
+<br />
+<br /><a name="IV" id="IV"></a>
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<hr /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span>
+<br />
+<h2>IV.</h2>
+
+<h2>THE TRAGEDY OF A NEST.</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>Near to the Camp, a little closer to beautiful Cheyenne Mountain, lay a
+small park. It was a continuation of the grove, through which the brook
+came roaring and tumbling down from the ca&ntilde;ons above, and, being several
+miles from the town, it had never become a popular resort. A few winding
+paths, and a rude bench here and there, were the only signs of man's
+interference with its native wildness; it was practically abandoned to
+the birds&mdash;and me.</p>
+
+<p>The birds had full possession when I appeared on the scene, and though I
+did my best to be unobtrusive, my presence was not so welcome as I could
+have wished. Every morning when I came slowly and quietly up the little
+path from the gate, bird-notes suddenly ceased; the grosbeak, pouring
+out his soul from the top of a pine-tree, dived down the other side; the
+towhee, picking up his breakfast on the ground, scuttled behind the
+bushes and disappeared; the humming-bird, interrupted in her morning
+"affairs," flew off over my head, scolding <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span>vigorously; only the
+vireo&mdash;serene as always&mdash;went on warbling and eating, undisturbed.</p>
+
+<p>Then I made haste to seek out an obscure spot, where I could sit and
+wait in silence, to see who might unwittingly show himself.</p>
+
+<p>I was never lonely, and never tired; for if&mdash;as sometimes happened&mdash;no
+flit of wing came near to interest me, there before me was beautiful
+Cheyenne, with its changing face never twice alike, and its undying
+associations with its poet and lover, whose lonely grave makes it
+forever sacred to those who loved her. There, too, was the wonderful sky
+of Colorado, so blue it looked almost violet, and near at hand the
+"Singing Water," whose stirring music was always inspiring.</p>
+
+<p>One morning I was startled from my reverie by a sudden cry, so loud and
+clear that I turned quickly to see what manner of bird had uttered it.
+The voice was peculiar and entirely new to me. First came a scolding
+note like that of an oriole, then the "chack" of a blackbird, and next a
+sweet, clear whistle, one following the other rapidly and vehemently, as
+if the performer intended to display all his accomplishments in a
+breath. Cheyenne vanished like "the magic mountain of a dream," blue
+skies were forgotten, the babbling brook unheard, every sense was
+instantly alert to see that extraordinary bird,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="noin">
+<span style="margin-left: 14.5em;">"Like a poet hidden,</span><br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span>
+<span style="margin-left: 14.5em;">Singing songs unbidden."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>But he did not appear. Not a leaf rustled, not a twig bent, though the
+strange medley kept on for fifteen minutes, then ceased as abruptly as
+it had begun, and not a whisper more could be heard. The whole thing
+seemed uncanny. Was it a bird at all, or a mere "wandering voice"? It
+seemed to come from a piece of rather swampy ground, overgrown with
+clumps of willow and low shrubs; but what bird of earthly mould could
+come and go, and make no sign that a close student of bird ways could
+detect? Did he creep on the ground? Did he vanish into thin air?</p>
+
+<p>Hours went by. I could not go, and my leafy nook was "struck through
+with slanted shafts of afternoon" before I reluctantly gave up that I
+should not see my enchanter that day, and slowly left the grove, the
+mystery unexplained.</p>
+
+<p>Very early the next morning I was saluted by the same loud, clear calls
+near the house. Had then the Invisible followed me home? I sprang up and
+hurried to the always open window. The voice was very near; but I could
+not see its author, though I was hidden behind blinds.</p>
+
+<p>This time the bird&mdash;if bird it <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span>were&mdash;indulged in a fuller <i>r&eacute;pertoire</i>.
+I seized pencil and paper, and noted down phonetically the different
+notes as they were uttered. This is the record: "Rat-t-t-t-t" (very
+rapid); "quit! quit! quit!" (a little slower); "wh-eu! wh-eu!" (still
+more deliberately); "chack! chack! chack!" (quite slow); "cr[=e],
+cr[=e], cr[=e], cr[=e]" (fast); "hu-way! hu-way!" (very sweet). There
+was a still more musical clause that I cannot put into syllables, then a
+rattle exactly like castanets, and lastly a sort of "Kr-r-r! kr-r-r!" in
+the tone of a great-crested flycatcher. While this will not express to
+one who has not heard it the marvelous charm of it all, it will at least
+indicate the variety.</p>
+
+<p>Hardly waiting to dispose of breakfast, I betook myself to my "woodland
+enchanted," resolved to stay till I saw that bird.</p>
+
+<p class="noin">
+<span style="margin-left: 14.5em;">"All day in the bushes</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 14.5em;">The woodland was haunted."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>The voice was soon on hand, and once more I was treated to the
+incomparable recitative.</p>
+
+<p>This day, too, my patience was rewarded; the mystery was solved; I saw
+the Unknown! While my eyes were fixed upon a certain bush before me, the
+singer incautiously ventured too near the top of a twig, and I saw him
+plainly, standing almost upright, and vehemently chanting his fantasia,
+opening his mouth very wide <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span>with every call. I knew him at once, the
+rogue! from having read of him; he was the yellow-breasted chat. It was
+well, indeed, that I happened to be looking at that very spot, and that
+I was quick in my observation; for in a moment he saw the blunder he had
+made, and slipped back down the stem, too late for his secret&mdash;I had him
+down in black and white.</p>
+
+<p>From that time the little park was never lonely, nor did I spend much
+time dreaming over Cheyenne. The moment I appeared in the morning my
+lively host began his vocal gymnastics, while I sat spellbound,
+bewitched by the magic of his notes. In spite of being absorbed in
+listening to him, I retained my faculties sufficiently to reflect that
+the chat had probably other employment than entertaining me, and that
+doubtless his object was to distract my attention from looking about me,
+or to reproach me for intruding upon his private domain. In either case
+there was, of course,</p>
+
+<p class="noin">
+<span style="margin-left: 20.5em;">"A nest unseen</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 14.0em;">Somewhere among the million stalks;"</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noin">and, delightful as I found the unseen bird, his nest was a treasure I
+was even more anxious to see.</p>
+
+<p>Not to disturb him more than necessary, I spent part of an evening
+studying up the nesting habits of the chat,&mdash;the long-tailed,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span>yellow-breasted, as I found him to be,&mdash;and the next morning made a
+thorough search through the swamp, looking into every bush and examining
+every thicket. An hour or two of this hard work satisfied me for the
+day, and I went home warm and tired, followed to the very door by the
+mocking voice, triumphing, as it seemed, in my failure.</p>
+
+<p>The next day, however, fortune smiled upon me; I came upon a nest, not
+far above the ground, among the stems of a clump of shrubs, which
+exactly answered the description of the one I sought. Careful not to lay
+a finger on it, I slightly parted the branches above, and looked in upon
+three pinkish-white eggs, small in size and dainty as tinted pearls.
+Happy day, I thought, and the forerunner of happy to-morrows when I
+should watch</p>
+
+<p class="noin">
+<span style="margin-left: 13.5em;">"The green nest full of pleasant shade</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 13.5em;">Wherein three speckled eggs were laid,"</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noin">and see and delight in the family life centring about it.</p>
+
+<p>To study a bird so shy required extraordinary precautions; I therefore
+sought, and found, a post of observation a long way off, where I could
+look through a natural vista among the shrubs, and with my glass bring
+the bush and its precious contents into view. For greater seclusion in
+my retreat, so that I should be as little <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span>conspicuous as possible, I
+drew down a branch of the low tree over my seat, and fastened it with a
+fine string to a stout weed below. Then I thought I had a perfect
+screen; I devoutly hoped the birds would not notice me.</p>
+
+<p>Vain delusion! and labor as vain! Doubtless two pairs of anxious eyes
+watched from some neighboring bush all my careful preparations, and then
+and there two despairing hearts bade farewell to their lovely little
+home, abandoned it and its treasures to the spy and the destroyer, which
+in their eyes I seemed to be.</p>
+
+<p>This conclusion was forced upon me by the experiences of the next few
+days. The birds absolutely would not approach the nest while I was in
+the park. The first morning I sat motionless for nearly two hours, and
+not a feather showed itself near that bush; it was plainly "tabooed."
+During the next day the chat called from this side and that, moving
+about in his wonderful way, without disturbing a twig, rustling a leaf,
+or flitting a wing&mdash;as silently, indeed, as if he were a spirit
+unclothed.</p>
+
+<p>While waiting for him to show himself, making myself as nearly a part of
+nature about me as a mortal is gifted to do, I congratulated myself upon
+the one good look I had secured, for, with all my efforts and all my
+watching, I saw him but twice more all summer. The enigma <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span>of that
+remarkable voice would have been maddening indeed, if I could not have
+known to whom it belonged.</p>
+
+<p>After several days of untiring observation I had but two glimpses to
+record. On one occasion a chat alighted on the top sprig of the fateful
+shrub, as if going to the nest, but almost on the instant vanished. The
+same day, a little later, one of these birds flitted into my view,
+without a sound. So perfectly silent were his movements that I should
+not have seen him if he had not come directly before my eyes. He, or
+she, for the pair are alike, alighted in a low bush and scrambled about
+as if in search of insects, climbing, not hopping. He stayed but a few
+seconds and departed like a shadow, as he had come.</p>
+
+<p>On the tenth day after my discovery of the nest with its trio of eggs I
+went out as usual, for I could not abandon hope. In passing the nest I
+glanced in and saw one egg; I could never see but one as I went by, but,
+not liking to go too near, I presumed that the other two were there, as
+I had always found them, and slipped quietly into my usual place.</p>
+
+<p>In a few moments the chat shouted a call so near that it fairly startled
+me. From that he went on to make his ordinary protest, but, as happened
+nearly every time, I was not able to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span>see him. I saw
+something&mdash;something that took my breath away. A shadowy form creeping
+stealthily through the shrubs five or six feet from me. It glided across
+the opening in front, and in a moment went to the bush I was watching.
+In silence, but with evident excitement, it moved about, approached the
+nest, and in a few seconds flew quickly across the path in plain sight,
+holding in its mouth something white which was large for its beak. I was
+reminded of an English sparrow carrying a piece of bread as big as his
+head, a sight familiar to every one. In a minute or two the same bird,
+or his twin, came to the nest again and disappeared on the other side.</p>
+
+<p>When I left my place to go home, I looked with misgivings into the nest
+on which I had built so many hopes. Lo! it was empty!</p>
+
+<p>Now I identified that stealthy visitor absolutely, but I shall never
+name him. I have never heard him accused of nest-robbing, and I shall
+not make the charge; for I am convinced that the chat had deserted the
+nest, and that this abstracter of eggs knew it, and simply took the good
+things the gods threw in his way&mdash;as would the best of us.</p>
+
+<p>After that unfortunate ending the chat disappeared from the little park;
+but a week later I came upon him, or his voice, in a private and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span>rarely
+visited pasture down the road, where many clumps of small trees and much
+low growth offered desirable nesting-places. He made his usual protest,
+and feeling that I had been the cause of the tragedy of the first nest,
+though I had grieved over it as much as the owners could, the least I
+could do, to show my regret, was to take myself and my curiosity out of
+his neighborhood. So I retired at once, and left the whole broad pasture
+to the incorrigible chat family, who, I hope, succeeded at last in
+enriching the world by half a dozen more of their bewitching kind.</p>
+<br />
+<br /><a name="V" id="V"></a>
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<hr /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span>
+<br />
+<h2>V.</h2>
+
+<h2>A FEAST OF FLOWERS.</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p class="noin">
+<span style="margin-left: 11.5em;">When first the crocus thrusts its point of gold</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 11.5em;">Up through the still snow-drifted garden mould,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 11.5em;">And folded green things in dim woods unclose</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 11.5em;">Their crinkled spears, a sudden tremor goes</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 11.5em;">Into my veins and makes me kith and kin</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 11.5em;">To every wild-born thing that thrills and blows.</span></p>
+
+<p style="margin-left: 19.5em;"><span class="smcap">T. B. Aldrich.</span></p>
+
+
+<p>My feast of flowers began before I entered Colorado. For half the
+breadth of Kansas the banks of the railroad were heavenly blue with
+clustered blossoms of the spiderwort. I remember clumps of this flower
+in my grandmother's old-fashioned garden, but my wildest dreams never
+pictured miles of it, so profuse that, looking backward from the train,
+the track looked like threads of steel in a broad ribbon of blue.</p>
+
+<p>Through the same State, also, the Western meadow-larks kept us company,
+and I shall never again think of "bleeding Kansas," but of smiling
+Kansas, the home of the bluest of blossoms and the sweetest of singers.
+The latter half of the way through the smiling State was golden with
+yellow daisies in equal <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span>abundance, and beside them many other flowers.
+Beginning at noon, I counted twenty-seven varieties, so near the track
+that I could distinguish them as we rushed past.</p>
+
+<p>The Santa F&eacute; road enters Colorado in a peculiarly desolate region.
+Flowers and birds appear to have stayed behind in Kansas, and no green
+thing shows its head, excepting one dismal-looking bush, which serves
+only to accentuate the poverty of the soil. As we go on, the mud is
+replaced by sand and stones, from gravel up to big bowlders, and flowers
+begin to struggle up through the unpromising ground.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing is more surprising than the amazing profusion of wild-flowers
+which this apparently ungenial soil produces. Of a certainty, if
+Colorado is not the paradise of wild-flowers, it is incomparably richer
+in them than any State east of the Mississippi River and north of "Mason
+and Dixon's Line." To begin with, there is a marvelous variety. Since I
+have taken note of them, from about the 10th of June till nearly the
+same date in July, I have found in my daily walk of not more than a mile
+or two, each time from one to seven new kinds. A few days I have found
+seven, many times I have brought home four, and never has a day passed
+without at least one I had not seen before. That will average, at a low
+estimate, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span>about a hundred varieties of flowers in a month, and all
+within a radius of four miles. What neighborhood can produce a record
+equal to this?</p>
+
+<p>Then, again, the blossoms themselves are so abundant. Hardly a root
+contents itself with a single flower. The moccasin-plant is the only one
+I have noticed as yet. One root will usually send up from one to a dozen
+stems, fairly loaded with buds&mdash;like the yucca&mdash;which open a few every
+day, and thus keep in bloom for weeks. Or if there is but one stem, it
+will be packed with buds from the ground to the tip, with new ones to
+come out for every blossom that falls.</p>
+
+<p>One in the vase on my stand at this moment is of this sort. It is a stem
+that sometimes attains a height of four or five feet. I think it
+lengthens as long as it is blossoming, and, to look at its preparations,
+that must be all summer. Every two or three inches of the stout stem is
+a whorl of leaves and buds and blossoms. Except the number of buds, it
+is all in fours. Opposite each other, making a cross, are four leaves,
+like a carnation leaf at first, but broadening and lengthening till it
+is two inches at the base and eight or ten long. Rising out of the axil
+of each leaf are buds, of graduated size and development up to the open
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span>blossom. That one stem, therefore, is prepared to open fresh flowers
+every day for a long time.</p>
+
+<p>The plant is exquisitely beautiful, for the whole thing, from the stem
+to the flower petals, is of a delicate, light pea-green. The blossom
+opens like a star, with four stamens and four petals. The description
+sounds mathematical, but the plant is graceful&mdash;a veritable symphony in
+green.</p>
+
+<p>A truly royal bouquet stands on my table&mdash;three spikes of yucca flowers
+in a tall vase, the middle one three feet high, bearing fifty blossoms
+and buds, of large size and a pink color; on its right, one a little
+less in size, with long creamy cups fully open; and on the left another,
+set with round greenish balls, not so open as cups. They are distinctly
+different, but each seems more exquisite than the other, and their
+fragrance fills the room. In fact it is so overpowering that when at
+night I close the door opening into the grove, I shut the vase and its
+contents outside.</p>
+
+<p>This grand flower is the glory of the mesa or table-land at the foot of
+this range of the Rocky Mountains&mdash;the Cheyenne Range. Where no
+grass&mdash;that we name grass&mdash;will grow, where trees die for want of water,
+these noble spikes of flowers dot the bare plains in profusion.</p>
+
+<p>It is the rich possessor of three names. To <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span>the flower-lover it is the
+yucca; to the cultivator, or whosoever meddles with its leaves, it is
+the Spanish-bayonet; to the utilitarian, who values a thing only as it
+is of use to him, it is the soap-weed&mdash;ignoble name, referring to
+certain qualities pertaining to its roots. When we remember that this
+flower is not the careful product of the garden, but of spontaneous
+growth in the most barren and hopeless-looking plains, we may well
+regard it as a type of Colorado's luxuriance in these loveliest of
+nature's gifts.</p>
+
+<p>Of a surly disposition is the blossom of a cactus&mdash;the "prickly-pear,"
+as we call it in Eastern gardens, where we cultivate it for its oddity,
+I suppose. When the sojourner in this land of flowers sees, opening on
+all sides of this inhospitable-looking plant, rich cream-colored cups,
+the size of a Jacqueminot bud, and of a rare, satiny sheen, she cannot
+resist the desire to fill a low dish with them for her table.</p>
+
+<p>Woe to her if she attempts to gather them "by hand"! Properly warned,
+she will take a knife, sever the flower from the pear (there is no stem
+to speak of), pick it up by the tip of a petal, carry it home in a paper
+or handkerchief, and dump it gently into water&mdash;happy if she does not
+feel a dozen intolerable prickles here and there, and have to extract,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span>with help of magnifying-glass and tweezers, as many needle-like barbs
+rankling in her flesh. She may as well have spared herself the trouble.
+The flowers possess the uncompromising nature of the stock from which
+they sprung; they will speedily shut themselves up like buds again&mdash;I
+almost believe they close with a snap&mdash;and obstinately refuse to display
+their satin draperies to delight the eyes of their abductors. This
+unlovely spirit is not common among Colorado flowers; most of them go on
+blooming in the vase day after day.</p>
+
+<p>Remarkable are the places in which the flowers are found. Not only are
+they seen in crevices all the way up the straight side of rocks, where
+one would hardly think a seed could lodge, but beside the roads, between
+the horses' tracks, and on the edge of gutters in the streets of a city.
+One can walk down any street in Colorado Springs and gather a bouquet,
+lovely and fragrant, choice enough to adorn any one's table. I once
+counted twelve varieties in crossing one vacant corner lot on the
+principal street.</p>
+
+<p>One of the richest wild gardens I know is a bare, open spot in a
+cottonwood grove, part of it tunneled by ants, which run over it by
+millions, and the rest a jumble of bowlders and wild rosebushes,
+impossible to describe. In this spot, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span>unshaded from the burning sun,
+flourish flowers innumerable. Rosebushes, towering far above one's head,
+loaded with bloom; shrubs of several kinds, equally burdened by delicate
+white or pink blossoms; the ground covered with foot-high pentstemons,
+blue and lavender, in which the buds fairly get in each other's way; and
+a curious plant&mdash;primrose, I believe&mdash;which opens every morning, a few
+inches from the ground, a large white blossom like the magnolia, turns
+it deep pink, and closes it before night; several kinds of yellow
+flowers; wild geraniums, with a look of home in their daintily penciled
+petals; above all, the wonderful golden columbine. I despair of
+picturing this grand flower to eyes accustomed to the insignificant
+columbine of the East. The blossom is three times the size of its
+Eastern namesake, growing in clumps sometimes three feet across, with
+thirty or forty stems of flowers standing two and a half feet high. In
+hue it is a delicate straw color, sometimes all one tint, sometimes with
+outside petals of snowy white, and rarely with those outsiders of
+lavender. It is a red-letter day when the flower-lover comes upon a
+clump of the lavender-leaved columbine. Far up in the mountains is found
+still another variety of this beautiful flower, with outside petals of a
+rich blue. This, I believe, is the State flower of Colorado.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span>I am surprised at the small number of flowers here with which I am
+familiar. I think there are not more than half a dozen in all this
+extraordinary "procession of flowers" that I ever saw before. In
+consequence, every day promises discoveries, every walk is exciting as
+an excursion into unknown lands, each new find is a fresh treasure.</p>
+<br />
+<br /><a name="VI" id="VI"></a>
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<hr /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span>
+<br />
+<h2>VI.</h2>
+
+<h2>A CINDERELLA AMONG FLOWERS.</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p class="noin">
+<span style="margin-left: 12.5em;">Like torches lit for carnival,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 12.5em;">The fiery lilies straight and tall</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 12.5em;">Burn where the deepest shadow is;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 12.5em;">Still dance the columbines cliff-hung,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 12.5em;">And like a broidered veil outflung</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 12.5em;">The many-blossomed clematis.</span></p>
+
+<p style="margin-left: 17.5em;"><span class="smcap">Susan Coolidge.</span></p>
+
+<p>A rough, scraggy plant, with unattractive, dark-green foliage and a
+profusion of buds standing out at all angles, is, in July, almost the
+only growing thing to be seen on the barren-looking mesa around Colorado
+Springs. Anything more unpromising can hardly be imagined; the coarsest
+thistle is a beauty beside it; the common burdock has a grace of growth
+far beyond it; the meanest weed shows a color which puts it to shame.
+Yet if the curious traveler pass that way again, late in the afternoon,
+he shall find that "Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of
+these." He will see the bush transfigured; its angular form hidden under
+a mass of many pointed stars of snowy <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span>whiteness, with clusters of pale
+gold stamens. Then will stand revealed the "superb mentzelia," a true
+Cinderella, fit only for ignominious uses in the morning, but a suitable
+bride for the fairy prince in the evening.</p>
+
+<p>To look at the wide-stretching table-lands, where, during its season,
+this fairy-story transformation takes place daily, so burned by the sun,
+and swept by the wind, that no cultivated plant will flourish on it, one
+would never suspect that it is the scene of a brilliant "procession of
+flowers" from spring to fall. "There is always something going on
+outdoors worth seeing," says Charles Dudley Warner, and of no part of
+the world is this more true than of these apparently desolate plains at
+the foot of the Rocky Mountains. Rich is the reward of the daily
+stroller, not only in the inspiration of its pure, bracing air, the
+songs of its meadow-larks, and the glory of its grand mountain view, but
+in its charming flower show.</p>
+
+<p>This begins with the anemone, modest and shy like our own, but three
+times as big, and well protected from the sharp May breezes by a soft,
+fluffy silk wrap. Then some day in early June the walker shall note
+groups of long, sword-shaped leaves, rising in clusters here and there
+from the ground. He may not handle them with impunity, for they are
+strong and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span>sharp-edged, and somewhat later the beauty they are set to
+guard is revealed. A stem or two, heavy and loaded with hard green
+balls, pushes itself up among them day by day, till some morning he
+stands spellbound before the full-blown bells of the yucca, cream-tinted
+or pink, and fragrant as the breath of summer.</p>
+
+<p>Before the Nature-lover is tired of feasting his eyes upon that stately
+flower, shall begin to unfold the crumpled draperies of the great
+Mexican poppy, dotting the hillsides and the mesa with white, as far as
+the eye can reach. Meanwhile, the earth itself shall suddenly turn to
+pink, and a close look disclose a tiny, low-growing blossom, sweet as
+the morning, with the glow of the sunrise in its face; a little bunch of
+crazy-looking stamens, and tiny snips of petals standing out at all
+angles, and of all shades on one stem, from white to deep red; the whole
+no bigger than a gauzy-winged fly, and shaped not unlike one, with a
+delicious odor that scents the air.</p>
+
+<p>Next day&mdash;or next week&mdash;wandering over the pathless barrens, the
+observer may come upon a group of cream-colored satin flowers, wide open
+to the sun, innocent looking and most tempting to gather. But the great
+fleshy leaves from which they spring give warning; they belong to the
+cactus family, and are well armed to protect their treasures from the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span>vagrant hand. The walker&mdash;if he be wise&mdash;will content himself with
+looking, nor seek a nearer acquaintance.</p>
+
+<p>While these royal beauties are adorning the highlands, others, perhaps
+even more lovely, are blooming in the ca&ntilde;ons, under the trees, and
+beside the noisy brooks. First, there is a "riot of roses"&mdash;the only
+expression that adequately suggests the profusion of these beautiful
+flowers. They grow in enormous bushes, far above one's head, in
+impenetrable thickets, extending for yards each way.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 16.5em;">"Rose hedges</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 14.5em;">Abloom to the edges."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Every country road is walled in by them; every brookside is glorified by
+their rich masses of color; and no rocky wall is so bare but here and
+there a tiny shoot finds root, and open its rosy bloom. All these
+bushes, from the low-growing sort that holds its mottled and shaded
+petals three inches above the ground, to that whose top one cannot
+reach, are simply loaded with blossoms of all shades, from nearly white
+to deepest rose-color, filling the air with perfume.</p>
+
+<p>The first time one comes upon this lavish display, he&mdash;or more probably
+she&mdash;picks a spray from the first bush; she cannot resist the next
+variety, and before she knows it her arms <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span>are full, with temptations as
+strong as ever before her. She may at last, like "H. H.," take home her
+roses by the carriage load, or, overwhelmed by their numbers, leave them
+all on their stems, and enjoy them in mass.</p>
+
+<p>Shyly hiding under the taller shrubs beside the running water, the
+experienced seeker will find the gilia, one of the gems of Colorado's
+bouquet. This plant consists of one slender stem two feet or more tall,
+swayed by every breeze, and set for several inches of its length with
+daintiest blossoms,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="cen">"Like threaded rubies on its stem."</p>
+
+<p>They are like fairy trumpets, in many shades, from snow white to deep
+rose, and brilliant scarlet, with great variety of delicate marking
+visible only under a glass. The stem is so sticky that the flowers must
+be arranged as they are gathered; for they cling to each other more
+closely than the fabled "brother," and an attempt to separate them will
+result in torn flowers.</p>
+
+<p>Anything more exquisite than a vase of gilias alone is rarely seen. The
+buds are as lovely as the blossoms; new ones open every day, and even
+the faded ones are not unsightly; their petals are simply turned
+backward a little. One minute every morning spent in snipping off
+blossoms that are past their prime insures the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span>happy possessor a
+bouquet that is a joy forever, even in memory; lovely and fresh, in
+ever-changing combinations of color and form.</p>
+
+<p>Some day shall be made memorable to the enthusiast by the discovery of a
+flower which should be named for "H. H.,"&mdash;the one which looked so
+charming from the moving train that her winning tongue brought the iron
+horse to a pause while it was gathered, "root and branch," for her
+delectation. Finding the gorgeous spike of golden blossoms without a
+common name, she called it&mdash;most happily&mdash;the golden prince's feather.
+It is to be presumed that it has an unwieldy scientific cognomen in the
+botanies; but I heard of no common one, except that given by the poet.</p>
+
+<p>While this royal flower is still in bloom, may be found the mariposa, or
+butterfly lily, small and low on the burning mesa, but more generous in
+size, and richer of hue, in the shaded ca&ntilde;ons.</p>
+
+<p class="noin">
+<span style="margin-left: 14.5em;">"Like a bubble borne in air</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 14.5em;">Floats the shy Mariposa's bell,"</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>says Susan Coolidge in her beautiful tribute to her beloved friend and
+poet. The three petals of this exquisite flower form a graceful cup of
+differing degrees of violet hue, some being nearly white, with the color
+massed in a rich, deep-toned crescent, low down at the heart of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span>each
+petal, while others are glowing in the most regal purple.</p>
+
+<p>All these weeks, too, have been blossoming dozens, yes, hundreds of
+others; every nook and corner is full; every walk brings surprises. Some
+of our most familiar friends are wanting. One is not surprised that the
+most common wayside flower of that golden region is the yellow daisy, or
+sunflower it is called; but she remembers fondly our fields of white
+daisies, and clumps of gay little buttercups, and she longs for
+cheery-faced dandelions beside her path. A few of the latter she may
+find, much larger and more showy than ours; but these&mdash;it is said in
+Colorado Springs&mdash;are all from seed imported by an exile for health's
+sake, who pined for the flowers of home.</p>
+
+<p>Several peculiarities of Colorado flowers are noteworthy. Some have
+gummy or sticky stems, like the gilia, already mentioned, and others
+again are "clinging," by means of a certain roughness of stem and leaf.
+The mentzelia is of this nature; half a dozen stalks can with difficulty
+be separated; and they seem even to attract any light substance, like
+fringe or lace, holding so closely to it that they must be torn apart.</p>
+
+<p>Many of the prettiest flowers are, like our milkweed, nourished by a
+milky juice, and when <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span>severed from the parent stem, not only weep thick
+white tears, which stain the hands and the garments, but utterly refuse
+to subsist on water, and begin at once to droop. Is it the vitality in
+the air which forces even the plants to eccentricities? Or can it be
+that they have not yet been subdued into uniformity like ours? Are they
+unconventional&mdash;nearer to wild Nature? So queries an unscientific lover
+of them all.</p>
+
+<p>This slight sketch of a few flowers gives hardly a hint of the richness
+of Colorado's flora. No words can paint the profusion and the beauty. I
+have not here even mentioned some of the most notable: the great golden
+columbine, the State flower, to which our modest blossom is an
+insignificant weed;</p>
+
+<p class="noin">
+<span style="margin-left: 14.5em;">"The fairy lilies, straight and tall,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 14.5em;">Like torches lit for carnival;"</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>the primrose, opening at evening a disk three or four inches across,
+loaded with richest perfume, and changed to odorless pink before
+morning; exquisite vetches, with bloom like our sweet pea, and of more
+than fifty varieties; harebells in great clumps, and castilleias which
+dot the State with scarlet; rosy cyclamens "on long, lithe stems that
+soar;" and mertensias, whose delicate bells, blue as a baby's eyes, turn
+day by day to pink; the cleome, which covers Denver with a purple veil;
+the whole family of pentstemons, and hundreds of others.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span>An artist in Colorado Springs, who has given her heart, almost her life,
+to fixing in imperishable color the floral wealth about her, has painted
+over three hundred varieties of Colorado wild-flowers, and her list is
+still incomplete.</p>
+
+<p>It is not pleasant to mar this record of beauty, but one thing must be
+mentioned. The luxuriance of the flowers is already greatly diminished
+by the unscrupulousness of the tourists who swarm in the flower season,
+especially, I am sorry to say, women. Not content with filling their
+hands with flowers, they fill their arms and even their carriage, if
+they have one. Moreover, the hold of the plant on the light, sandy soil
+is very slight; and the careless gatherer, not provided with knife or
+scissors, will almost invariably pull the root with the flower, thus
+totally annihilating that plant. When one witnesses such greediness, and
+remembers that these vandals are in general on the wing, and cannot stay
+to enjoy what they have rifled, but will leave it all to be thrown out
+by hotel servants the next morning, he cannot wonder at the indignation
+of the residents toward the traveler, nor that "No admittance" notices
+are put up, and big dogs kept, and that "tourist" is a name synonymous
+with "plunderer," and bitterly hated by the people.</p>
+
+<p>I have seen a party of ladies&mdash;to judge by <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span>their looks&mdash;with arms so
+full of the golden columbine that it seemed they could not hold another
+flower, whose traveling dress and equipments showed them to be mere
+transient passers through, who could not possibly make use of so many.
+Half a dozen blossoms would have given as much pleasure as half a
+hundred, and be much more easily cared for, besides leaving a few for
+their successors to enjoy. The result is, of course, plain to see: a few
+more years of plunder, and Colorado will be left bare, and lose half her
+charm.</p>
+
+<p>One beautiful place near Colorado Springs, Glen Eyrie, belonging to
+General Palmer, was generously left open for every one to enjoy by
+driving through; but, incredible as it seems, his hospitality was so
+abused, his lovely grounds rifled, not only of wild-flowers, but even of
+cultivated flowers and plants, that he was forced at last to put up
+notices that the public was allowed to "drive through <i>without
+dismounting</i>."</p>
+<br />
+<br /><a name="VII" id="VII"></a>
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<hr /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span>
+<br />
+<h2>VII.</h2>
+
+<h2>CLIFF-DWELLERS IN THE CA&Ntilde;ON.</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 21.5em;">Glad</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">With light as with a garment it is clad</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">Each dawn, before the tardy plains have won</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">One ray; and often after day has long been done</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">For us, the light doth cling reluctant, sad to leave its brow.</span></p>
+
+<p style="margin-left: 23.5em;"><span class="smcap">H. H.</span></p>
+
+<p>The happiest day of my summer in the Rocky Mountains was passed in the
+heart of a mountain consecrated by the songs and the grave of its lover,
+"H. H.,"&mdash;beautiful Cheyenne, the grandest and the most graceful of its
+range.</p>
+
+<p>Camp Harding, my home for the season, in its charming situation, has
+already been described. The fortunate dwellers in this "happy valley"
+were blessed with two delectable walks, "down the road" and "up the
+road." Down the road presented an enchanting procession of flowers,
+which changed from day to day as the season advanced; to-day the scarlet
+castilleia, or painter's-brush, flaming out of the coarse grasses;
+to-morrow the sand lily, lifting its <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span>dainty face above the bare sand;
+next week the harebell, in great clumps, nodding across the field, and
+next month the mariposa or butterfly lily, just peeping from behind the
+brush,&mdash;with dozens of others to keep them company. As one went on, the
+fields grew broader, the walls of the mesa lowered and drew apart, till
+the ca&ntilde;on was lost in the wide, open country.</p>
+
+<p>This was the favorite evening walk, with all the camp dogs in
+attendance,&mdash;the nimble greyhound, the age-stiffened and sedate spaniel,
+the saucy, ill-bred bull-terrier, and the na&iuml;ve baby pug. The loitering
+walk usually ended at the red farmhouse a mile away, and the walkers
+returned to the camp in the gloaming, loaded with flowers, saturated
+with the delicious mountain air, and filled with a peace that passeth
+words.</p>
+
+<p>Up the road led into the mountain, under thick-crowding trees, between
+frowning rocks, ever growing higher and drawing nearer together, till
+the carriage road became a burro track, and then a footpath; now this
+side the boisterous brook, then crossing by a log or two to the other
+side, and ending in the heart of Cheyenne in a <i>cul-de-sac</i>, whose high
+perpendicular sides could be scaled only by flights of steps built
+against the rocks. From high up the mountain, into this immense rocky
+basin, came <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span>the brook Shining Water, in seven tremendous leaps, each
+more lovely than the last, and reached at bottom a deep stone bowl,
+which flung it out in a shower of spray forbidding near approach, and
+keeping the rocks forever wet.</p>
+
+<p>The morning walk was up the road, in the grateful shade of the trees,
+between the cool rocks, beside the impetuous brook. This last was an
+ever fresh source of interest and pleasure, for nothing differs more
+widely from an Eastern brook than its Western namesake. The terms we
+apply to our mountain rivulets do not at all describe a body of water on
+its way down a Rocky Mountain valley. It does not murmur,&mdash;it roars and
+brawls; it cannot ripple,&mdash;it rages and foams about the bowlders that
+lie in its path. The name of a Colorado mountain stream, the Roaring
+Fork, exactly characterizes it.</p>
+
+<p>One warm morning in June, a small party from the camp set out for a walk
+up the road. By easy stages, resting here and there on convenient rocks,
+beguiled at every step by something more beautiful just ahead, they
+penetrated to the end of the ca&ntilde;on. Of that party I was one, and it was
+my first visit. I was alternately in raptures over the richness of
+color, the glowing red sandstone against the violet-blue sky, and
+thrilled by the grandeur <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span>of places which looked as if the whole
+mountain had been violently rent asunder.</p>
+
+<p>But no emotion whatever, no beauty, no sublimity even, can make me
+insensible to a bird note. Just at the entrance to the Pillars of
+Hercules, two towering walls of perpendicular rock that approach each
+other almost threateningly, as if they would close up and crush between
+them the rash mortal who dared to penetrate farther,&mdash;in that impressive
+spot, while I lingered, half yielding to a mysterious hesitation about
+entering the strange portal, a bird song fell upon my ear. It was a
+plaintive warble, that sounded far away up the stern cliff above my
+head. It seemed impossible that a bird could find a foothold, or be in
+any way attracted by those bare walls, yet I turned my eyes, and later
+my glass that way.</p>
+
+<p>At first nothing was to be seen save, part way up the height, an
+exquisite bit of nature. In a niche that might have been scooped out by
+a mighty hand, where scarcely a ray of sunlight could penetrate, and no
+human touch could make or mar, were growing, and blooming luxuriantly, a
+golden columbine, Colorado's pride and glory, a rosy star-shaped blossom
+unknown to me, and a cluster of</p>
+
+<p class="cen">"Proud cyclamens on long, lithe stems that soar."</p>
+
+<p>When I could withdraw my eyes from this <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span>dainty wind-sown garden, I
+sought the singer, who proved to be a small brown bird with a
+conspicuous white throat, flitting about on the face of the rock,
+apparently quite at home, and constantly repeating his few notes. His
+song was tender and bewitching in its effect, though it was really
+simple in construction, being merely nine notes, the first uttered
+twice, and the remaining eight in descending chromatic scale.</p>
+
+<p>Now and then the tiny songster disappeared in what looked like a slight
+crack in the wall, but instantly reappeared, and resumed his siren
+strains. Spellbound I stood, looking and listening; but alas! the hour
+was late, the way was long, and others were waiting; I needs must tear
+myself away. "To-morrow I will come again," I said, as I turned back.
+"To-morrow I shall be here alone, and spend the whole day with the ca&ntilde;on
+wren."</p>
+
+<p>Then we retraced our steps of the morning, lingering among the pleasant
+groves of cottonwood, oak, and aspen; pausing to admire the cactus
+display of gorgeous yellow, with petals widespread, yet so wedded to
+their wildness that they resented the touch of a human hand, resisting
+their ravisher with needle-like barbs, and then sullenly drawing
+together their satin petals and refusing to open them more; past <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span>great
+thickets of wild roses, higher than our heads and fragrant as the
+morning; beside close-growing bushes, where hid the</p>
+
+<p class="cen">"Golden cradle of the moccasin flower,"</p>
+
+<p class="noin">and the too clever yellow-breasted chat had mocked and defied me; and so
+home to the camp.</p>
+
+<p>At an early hour the next morning, the carriage of my hostess set me
+down at the entrance of Cheyenne Ca&ntilde;on proper, with the impedimenta
+necessary for a day's isolation from civilization. I passed through the
+gate,&mdash;for even this grand work of nature is claimed as private
+property; but, happily, through good sense or indifference,
+"improvements" have not been attempted, and one forgets the gate and the
+gate-keeper as soon as they are passed.</p>
+
+<p>Entering at that unnatural hour, and alone, leaving the last human being
+behind,&mdash;staring in astonishment, by the way, at my unprecedented
+proceeding,&mdash;I began to realize, as I walked up the narrow path, that
+the whole grand ca&ntilde;on, winding perhaps a mile into the heart of this
+most beautiful of the Rocky Mountains, was mine alone for three hours.
+Indeed, when the time arrived for tourists to appear, so little did I
+concern myself with them that they might have been a procession of
+spectres passing by; so, in effect, the ca&ntilde;on was my solitary possession
+for nine blissful hours.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span>The delights of that perfect day cannot be put into words. Strolling up
+the path, filled with an inexpressible sense of ownership and seclusion
+from all the world, I first paused in the neighborhood of the small
+cliff-dweller whose music had charmed me, and suggested the enchanting
+idea of spending a day with him in his retreat. I seated myself opposite
+the forbidding wall where the bird had hovered, apparently so much at
+home. All was silent; no singer to be heard, no wren to be seen. The
+sun, which turned the tops of the Pillars to gold as I entered, crept
+down inch by inch till it beat upon my head and clothed the rock in a
+red glory. Still no bird appeared. High above the top of the rocks, in
+the clear thin air of the mountain, a flock of swallows wheeled and
+sported, uttering an unfamiliar two-note call; butterflies fluttered
+irresolute, looking frivolous enough in the presence of the eternal
+hills; gauzy-winged dragonflies zigzagged to and fro, their intense blue
+gleaming in the sun. The hour for visitors drew near, and my precious
+solitude was fast slipping away.</p>
+
+<p>Slowly then I walked up the ca&ntilde;on, looking for my singer. Humming-birds
+were hovering before the bare rock as before a flower, perhaps sipping
+the water-drops that here and there trickled down, and large hawks, like
+mere specks <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span>against the blue, were soaring, but no wren could I see. At
+last I reached the end, with its waterfall fountain. Close within this
+ceaseless sprinkle, on a narrow ledge that was never dry, was placed&mdash;I
+had almost said grew&mdash;a bird's nest; whose, it were needless to ask. One
+American bird, and one only, chooses perpetual dampness for his
+environment,&mdash;the American dipper, or water ouzel.</p>
+
+<p>Here I paused to muse over the spray-soaked cradle on the rock. In this
+strange place had lived a bird so eccentric that he prefers not only to
+nest under a continuous shower, through which he must constantly pass,
+but to spend most of his life in, not on the water. Shall we call him a
+fool or a philosopher? Is the water a protection, and from what? Has
+"damp, moist unpleasantness" no terrors for his fine feathers? Where now
+were the nestlings whose lullaby had been the music of the falling
+waters? Down that sheer rock, perhaps into the water at its foot, had
+been the first flight of the ouzel baby. Why had I come too late to see
+him?</p>
+
+<p>But the hours were passing, while I had not seen, and, what was worse,
+had not heard my first charmer, the ca&ntilde;on wren. Leaving these perplexing
+conundrums unsolved, I turned slowly back down the walk, to resume my
+search. Perhaps fifty feet from the ouzel nest, as I lingered <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span>to admire
+the picturesque rapids in the brook, a slight movement drew my attention
+to a little projection on a stone, not six feet from me, where a small
+chipmunk sat pertly up, holding in his two hands, and eagerly
+nibbling&mdash;was it, could it be a strawberry in this rocky place?</p>
+
+<p>Of course I stopped instantly to look at this pretty sight. I judged him
+to be a youngster, partly because of his evident fearlessness of his
+hereditary enemy, a human being; more on account of the saucy way in
+which he returned my stare; and most, perhaps, from the appearance of
+absorbing delight, in which there was a suggestion of the unexpected,
+with which he discussed that sweet morsel. Closely I watched him as he
+turned the treasure round and round in his deft little paws, and at last
+dropped the rifled hull. Would he go for another, and where? In an
+instant, with a parting glance at me, to make sure that I had not moved,
+he scrambled down his rocky throne, and bounded in great leaps over the
+path to a crumpled paper, which I saw at once was one of the bags with
+which tourists sow the earth. But its presence there did not rouse in my
+furry friend the indignation it excited in me. To him it was a
+treasure-trove, for into it he disappeared without a moment's
+hesitation; and almost before I had jumped to the conclusion that it
+contained <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span>the remains of somebody's luncheon, he reappeared, holding in
+his mouth another strawberry, bounded over the ground to his former
+seat, and proceeded to dispose of that one, also. The scene was so
+charming and his pleasure so genuine that I forgave the careless
+traveler on the spot, and only wished I had a kodak to secure a
+permanent picture of this unique strawberry festival.</p>
+
+<p>As I loitered along, gazing idly at the brook, ever listening and
+longing for the wren song, I was suddenly struck motionless by a loud,
+shrill, and peculiar cry. It was plainly a bird voice, and it seemed to
+come almost from the stream itself. It ceased in a moment, and then
+followed a burst of song, liquid as the singing of the brook, and
+enchantingly sweet, though very low. I was astounded. Who could sing
+like that up in this narrow mountain gorge, where I supposed the ca&ntilde;on
+wren was king?</p>
+
+<p>At the point where I stood, a straggling shrub, the only one for rods,
+hung over the brink. I silently sank to a seat behind it, lest I disturb
+the singer, and remained without movement. The baffling carol went on
+for some seconds, and for the only time in my life I wished I could put
+a spell upon brook-babble, that I might the better hear.</p>
+
+<p>Cautiously I raised my glass to my eyes, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span>examined the rocks across
+the water, probably eight feet from me. Then arose again that strange
+cry, and at the same instant my eye fell upon a tiny ledge, level with
+the water, and perhaps six inches long, on which stood a small
+fellow-creature in great excitement. He was engaged in what I should
+call "curtsying"; that is, bending his leg joint, and dropping his plump
+little body for a second, then bobbing up to his fullest height,
+repeating the performance constantly,&mdash;looking eagerly out over the
+water the while, evidently expecting somebody. This was undoubtedly the
+bird's manner of begging for food,&mdash;a very pretty and well-bred way,
+too, vastly superior to the impetuous calls and demands of some young
+birds. The movement was "dipping," of course, and he was the dipper, or
+ouzel baby, that had been cradled in that fountain-dashed nest by the
+fall. He was not long out of it, either; for though fully dressed in his
+modest slate-color, with white feet, and white edgings to many of his
+feathers, he had hardly a vestige of a tail. He was a winsome baby, for
+all that.</p>
+
+<p>While I studied the points of the stranger, breathless lest he should
+disappear before my eyes, he suddenly burst out with the strange call I
+had heard. It was clearly a cry of joy, of welcome, for out of the
+water, up on to the ledge <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span>beside him, scrambled at that moment a
+grown-up ouzel. He gave one poke into the wide-open mouth of the infant,
+then slipped back into the water, dropped down a foot or more, climbed
+out upon another little shelf in the rock, and in a moment the song
+arose. I watched the singer closely. The notes were so low and so
+mingled with the roar of the brook that even then I should not have been
+certain he was uttering them if I had not seen his throat and mouth
+distinctly. The song was really exquisite, and as much in harmony with
+the melody of the stream as the voice of the English sparrow is with the
+city sounds among which he dwells, and the plaintive refrain of the
+meadow-lark with the low-lying, silent fields where he spends his days.</p>
+
+<p>But little cared baby ouzel for music, however ravishing. What to his
+mind was far more important was food,&mdash;in short, worms. His pretty
+begging continued, and the daring notion of attempting a perilous
+journey over the foot of water that separated him from his papa plainly
+entered his head. He hurried back and forth on the brink with growing
+agitation, and was seemingly about to plunge in, when the singer again
+entered the water, brought up another morsel, and then stood on the
+ledge beside the eager youngling, "dipping" <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span>occasionally himself, and
+showing every time he winked&mdash;as did the little one, also&mdash;snowy-white
+eyelids, in strange contrast to the dark slate-colored plumage.</p>
+
+<p>This aesthetic manner of discharging family duties, alternating food for
+the body with rapture of the soul, continued for some time, probably
+until the young bird had as much as was good for him; and then supplies
+were cut off by the peremptory disappearance of the purveyor, who
+plunged with the brook over the edge of a rock, and was seen no more.</p>
+
+<p>A little later a grown bird appeared, that I supposed at first was the
+returning papa, but a few moments' observation convinced me that it was
+the mother; partly because no song accompanied the work, but more
+because of the entirely different manners of the new-comer. Filling the
+crop of that importunate offspring of hers was, with this Quaker-dressed
+dame, a serious business that left no time for rest or recreation. Two
+charmed hours I sat absorbed, watching the most wonderful evolutions one
+could believe possible to a creature in feathers.</p>
+
+<p>At the point where this little drama was enacted, the brook rushed over
+a line of pebbles stretching from bank to bank, lying at all angles and
+of all sizes, from six to ten inches in diameter. Then it ran five or
+six feet quietly, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span>around smooth rocks here and there above the water,
+and ended by plunging over a mass of bowlders to a lower level. The bird
+began by mounting one of those slippery rounded stones, and thrusting
+her head under water up to her shoulders. Holding it there a few
+seconds, apparently looking for something, she then jumped in where the
+turmoil was maddest, picked an object from the bottom, and, returning to
+the ledge, gave it to baby.</p>
+
+<p>The next moment, before I had recovered from my astonishment at this
+feat of the ouzel, she ran directly up the falls (which, though not
+high, were exceedingly lively), being half the time entirely under
+water, and exactly as much at her ease as if no water were there; though
+how she could stand in the rapid current, not to speak of walking
+straight up against it, I could not understand.</p>
+
+<p>Often she threw herself into the stream, and let it carry her down, like
+a duck, a foot or two, while she looked intently on the bottom, then
+simply walked up out of it on to a stone. I could see that her plumage
+was not in the least wet; a drop or two often rested on her back when
+she came out, but it rolled off in a moment. She never even shook
+herself. The food she brought to that eager youngling every few minutes
+looked like minute worms, doubtless some insect larv&aelig;.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span>Several times this hard-working mother plunged into the brook where it
+was shallow, ran or walked down it, half under water, and stopped on the
+very brink of the lower fall, where one would think she could not even
+stand, much less turn back and run up stream, which she did freely. This
+looked to me almost as difficult as for a man to stand on the brink of
+Niagara, with the water roaring and tumbling around him. Now and then
+the bird ran or flew up, against the current, and entirely under water,
+so that I could see her only as a dark-colored moving object, and then
+came out all fresh and dry beside the baby, with a mouthful of food. I
+should hardly dare to tell this, for fear of raising doubts of my
+accuracy, if the same thing had not been seen and reported by others
+before me. Her crowning action was to stand with one foot on each of two
+stones in the middle and most uproarious part of the little fall, lean
+far over, and deliberately pick something from a third stone.</p>
+
+<p>All this was no show performance, even no frolic, on the part of the
+ouzel,&mdash;it was simply her every-day manner of providing for the needs of
+that infant; and when she considered the duty discharged for the time,
+she took her departure, very probably going at once to the care of a
+second youngster who awaited her coming in some other niche in the
+rocks.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span>Finding himself alone again, and no more dainties coming his way, the
+young dipper turned for entertainment to the swift-running streamlet. He
+went down to the edge, stepping easily, never hopping; but when the
+shallow edge of the water ran over his pretty white toes, he hastily
+scampered back, as if afraid to venture farther. The clever little rogue
+was only coquetting, however, for when he did at last plunge in he
+showed himself very much at home. He easily crossed a turbulent bit of
+the brook, and when he was carried down a little he scrambled without
+trouble up on a stone. All the time, too, he was peering about after
+food; and in fact it was plain that his begging was a mere pretense,&mdash;he
+was perfectly well able to look out for himself. Through the whole of
+these scenes not one of the birds, old or young, had paid the slightest
+attention to me, though I was not ten feet from them.</p>
+
+<p>During the time I had been so absorbed in my delightful study of
+domestic life in the ouzel family, the other interesting resident of the
+ca&ntilde;on&mdash;the elusive ca&ntilde;on wren&mdash;had been forgotten. Now, as I noticed
+that the day was waning, I thought of him again, and, tearing myself
+away from the enticing picture, leaving the pretty baby to his own
+amusements, I returned to the famous Pillars, and planted <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span>myself before
+my rock, resolved to stay there till the bird appeared.</p>
+
+<p>No note came to encourage me, but, gazing steadily upward, after a time
+I noticed something that looked like a fly running along the wall.
+Bringing my glass to my eyes, I found that it was a bird, and one of the
+white-throated family I so longed to see. She&mdash;for her silence and her
+ways proclaimed her sex&mdash;was running about where appeared to be nothing
+but perpendicular rock, flirting her tail after the manner of her race,
+as happy and as unconcerned as if several thousand feet of sheer cliff
+did not stretch between her and the brook at its foot. Her movements
+were jerky and wren-like, and every few minutes she flitted into a tiny
+crevice that seemed, from my point of view, hardly large enough to admit
+even her minute form. She was dressed like the sweet singer of
+yesterday, and the door she entered so familiarly was the same I had
+seen him interested in. I guessed that she was his mate.</p>
+
+<p>The bird seemed to be gathering from the rock something which she
+constantly carried into the hole. Possibly there were nestlings in that
+snug and inaccessible home. To discover if my conjectures were true, I
+redoubled my vigilance, though it was neck-breaking work, for so narrow
+was the ca&ntilde;on at that point that I <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span>could not get far enough away for a
+more level view.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes the bustling little wren flew to the top of the wall, about
+twenty feet above her front door, as it looked to me (it may have been
+ten times that). Over the edge she instantly disappeared, but in a few
+minutes returned to her occupation on the rock. Upon the earth beneath
+her sky parlor she seemed never to turn her eyes, and I began to fear
+that I should get no nearer view of the shy cliff-dweller.</p>
+
+<p>Finally, however, the caprice seized the tantalizing creature of
+descending to the level of mortals, and the brook. Suddenly, while I
+looked, she flung herself off her perch, and
+fell&mdash;down&mdash;down&mdash;down&mdash;disappearing at last behind a clump of weeds at
+the bottom. Was she killed? Had she been shot by some noiseless air-gun?
+What had become of the tiny wren? I sprang to my feet, and hurried as
+near as the intervening stream would allow, when lo! there she was,
+lively and fussy as ever, running about at the foot of the cliff,
+searching, searching all the time, ever and anon jumping up and pulling
+from the rock something that clung to it.</p>
+
+<p>When the industrious bird had filled her beak with material that stuck
+out on both sides, which I concluded to be some kind of rock moss, she
+started back. Not up the face of that blank <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span>wall, loaded as she was,
+but by a strange path that she knew well, up which I watched her wending
+her way to her proper level. This was a cleft between two solid bodies
+of rock, where, it would seem, the two walls, in settling together for
+their lifelong union, had broken and crumbled, and formed between them a
+sort of crack, filled with unattached bowlders, with crevices and
+passages, sometimes perpendicular, sometimes horizontal. Around and
+through these was a zigzag road to the top, evidently as familiar to
+that atom of a bird as Broadway is to some of her fellow-creatures, and
+more easily traversed, for she had it all to herself.</p>
+
+<p>The wren flew about three feet to the first step of her upward passage,
+then ran and clambered nearly all the rest of the way, darting behind
+jutting rocks and coming out the other side, occasionally flying a foot
+or two; now pausing as if for an observation, jerking her tail upright
+and letting it drop back, wren-fashion, then starting afresh, and so
+going on till she reached the level of her nest, when she flew across
+the (apparent) forty or fifty feet, directly into the crevice. In a
+minute she came out, and without an instant's pause flung herself down
+again.</p>
+
+<p>I watched this curious process very closely. The wren seemed to close
+her wings; certainly she did not use them, nor were they in the least
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span>spread that I could detect. She came to the ground as if she were a
+stone, as quickly and as directly as a stone would have fallen; but just
+before touching the ground she spread her wings, and alighted lightly on
+her feet. Then she fell to her labor of collecting what I suppose was
+nesting material, and in a few minutes started up again by the
+roundabout road to the top. Two hours or more, with gradually stiffening
+neck, I spent with the wren, while she worked constantly and silently,
+and not once during all that time did the singer appear.</p>
+
+<p>What the scattering parties of tourists, who from time to time passed
+me, thought of a silent personage sitting in the ca&ntilde;on alone, staring
+intently up at a blank wall of rock, I did not inquire. Perhaps that she
+was a verse-writer seeking inspiration; more likely, however, a harmless
+lunatic musing over her own fancies.</p>
+
+<p>I know well what I thought of them, from the glimpses that came to me as
+I sat there; some climbing over the sharp-edged rocks, in tight boots,
+delicate kid gloves, and immaculate traveling costumes, and panting for
+breath in the seven thousand feet altitude; others uncomfortably seated
+on the backs of the scraggy little burros, one of whom was so interested
+in my proceedings that he walked directly up and thrust his long,
+inquiring ears into my very face, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span>spite of the resistance of his rider,
+forcing me to rise and decline closer acquaintance. One of the
+melancholy procession was loaded with a heavy camera, another equipped
+with a butterfly net; this one bent under the weight of a big basket of
+luncheon, and that one was burdened with satchels and wraps and
+umbrellas. All were laboriously trying to enjoy themselves, but not one
+lingered to look at the wonder and the beauty of the surroundings. I
+pitied them, one and all, feeling obliged, as no doubt they did, to "see
+the sights;" tramping the lovely ca&ntilde;on to-day, glancing neither to right
+nor left; whirling through the Garden of the Gods to-morrow; painfully
+climbing the next day the burro track to the Grave, the sacred point
+where</p>
+
+<p class="noin">
+<span style="margin-left: 13.5em;">"Upon the wind-blown mountain spot</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 13.5em;">Chosen and loved as best by her,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 13.5em;">Watched over by near sun and star,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 13.5em;">Encompassed by wide skies, she sleeps."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Alas that one cannot quote with truth the remaining lines!</p>
+
+<p class="noin">
+<span style="margin-left: 13.5em;">"And not one jarring murmur creeps</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 13.5em;">Up from the plain her rest to mar."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>For now, at the end of the toilsome passage, that place which should be
+sacred to loving memories and tender thoughts, is desecrated by placards
+and picnickers, defaced by advertisements, strewn with the
+wrapping-paper, tin cans, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span>and bottles with which the modern
+globe-trotter marks his path through the beautiful and sacred scenes in
+nature.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p>
+
+<p>In this uncomfortable way the majority of summer tourists spend day
+after day, and week after week; going home tired out, with no new idea
+gained, but happy to be able to say they have been here and there,
+beheld this ca&ntilde;on, dined on that mountain, drank champagne in such a
+pass, and struggled for breath on top of "the Peak." Their eyes may
+indeed have passed over these scenes, but they have not <i>seen</i> one
+thing.</p>
+
+<p>Far wiser is he (and more especially she) who seeks out a corner obscure
+enough to escape the eyes of the "procession," settles himself in it,
+and spends fruitful and delightful days alone with nature; never hasting
+nor rushing; seeing and studying the wonders at hand, but avoiding
+"parties" and "excursions;" valuing more a thorough knowledge of one
+ca&ntilde;on than a glimpse of fifty; caring more to appreciate the beauties of
+one mountain than to scramble over a whole range; getting into such
+perfect harmony with nature that it is as if he had come into possession
+of a new life; and from such an <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span>experience returning to his home
+refreshed and invigorated in mind and body.</p>
+
+<p>Such were my reflections as the sun went down, and I felt, as I passed
+out through the gate, that I ought to double my entrance fee, so much
+had my life been enriched by that perfect day alone in Cheyenne Ca&ntilde;on.</p>
+
+<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Since the above was written, I am glad to learn that,
+because of this vandalism, the remains of "H. H." have been removed to
+the cemetery at Colorado Springs.</p></div>
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<hr /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span>
+<br />
+<h2>IN THE MIDDLE COUNTRY.</h2>
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<p class="noin">
+<span style="margin-left: 10.0em;">For all the woods are shrill with stress of song,</span><br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span>
+<span style="margin-left: 11.0em;">Where soft wings flutter down to new-built nests,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 10.0em;">And turbulent sweet sounds are heard day long,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 11.0em;">As of innumerable marriage feasts.</span></p>
+
+<p style="margin-left: 17.5em;"><span class="smcap">Charles Lotin Hildreth.</span></p>
+<br />
+<br /><a name="VIII" id="VIII"></a>
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<hr /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span>
+<br />
+<h2>VIII.</h2>
+
+<h2>AT FOUR O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING.</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>Four o'clock in the morning is the magical hour of the day. I do not
+offer this sentiment as original, nor have I the slightest hope of
+converting any one to my opinion; I merely state the fact.</p>
+
+<p>For years I had known it perfectly well; and fortified by my knowledge,
+and bristling with good resolutions, I went out every June determined to
+rise at that unnatural hour. Nothing is easier than to get up at four
+o'clock&mdash;the night before; but when morning comes, the point of view is
+changed, and all the arguments that arise in the mind are on the other
+side; sleep is the one thing desirable. The case appeared hopeless.
+Appeals from Philip drunk (with sleep) to Philip sober did not seem to
+avail; for whatever the latter decreed, the former would surely disobey.</p>
+
+<p>But last June I found my spur; last summer I learned to get up with
+eagerness, and stay up with delight. This was effected by means of an
+alarm, set by the evening's wakefulness, that <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span>had no mercy on the
+morning's sleepiness. The secret is&mdash;a present interest. What may be
+going on somewhere out of sight and hearing in the world is a matter of
+perfect indifference; what is heard and seen at the moment is an
+argument that no one can resist.</p>
+
+<p>I got my hint by the accident of some shelled corn being left on the
+ground before my window, and so attracting a four o'clock party,
+consisting of blackbirds, blue jays, and doves. I noticed the corn, but
+did not think of the pleasure it would give me, until the next morning,
+when I was awakened about four o'clock by loud and excited talk in
+blackbird tones, and hurried to the window, to find that I had half the
+birds of the neighborhood before me.</p>
+
+<p>Most in number, and most noisy, were the common blackbirds, who just at
+that time were feeding their young in a grove of evergreens back of the
+house, where they had set up their nurseries in a crowd, as is their
+custom. It is impossible to take this bird seriously, he is so
+irresistibly ludicrous. His manners always suggest to me the peculiar
+drollery of the negro; one of the old-fashioned sort, as we read of him,
+and I promised myself some amusement from the study of him at short
+range; I was not disappointed.</p>
+
+<p>My greeting as I took my seat at the open <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span>window, unfortunately without
+blinds to screen me, was most comical. A big pompous fellow turned his
+wicked-looking white eye upon me, drew himself into a queer humped-up
+position, with all his feathers on end, and apparently by a strong
+effort <i>squeezed</i> out a husky and squeaky, yet loud cry of two notes,
+which sounded exactly like "Squee-gee!"</p>
+
+<p>I was so astounded that I laughed in his face; at which he repeated it
+with added emphasis, then turned his back on me, as unworthy of notice
+away up in my window, and gave his undivided attention to a specially
+large grain of corn which had been unearthed by a meek-looking neighbor,
+and appropriated by him, in the most lordly manner. His bearing at the
+moment was superb and stately in a degree of which only a bird who walks
+is capable; one cannot be dignified who is obliged to hop.</p>
+
+<p>I thought his greeting was a personal one to show contempt&mdash;which it did
+emphatically&mdash;to the human race in general, and to me in particular, but
+I found later that it was the ordinary blackbird way of being offensive;
+it was equivalent to "Get out!" or "Shut up!" or some other of the curt
+and rude expressions in use by bigger folk than blackbirds.</p>
+
+<p>If a bird alighted too near one of these arrogant fellows on the ground,
+he was met with the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span>same expletive, and if he was about the same size
+he "talked back." The number and variety of utterances at their command
+was astonishing; I was always being surprised with a new one. Now a
+blackbird would fly across the lawn, making a noise exactly like a boy's
+tin trumpet, and repeating it as long as he was within hearing,
+regarding it, seemingly, as an exceptionally great feat. Again one would
+seize a kernel of corn, burst out with a convulsive cry, as if he were
+choking to death, and fly off with his prize, in imminent danger of his
+life, as I could not but feel.</p>
+
+<p>The second morning a youngster came with his papa to the feast, and he
+was droller, if possible, than his elders. He followed his parent
+around, with head lowered and mouth wide open, fairly bawling in a loud
+yet husky tone.</p>
+
+<p>The young blackbird does not appear in the glossy suit of his parents.
+His coat is rusty in hue, and his eye is dark, as is proper in youth. He
+is not at all backward in speaking his mind, and his sole desire at this
+period of his life being food, he demands it with an energy and
+persistence that usually insures success.</p>
+
+<p>In making close acquaintance with them, one cannot help longing to
+prescribe to the whole blackbird family something to clear their
+bronchial tubes; every tone is husky, and the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span>student involuntarily
+clears his own throat as he listens.</p>
+
+<p>I was surprised to find the blackbirds so beautiful. When the sun was
+near setting, and struck across the grass its level rays, they were
+really exquisite; their heads a brilliant metallic blue, and all back of
+that rich bronze or purple, all over as glossy as satin. The little
+dames are somewhat smaller, and a shade less finely dressed than their
+bumptious mates; but that does not make them meek&mdash;far from it! and they
+are not behind their partners in eccentric freaks. Sometimes one would
+apparently attempt a joke by starting to fly, and passing so near the
+head of one of the dignitaries on the ground that he would involuntarily
+start and "duck" ingloriously. On one occasion a pair were working
+peaceably together at the corn, when she flirted a bit of dirt so that
+it flew toward him. He dashed furiously at her. She gave one hop which
+took her about a foot away, and then it appeared that she coveted a
+kernel of corn that was near him when the offense was given, for she
+instantly jumped back and pounced upon it as if she expected to be
+annihilated. He ran after her and drove her off, but she kept her prize.</p>
+
+<p>Eating one of those hard grains was no joke to anybody without teeth,
+and it was a serious <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span>affair to one of the blackbirds. He took it into
+his beak, dropped both head and tail, and gave his mind to the cracking
+of the sweet morsel. At this time he particularly disliked to be
+disturbed, and the only time I saw one rude to a youngster was when
+struggling with this difficulty. While feeding the nestlings, they broke
+the kernels into bits, picked up all the pieces, filling the beak the
+whole length, and then flew off with them.</p>
+
+<p>But they were not always allowed to keep the whole kernel. They were
+generally attended while on the ground by a little party of thieves,
+ready and waiting to snatch any morsel that was dropped. These were, of
+course, the English sparrows. They could not break corn, but they liked
+it for all that, so they used their wits to secure it, and of sharpness
+these street birds have no lack. The moment a blackbird alighted on the
+grass, a sparrow or two came down beside him, and lingered around,
+watching eagerly. Whenever a crumb dropped, one rushed in and snatched
+it, and instantly flew from the wrath to come.</p>
+
+<p>The sparrows had not been at this long before some of the wise
+blackbirds saw through it, and resented it with proper spirit. One of
+them would turn savagely after the sparrow who followed him, and the
+knowing rascal <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span>always took his departure. It was amusing to see a
+blackbird working seriously on a grain, all his faculties absorbed in
+the solemn question whether he should succeed in cracking his nut, while
+two or three feathered pilferers stood as near as they dared, anxiously
+waiting till the great work should be accomplished, the hard shell
+should yield, and some bits should fall.</p>
+
+<p>About five days after the feast was spread, the young came out in force,
+often two of them following one adult about on the grass, running after
+him so closely that he could hardly get a chance to break up the kernel;
+indeed, he often had to fly to a tree to prepare the mouthfuls for them.
+The young blackbird has not the slightest repose of manner; nor, for
+that matter, has the old one either. The grown-ups treated the young
+well, almost always; they never "squee-gee'd" at them, never touched
+them in any way, notwithstanding they were so insistent in begging that
+they would chase an adult bird across the grass, calling madly all the
+time, and fairly force him to fly away to get rid of them.</p>
+
+<p>Once two young ones got possession of the only spot where corn was left,
+and so tormented their elders who came that they had to dash in and
+snatch a kernel when they wanted one. One of the old ones danced around
+these two babies in a little circle a foot in diameter, the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span>infants
+turning as he moved, and ever presenting open beaks to him. It was one
+of the funniest exhibitions I ever saw. After going around half a dozen
+times, the baffled blackbird flew away without a taste.</p>
+
+<p>When the two had driven every one else off the ground by their
+importunities, one of them plucked up spirit to try managing the corn
+for himself. Like a little man he stopped bawling, and began exercising
+his strength on the sweet grain. Upon this his neighbor, instead of
+following his example, began to beg of him! fluttering his wings,
+putting up his beak, and almost pulling the corn out of the mouth of the
+poor little fellow struggling with his first kernel!</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes a young one drove his parent all over a tree with his
+supplications. Higher and higher would go the persecuted, with his
+tormentor scrambling, and half flying after, till the elder absolutely
+flew away, much put out.</p>
+
+<p>Long before this time the corn had been used up. But I could not bear to
+lose my morning entertainment, for all these things took place between
+four and six <span class="smcap">A. M.</span>&mdash;so I made a trip to the village, and bought
+a bag of the much desired dainty, some handfuls of which I scattered
+every night after birds were abed, ready for the sunrise show.
+Blackbirds were not the only guests at the feast; there were the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span>doves,&mdash;mourning, or wood-doves,&mdash;who dropped to the grass, serene as a
+summer morning, walking around in their small red boots, with mincing
+steps and fussy little bows. Blue jays, too, came in plenty, selected
+each his grain and flew away with it. Robins, seeing all the excitement,
+came over from their regular hunting-ground, but never finding anything
+so attractive as worms, they soon left.</p>
+
+<p>The corn feast wound up with a droll excitement. One day a child from
+the house took her doll out in the grass to play, set it up against a
+tree trunk, and left it there. It had long light hair which stood out
+around the head, and it did look rather uncanny, but it was amusing to
+see the consternation it caused. Blue jays came to trees near by, and
+talked in low tones to each other; then one after another swooped down
+toward it; then they all squawked at it, and finding this of no avail,
+they left in a body.</p>
+
+<p>The robins approached cautiously, two of them, calling constantly, "he!
+he! he!" One was determined not to be afraid, and came nearer and
+nearer, till within about a foot of the strange object and behind it,
+when suddenly he started as though shot, jumped back, and both flew in a
+panic.</p>
+
+<p>Soon after this a red-headed woodpecker alighted on the trunk of the
+elm, preparatory <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span>to helping himself to a grain of corn. The moment his
+eyes fell upon madam of the fluffy hair, he burst out with a loud, rapid
+woodpecker "chitter," gradually growing higher in key and louder in
+tone. The blue jay flew down from the nest across the yard, and another
+came from behind the house; both perched near and stared at him, and
+then began to talk in low tones. A robin came hastily over and gazed at
+the usually silent red-head, and apparently it was to all as strange a
+performance as it was to me, or possibly they recognized that it was a
+cry of warning against danger.</p>
+
+<p>After he had us all aroused, the bird suddenly fell to silence, and
+resumed his ordinary manner, but he did not go after corn. I suppose the
+harangue was addressed to the doll.</p>
+
+<p>That was the last scene in the first act of the corn feast, for the
+blackbirds had become so numerous and so noisy that they made morning
+hideous to the whole household, and I stopped the supplies for several
+days, till these birds ceased to expect anything, and so came no more,
+and then I spread a fresh breakfast-table for more interesting guests,
+whose manners and customs I studied for weeks.</p>
+
+<p>I was invariably startled wide awake on these mornings by a bird note,
+and sprang up, to see at one glance that</p>
+
+<p class="noin">
+<span style="margin-left: 12.5em;">"Day had awakened all things that be,</span><br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span>
+<span style="margin-left: 12.5em;">The lark and the thrush, and the swallow free,"</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noin">and that my party was already assembled; one or two cardinals&mdash;or
+redbirds, as they are often called&mdash;on the grass, with the usual
+attendance of English sparrows, and the red-headed woodpecker in the
+elm, surveying the lawn, and considering which of the trespassers he
+should fall upon. It was the work of one minute to get into my wraps and
+seat myself, with opera glass, at the wide-open window.</p>
+
+<p>My first discovery made, however, during the blackbird reign, was that
+four o'clock is the most lovely part of the day. All the dust of human
+affairs having settled during the hours of sleep, the air is fresh and
+sweet, as if just made; and generally, just before sunrise, the foliage
+is at perfect rest,&mdash;the repose of night still lingering, the world of
+nature as well as of men still sleeping.</p>
+
+<p>The first thing one naturally looks for, as birds begin to waken, is a
+morning chorus of song. True bird-lovers, indeed, long for it with a
+longing that cannot be told. But alas, every year the chorus is
+withdrawing more and more to the woods, every year it is harder to find
+a place where English sparrows are not in possession; and it is one of
+the most grievous sins of that bird that he spoils the song, even when
+he <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span>does not succeed in driving out the singer. A running accompaniment
+of harsh and interminable squawks overpowers the music of meadow-lark
+and robin, and the glorious song of the thrush is fairly murdered by it.
+One could almost forgive the sparrow his other crimes, if he would only
+lie abed in the morning; if he would occasionally listen, and not
+forever break the peace of the opening day with his vulgar brawling. But
+the subject of English sparrows is maddening to a lover of native birds;
+let us not defile the magic hour by considering it.</p>
+
+<p>The most obvious resident of the neighborhood, at four o'clock in the
+morning, was always the golden-winged woodpecker, or flicker. Though he
+scorned the breakfast I offered, having no vegetarian proclivities, he
+did not refuse me his presence. I found him a character, and an amusing
+study, and I never saw his tribe so numerous and so much at home.</p>
+
+<p>Though largest in size of my four o'clock birds, and most fully
+represented (always excepting the English sparrows), the golden-wing was
+not in command. The autocrat of the hour, the reigning power, was quite
+a different personage, although belonging to the woodpecker family. It
+was a red-headed woodpecker who assumed to own the lawn and be master of
+the feast. This individual was marked by a defect <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span>in plumage, and had
+been a regular caller since the morning of my arrival. During the
+blackbird supremacy over the corn supply he had been hardly more than a
+spectator, coming to the trunk of the elm and surveying the assembly of
+blue jays, doves, blackbirds, and sparrows with interest, as one looks
+down upon a herd with whom he has nothing in common. But when those
+birds departed, and the visitors were of a different character, mostly
+cardinals, with an occasional blue jay, he at once took the place he
+felt belonged to him&mdash;that of dictator.</p>
+
+<p>The Virginia cardinal, a genuine F. F. V., and a regular attendant at my
+corn breakfast, was a subject of special study with me; indeed, it was
+largely on his account that I had set up my tent in that part of the
+world. I had all my life known him as a tenant of cages, and it struck
+me at first as very odd to see him flying about freely, like other wild
+birds. No one, it seemed to me, ever looked so out of place as this
+fellow of elegant manners, aristocratic crest, and brilliant dress,
+hopping about on the ground with his exaggerated little hops, tail held
+stiffly up out of harm's way, and uttering sharp "tsips." One could not
+help the feeling that he was altogether too fine for this common
+work-a-day existence; that he was intended for show; and that a gilded
+cage was his proper <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span>abiding-place, with a retinue of human servants to
+minister to his comfort. Yet he was modest and unassuming, and appeared
+really to enjoy his life of hard work; varying his struggles with a
+kernel of hard corn on the ground, where his color shone out like a
+flower against the green, with a rest on a spruce-tree, where</p>
+
+<p class="cen">"Like a living jewel he sits and sings;"</p>
+
+<p>and when he had finished his frugal meal, departing, if nothing hurried
+him, with a graceful, loitering flight, in which each wing-beat seemed
+to carry him but a few inches forward, and leave his body poised, an
+infinitesimal second for another beat. With much noise of fluttering
+wings he would start for some point, but appear not to care much whether
+he got there. He was never in haste unless there was something to hurry
+him, in which he differed greatly from some of the fidgety, restless
+personages I have known among the feathered folk.</p>
+
+<p>The woodpecker's way of making himself disagreeable to this
+distinguished guest, was to keep watch from his tree (an elm overlooking
+the supply of corn) till he came to eat, and then fly down, aiming for
+exactly the spot occupied by the bird on the ground. No one, however
+brave, could help "getting out from under," when he saw this tricolored
+whirlwind descending upon him. The cardinal always jumped <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span>aside, then
+drew himself up, crest erect, tail held at an angle of forty-five
+degrees, and faced the woodpecker, calm, but prepared to stand up for
+his right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of his breakfast. Sometimes
+they had a little set-to, with beaks not more than three inches apart,
+the woodpecker making feints of rushing upon his <i>vis-&agrave;-vis</i>, and the
+cardinal jumping up ready to clinch, if a fight became necessary. It
+never went quite so far as that, though they glared at each other, and
+the cardinal uttered a little whispered "ha!" every time he sprang up.</p>
+
+<p>The Virginian's deliberate manner of eating made peace important to him.
+He took a grain of hard corn in his mouth, lengthwise; then working his
+sharp-edged beak, he soon succeeded in cutting the shell of the kernel
+through its whole length. From this he went on turning it with his
+tongue, and still cutting with his beak, till the whole shell rolled out
+of the side of his mouth in one long piece, completely cleared from its
+savory contents.</p>
+
+<p>The red-head, on the contrary, took his grain of corn to a branch, or
+sometimes to the trunk of a tree, where he sought a suitable crevice in
+the bark or in a crotch, placed his kernel, hammered it well in till
+firm and safe, and then proceeded to pick off pieces and eat them
+daintily, one by one. Sometimes he left a kernel <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span>there, and I saw how
+firmly it was wedged in, when the English sparrow discovered his store,
+fell upon it, and dug it out. It was a good deal of work for a
+strong-billed, persistent sparrow to dislodge a grain thus placed. But
+of course he never gave up till he could carry it off, probably because
+he saw that some one valued it; for since he was unable to crack a grain
+that was whole, it must have been useless to him. Sometimes the
+woodpecker wedged the kernel into a crevice in the bark of the trunk,
+then broke it up, and packed the pieces away in other niches; and I have
+seen an English sparrow go carefully over the trunk, picking out and
+eating these tidbits. That, or something else, has taught sparrows to
+climb tree trunks, which they do, in the neighborhood I speak of, with
+as much ease as a woodpecker. I have repeatedly seen them go the whole
+length of a tall elm trunk; proceeding by little hops, aided by the
+wings, and using the tail for support almost as handily as a woodpecker
+himself.</p>
+
+<p>The red-head's assumption of being monarch of all he surveyed did not
+end with the breakfast-table; he seemed to consider himself guardian and
+protector of the whole place. One evening I was drawn far down on the
+lawn by a peculiar cry of his. It began with a singular performance
+which I have already described, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span>a loud, rapid "chit-it-it-it-it,"
+increasing in volume and rising in pitch, as though he were working
+himself up to some deed of desperation. In a few minutes, however, he
+appeared to get his feelings under control, and dropped to a single-note
+cry, often repeated. It differed widely from his loud call, "wok! wok!
+wok!" still more from the husky tones of his conversation with others of
+his kind; neither was it like the war-cries with which he intimated to
+another bird that he was not invited to breakfast. I thought there must
+be trouble brewing, especially as mingled with it was an occasional
+excited "pe-auk!" of a flicker. When I reached the spot, I found a
+curious party, consisting of two doves and three flickers, assembled on
+one small tree, with the woodpecker on an upper branch, as though
+addressing his remarks to them.</p>
+
+<p>As I drew near the scene of the excitement, the doves flew, and then the
+golden-wings; but the red-head held his ground, though he stopped his
+cries when he saw help coming. In vain I looked about for the cause of
+the row; everything was serene. It was a beautiful quiet evening, and
+not a child, nor a dog, nor anything in sight to make trouble. The tree
+stood quite by itself, in the midst of grass that knew not the clatter
+of the lawn-mower.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span>I stood still and waited; and I had my reward, for after a few minutes'
+silence I saw a pair of ears, and then a head, cautiously lifted above
+the grass, about fifteen feet from the tree. The mystery was solved; it
+was a cat, whom all birds know as a creature who will bear watching when
+prowling around the haunts of bird families. I am fond of pussy, but I
+deprecate her taste for game, as I do that of some other hunters, wiser
+if not better than she. I invited her to leave this place, where she
+plainly was unwelcome, by an emphatic "scat!" and a stick tossed her
+way. She instantly dropped into the grass and was lost to view; and as
+the woodpecker, whose eyes were sharper and his position better than
+mine, said no more, I concluded she had taken the hint and departed.</p>
+<br />
+<br /><a name="IX" id="IX"></a>
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<hr /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span>
+<br />
+<h2>IX.</h2>
+
+<h2>THE LITTLE REDBIRDS.</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>When the little redbirds began to visit the lawn there were exciting
+times. At first they ventured only to the trees overlooking it; and the
+gayly dressed father who had them in charge reminded me of nothing so
+much as a fussy young mother. He was alert to the tips of his toes, and
+excited, as if the whole world was thirsting for the life of those
+frowzy-headed youngsters in the maple. His manner intimated that nobody
+ever had birdlings before; indeed, that there never had been, or could
+be, just such a production as that young family behind the leaves. While
+they were there, he flirted his tail, jerked himself around, crest
+standing sharply up, and in every way showed his sense of importance and
+responsibility.</p>
+
+<p>As for the young ones, after they had been hopping about the branches a
+week or so, and papa had grown less madly anxious if one looked at them,
+they appeared bright and spirited, dressed in the subdued and tasteful
+hues of their mother, with pert little crests and dark <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span>beaks. They were
+not allowed on the grass, and they waited patiently on the tree while
+their provider shelled a kernel and took it up to them. The cardinal
+baby I found to be a self-respecting individual, who generally waits in
+patience his parents' pleasure, though he is not too often fed. He is
+not bumptious nor self-assertive, like many others; he rarely teases,
+and is altogether a well-mannered and proper young person. After a
+while, as the youngsters learned strength and speed on the wing, they
+came to the table with the grown-ups, and then I saw there were three
+spruce young redbirds, all under the care of their gorgeous papa.</p>
+
+<p>No sooner did they appear on the ground than trouble began with the
+English-sparrow tribe. The grievance of these birds was that they could
+not manage the tough kernels. They were just as hungry as anybody, and
+just as well-disposed toward corn, but they had not sufficient strength
+of beak to break it. They did not, however, go without corn, for all
+that. Their game was the not uncommon one of availing themselves of the
+labor of others; they invited themselves to everybody's breakfast-table,
+though, to be sure, they had to watch their chances in order to secure a
+morsel, and escape the wrath of the owner thereof.</p>
+
+<p>The cardinal was at first a specially easy <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span>victim to this plot. He took
+the whole matter most solemnly, and was so absorbed in the work, that if
+a bit dropped, in the process of separating it from the shell, as often
+happened, he did not concern himself about it till he had finished what
+he had in his mouth, and then he turned one great eye on the ground, for
+the fragments which had long before been snatched by sparrows and gone
+down sparrow throats. The surprise and the solemn stare with which he
+"could hardly believe his eyes" were exceedingly droll. After a while he
+saw through their little game, and took to watching, and when a sparrow
+appeared too much interested in his operations, he made a feint of going
+for him, which warned the gamin that he would better look out for
+himself.</p>
+
+<p>It did not take these sharp fellows long to discover that the young
+redbird was the easier prey, and soon every youngster on the ground was
+attended by a sparrow or two, ready to seize upon any fragment that
+fell. The parent's way of feeding was to shell a kernel and then give it
+to one of the little ones, who broke it up and ate it. From waiting for
+fallen bits, the sparrows, never being repulsed, grew bolder, and
+finally went so far as actually to snatch the corn out of the young
+cardinals' beaks. Again and again did I see this performance: a sparrow
+grab and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span>run (or fly), leaving the baby astonished and dazed, looking
+as if he did not know exactly what had happened, but sure he was in some
+way bereaved.</p>
+
+<p>One day, while the cardinal family were eating on the grass, the mother
+of the brood came to a tree near by. At once her gallant spouse flew up
+there and offered her the mouthful he had just prepared, then returned
+to his duties. She was rarely seen on the lawn, and I judged that she
+was sitting again.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes, when the youngsters were alone on the ground, I heard a
+little snatch of song, two or three notes, a musical word or two of very
+sweet quality. The woodpecker, autocrat though he assumed to be, did not
+at first interfere with the young birds; but as they became more and
+more independent and grown up, he began to consider them fair game, and
+to come down on them with a rush that scattered them; not far, however;
+they were brave little fellows.</p>
+
+<p>At last, after four weeks of close attention, the cardinal made up his
+mind that his young folk were babies no longer, and that they were able
+to feed themselves. I was interested to see his manner of intimating to
+his young hopefuls that they had reached their majority. When one begged
+of him, in his gentle way, the parent turned suddenly and gave him a
+slight push. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span>The urchin understood, and moved a little farther off; but
+perhaps the next time he asked he would be fed. They learned the lesson,
+however, and in less than two days from the first hint they became
+almost entirely independent.</p>
+
+<p>One morning the whole family happened to meet at table. The mother came
+first, and then the three young ones, all of whom were trying their best
+to feed themselves. At last came their "natural provider;" and one of
+the juveniles, who found the grains almost unmanageable, could not help
+begging of him. He gently but firmly drove the pleader away, as if he
+said, "My son, you are big enough to feed yourself." The little one
+turned, but did not go; he stood with his back toward his parent, and
+wings still fluttering. Then papa flew to a low branch of the
+spruce-tree, and instantly the infant followed him, still begging with
+quivering wings. Suddenly the elder turned, and I expected to see him
+annihilate that beggar, but, to my surprise, he fed him! He could not
+hold out against him! He had been playing the stern parent, but could
+not keep it up. It was a very pretty and very human-looking performance.</p>
+
+<p>A day or two after the family had learned to take care of themselves,
+the original pair, the parents of the pretty brood, came and went
+together to the field, while the younglings <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span>appeared sometimes in a
+little flock, and sometimes one alone; and from that time they were to
+be rated as grown-up and educated cardinals. A brighter or prettier trio
+I have not seen. I am almost positive there was but one family of
+cardinals on the place; and if I am right, those youngsters had been
+four weeks out of the nest before they took charge of their own food
+supply. From what I have seen in the case of other young birds, I have
+no doubt that is the fact.</p>
+<br />
+<br /><a name="X" id="X"></a>
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<hr /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span>
+<br />
+<h2>X.</h2>
+
+<h2>THE CARDINAL'S NEST.</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>While I had been studying four o'clock manners, grave and gay, other
+things had happened. Most delightful, perhaps, was my acquaintance with
+a cardinal family at home. From the first I had looked for a nest, and
+had suffered two or three disappointments. One pair flaunted their
+intentions by appearing on a tree before my window, "tsipping" with all
+their might; she with her beak full of hay from the lawn below; he,
+eager and devoted, assisting by his presence. The important and
+consequential manner of a bird with building material in mouth is
+amusing. She has no doubt that what she is about to do is the very most
+momentous fact in the "Sublime Now" (as some college youth has it). Of
+course I dropped everything and tried to follow the pair, at a distance
+great enough not to disturb them, yet to keep in sight at least the
+direction they took, for they are shy birds, and do not like to be spied
+upon. But I could not have gauged my distance properly; for, though I
+thought I knew the exact cedar-tree she had <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span>chosen, I found, to my
+dismay and regret afterward, that no sign of a nest was there, or
+thereabout.</p>
+
+<p>Another pair went farther, and held out even more delusive hopes; they
+actually built a nest in a neighbor's yard, the family in the house
+maintaining an appearance of the utmost indifference, so as not to alarm
+the birds till they were committed to that nest. For so little does
+madam regard the labor of building, and so fickle is she in her fancies,
+that she thinks nothing of preparing at least two nests before she
+settles on one. The nest was made on a big branch of cedar, perhaps
+seven feet from the ground,&mdash;a rough affair, as this bird always makes.
+In it she even placed an egg, and then, for some undiscovered reason, it
+was abandoned, and they took their domestic joys and sorrows elsewhere.</p>
+
+<p>But now, at last, word came to me of an occupied nest to be seen at a
+certain house, and I started at once for it. It was up a shady country
+lane, with a meadow-lark field on one side, and a bobolink meadow on the
+other. The lark mounted the fence, and delivered his strange sputtering
+cry,&mdash;the first I had ever heard from him (or her, for I believe this is
+the female's utterance). But the dear little bobolink soared around my
+head, and let fall his happy <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span>trills; then suddenly, as Lowell
+delightfully pictures him,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="noin">
+<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">"Remembering duty, in mid-quaver stops,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 11.5em;">Just ere he sweeps o'er rapture's tremulous brink,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">And 'twixt the winrows most demurely drops,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 11.5em;">A decorous bird of business, who provides</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 11.5em;">For his brown mate and fledglings six besides,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">And looks from right to left, a farmer mid his crops."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>Nothing less attractive than a cardinal family could draw me away from
+these rival allurements, but I went on.</p>
+
+<p>The cardinal's bower was the prettiest of the summer, built in a
+climbing rose which ran riot over a trellis beside a kitchen door. The
+vine was loaded with buds just beginning to unfold their green wraps to
+flood the place with beauty and fragrance, and the nest was so carefully
+tucked away behind the leaves that it could not be seen from the front.
+Whether from confidence in the two or three residents of the cottage, or
+because the house was alone so many hours of the day,&mdash;the occupants
+being students, and absent most of the time,&mdash;the birds had taken no
+account of a window which opened almost behind them. From that window
+one could look into, and touch, if he desired, the little family. But no
+one who lived there did desire (though I wish to record that one was a
+boy of twelve or fourteen, who had been taught respect for the lives
+even of birds), and these <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span>birds became so accustomed to their human
+observers that they paid no attention to them.</p>
+
+<p>The female cardinal is so dainty in looks and manner, so delicate in all
+her ways, that one naturally expects her to build at least a neat and
+comely nest, and I was surprised to see a rough-looking affair, similar
+to the one already mentioned. This might be, in her case, because it was
+the third nest she had built that summer. One had been used for the
+first brood. The second had been seized and appropriated to their own
+use by another pair of birds. (As this was told me, and I cannot vouch
+for it, I shall not name the alleged thief.) This, the third, was made
+of twigs and fibres of bark,&mdash;or what looked like that,&mdash;and was
+strongly stayed to the rose stems, the largest of which was not bigger
+than my little finger, and most of them much smaller.</p>
+
+<p>On my second visit I was invited into the kitchen to see the family in
+the rosebush. It appeared that this was "coming-off" day, and one little
+cardinal had already taken his fate in his hands when I arrived, soon
+after breakfast. He had progressed on the journey of life about one
+foot; and a mere dot of a fellow he looked beside his parents, with a
+downy fuzz on his head, which surrounded it like a halo, and no sign of
+a crest. The three nestlings still at <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span>home were very restless,
+crowding, and almost pushing each other out. They could well spare their
+elder brother, for before he left he had walked all over them at his
+pleasure; and how he could help it in those close quarters I do not see.</p>
+
+<p>While I looked on, papa came with provisions. At one time the food
+consisted of green worms about twice as large as a common knitting
+needle. Three or four of them he held crosswise of his beak, and gave
+one to each nestling. The next course was a big white grub, which he did
+not divide, but gave to one, who had considerable difficulty in
+swallowing it.</p>
+
+<p>I said the birds did not notice the family, but they very quickly
+recognized me as a stranger. They stood and glared at me in the cardinal
+way, and uttered some sharp remonstrance; but business was pressing, and
+I was unobtrusive, so they concluded to ignore me.</p>
+
+<p>The advent of the first redbird baby seemed to give much pleasure, for
+the head of the family sang a good deal in the intervals of feeding; and
+both of the pair appeared very happy over it, often alighting beside the
+wanderer, evidently to encourage him, for they did not always feed. The
+youngster, after an hour, perhaps, flew about ten feet to a peach-tree,
+where he struggled violently, and nearly fell before he secured <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span>a hold
+on a twig. Both parents flew to his assistance, but he did not fall, and
+soon after he flew to a grape trellis, and, with a little clambering, to
+a stem of the vine, where he seemed pleased to stay,&mdash;perhaps because
+this overlooked the garden whence came all his food.</p>
+
+<p>I stayed two or three hours with the little family, and then left them;
+and when I appeared the next morning all were gone from the nest. I
+heard the gentle cries of young redbirds all around, but did not try to
+look them up, both because I did not want to worry the parents, and
+because I had already made acquaintance with young cardinals in my four
+o'clock studies.</p>
+
+<p>The place this discerning pair of birds had selected in which to
+establish themselves was one of the most charming nooks in the vicinity.
+Kept free from English sparrows (by persistently destroying their
+nests), and having but a small and quiet family, it was the delight of
+cardinals and catbirds. Without taking pains to look for them, one might
+see the nests of two catbirds, two wood doves, a robin or two, and
+others; and there were beside, thickets, the delight of many birds, and
+a row of spruces so close that a whole flock might have nested there in
+security. In that spot "the quaintly discontinuous lays" of the catbird
+were in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span>perfection; one song especially was the best I ever heard,
+being louder and more clear than catbirds usually sing.</p>
+
+<p>As I turned to leave the grounds, the relieved parent, who had not
+relished my interest in his little folk, mounted a branch, and,</p>
+
+<p class="noin">
+<span style="margin-left: 12.5em;">"Like a pomegranate flower</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 12.5em;">In the dark foliage of the cedar-tree,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 12.5em;">Shone out and sang for me."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>And thus I left him.</p>
+<br />
+<br /><a name="XI" id="XI"></a>
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<hr /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span>
+<br />
+<h2>XI.</h2>
+
+<h2>LITTLE BOY BLUE.</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p class="cen">"The crested blue jay flitting swift."</p>
+
+
+<p>To know the little boy blue in his domestic life had been my desire for
+years. In vain did I search far and wide for a nest, till it began to
+look almost as if the bird intentionally avoided me. I went to New
+England, and blue jays disappeared as if by magic; I turned my steps to
+the Rocky Mountains, and the whole tribe betook itself to the
+inaccessible hills. In despair I abandoned the search, and set up my
+tent in the middle country, without a thought of the bonny blue bird.
+One June morning I seated myself by my window, which looked out upon a
+goodly stretch of lawn dotted with trees of many kinds, and behold the
+long-desired object right before my eyes!</p>
+
+<p>The blue jay himself pointed it out to me; unconsciously, however, for
+he did not notice me in my distant window. From the ground, where I was
+looking at him, he flew directly to a pine-tree about thirty feet high,
+and there, near the top, sat his mate on her nest. He <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span>leaned over her
+tenderly; she fluttered her wings and opened her mouth, and he dropped
+into it the tidbit he had brought. Then she stepped to a branch on one
+side, and he proceeded to attend to the wants of the young family, too
+small as yet to appear above the edge.</p>
+
+<p>The pine-tree, which from this moment became of absorbing interest, was
+so far from my window that the birds never thought of me as an observer,
+and yet so near that with my glass I could see them perfectly. It was
+also exactly before a thick-foliaged maple, that formed a background
+against which I could watch the life of the nest, wherever the sunlight
+fell, and whatever the condition of the sky; so happily was placed my
+blue jay household.</p>
+
+<p>I observed at once that the jay was very gallant and attentive to his
+spouse. The first mouthful was for her, even when babies grew clamorous,
+and she took her share of the work of feeding. Nor did he omit this
+little politeness when they went to the nest together, both presumably
+with food for the nestlings. She was a devoted mother, brooding her
+bantlings for hours every day, till they were so big that it was hard to
+crowd them back into the cradle; and he was an equally faithful father,
+working from four o'clock in the morning till after dusk, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span>a good deal
+of the time feeding the whole family. I acquired a new respect for
+<i>Cyanocitta cristata</i>.</p>
+
+<p>I had not watched the blue jays long before I was struck with the
+peculiar character of the feathered world about me, the strange absence
+of small birds. The neighbors were blackbirds (purple grackles),
+Carolina doves, golden-winged and red-headed woodpeckers, robins and
+cardinal grosbeaks, and of course English sparrows,&mdash;all large birds,
+able to hold their own by force of arms, as it were, except the
+foreigner, who maintained his position by impudence and union, a mob
+being his weapon of offense and defense. Beside him no small bird lived
+in the vicinity. No vireo hung there her dainty cup, while her mate
+preached his interminable sermons from the trees about; no ph&oelig;be
+shouted his woes to an unsympathizing world; no sweet-voiced goldfinch
+poured out his joyous soul; not a song-sparrow tuned his little lay
+within our borders. Unseen of men, but no doubt sharply defined to
+clearer senses than ours, was a line barring them out.</p>
+
+<p>Who was responsible for this state of things? Could it be the one pair
+of jays in the pine, or the colony of blackbirds the other side of the
+house? Should we characterize it as a blue jay neighborhood or a
+blackbird neighborhood? The place was well policed, certainly; robins
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span>and blue jays united in that work, though their relations with each
+other bore the character of an armed neutrality, always ready for a few
+hot words and a little bluster, but never really coming to blows. We
+never had the pleasure of seeing a stranger among us. We might hear him
+approaching, nearer and nearer, till, just as the eager listener fancied
+he might alight in sight, there would burst upon the air the screech of
+a jay or the war-cry of a robin, accompanied by the precipitate flight
+of the whole clan, and away would go the stranger in a most sensational
+manner, followed by outcries and clamor enough to drive off an army of
+feathered brigands. This neighborhood, if the accounts of his character
+are to be credited, should be the congenial home of the
+kingbird,&mdash;tyrant flycatcher he is named; but as a matter of fact, not
+only were the smaller flycatchers conspicuous by their absence, but the
+king himself was never seen, and the flying tribes of the insect world,
+so far as dull-eyed mortals could see, grew and flourished.</p>
+
+<p>Close scrutiny of every movement of wings, however, revealed one thing,
+namely, that any small bird who appeared within our precincts was
+instantly, without hesitation, and equally without unusual noise or
+special publicity, driven out by the English sparrow; and I became
+convinced that he, and he alone, was responsible for <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span>the presence of
+none but large birds, who could defy him.</p>
+
+<p>One of the prettiest sights about the pine-tree homestead was the way
+the jay went up to it. He never imitated the easy style of his mate, who
+simply flew to a branch below the three that held her treasure, and
+hopped up the last step. Not he; not so would his knightly soul mount to
+the castle of his sweetheart and his babies. He alighted much lower,
+often at the foot of the tree, and passed jauntily up the winding way
+that led to them, hopping from branch to branch, pausing on each, and
+circling the trunk as he went; now showing his trim violet-blue coat,
+now his demure Quaker-drab vest and black necklace; and so he ascended
+his spiral stair.</p>
+
+<p>There is nothing demure about the blue jay, let me hasten to say, except
+his vest; there is no pretension about him. He does not go around with
+the meek manners of the dove, and then let his angry passions rise, in
+spite of his reputation, as does that "meek and gentle" fellow-creature
+on occasion. The blue jay takes his life with the utmost seriousness,
+however it may strike a looker-on. While his helpmeet is on the nest, it
+is, according to the blue jay code, his duty, as well as it is plainly
+his pleasure, to provide her with food, which consequently he does;
+later, it is his province not only to feed, but to protect <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span>the family,
+which also he accomplishes with much noise and bluster. Before the young
+are out comes his hardest task, keeping the secret of the nest, which
+obliges him to control his naturally boisterous tendencies; but even in
+this he is successful, as I saw in the case of a bird whose mate was
+sitting in an apple-tree close beside a house. There, he was the soul of
+discretion, and so subdued in manner that one might be in the vicinity
+all day and never suspect the presence of either. All the comings and
+goings took place in silence, over the top of the tree, and I have
+watched the nest an hour at a time without being able to see a sign of
+its occupancy, except the one thing a sitting bird cannot hide, the
+tail. And, by the way, how providential&mdash;from the bird student's point
+of view&mdash;that birds have tails! They can, it is true, be narrowed to the
+width of one feather and laid against a convenient twig, but they cannot
+be wholly suppressed, nor drawn down out of sight into the nest with the
+rest of the body.</p>
+
+<p>When the young blue jays begin to speak for themselves, and their
+vigilant protector feels that the precious secret can no longer be kept,
+then he arouses the neighborhood with the announcement that here is a
+nest he is bound to protect with his life; that he is engaged in
+performing his most solemn duty, and will not be <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span>disturbed. His air is
+that so familiar in bigger folk, of daring the whole world to "knock a
+chip off his shoulder," and he goes about with an appearance of
+important business on hand very droll to see.</p>
+
+<p>The bearing of the mother of the pine-tree brood was somewhat different
+from that of her mate, and by their manners only could the pair be
+distinguished. Whatever may be Nature's reason for dressing the sexes
+unlike each other in the feathered world,&mdash;which I will leave for the
+wise heads to settle,&mdash;it is certainly an immense advantage to the
+looker-on in birddom. When a pair are facsimiles of each other, as are
+the jays, it requires the closest observation to tell them apart;
+indeed, unless there is some defect in plumage, which is not uncommon,
+it is necessary to penetrate their personal characteristics, to become
+familiar with their idiosyncrasies of habit and manner. In the pine-tree
+family, the mother had neither the presence of mind nor the bluster of
+the partner of her joys. When I came too near the nest tree, she greeted
+me with a plaintive cry, a sort of "craw! craw!" at the same time
+"jouncing" herself violently, thus protesting against my intrusion;
+while he saluted me with squawks that made the welkin ring. Neither of
+them paid any attention to me, so long as I remained upon a stationary
+bench not <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span>far from their tree; they were used to seeing people in that
+place, and did not mind them. It was the unexpected that they resented.
+Having established our habits, birds in general insist that we shall
+govern ourselves by them, and not depart from our accustomed orbit.</p>
+
+<p>On near acquaintance, I found the jay possessed of a vocabulary more
+copious than that of any other bird I know, though the flicker does not
+lack variety of expression. When some aspiring scientist is ready to
+study the language of birds, I advise him to experiment with the blue
+jay. He is exceedingly voluble, always ready to talk, and not in the
+least backward in exhibiting his accomplishments. The low-toned,
+plaintive sounding conversation of the jays with each other, not only
+beside the nest, but when flying together or apart, or in brief
+interviews in the lilac bush, pleased me especially, because it was
+exactly the same prattle that a pet blue jay was accustomed to address
+to me; and it confirmed what I had always believed from his manner, that
+it was his most loving and intimate expression, the tone in which he
+addresses his best beloved.</p>
+
+<p>Beside the well-known squawk, which Thoreau aptly calls "the brazen
+trump of the impatient jay," the shouts and calls and war-cries of the
+bird can hardly be numbered, and I have no <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span>doubt each has its definite
+meaning. More rarely may be heard a clear and musical two-note cry,
+sounding like "ke-lo! ke-lo!" This seems to be something special in the
+jay language, for not only is it peculiar and quite unlike every other
+utterance, but I never saw the bird when he delivered it, and I was long
+in tracing it home to him. Aside from the cries of war and victory, jays
+have a great variety of notes of distress; they can put more anguish and
+despair into their tones than any other living creature of my
+acquaintance. Some, indeed, are so moving that the sympathetic hearer is
+sure that, at the very least, the mother's offspring are being murdered
+before her eyes; and on rushing out, prepared to risk his life in their
+defense, he finds, perhaps, that a child has strayed near the tree, or
+something equally dreadful has occurred. Jays have no idea of relative
+values; they could not make more ado over a heart-breaking calamity than
+they do over a slight annoyance. Some of their cries, notably that of
+the jay baby, sound like the wail of a human infant. As to one curious
+utterance in the jay <i>r&eacute;pertoire</i>, I could not quite make up my mind
+whether it was a real call to arms, or intended as a joke on the
+neighborhood. When a bird, without visible provocation, suddenly burst
+out with this loud two-note call, instantly every feathered <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span>individual
+was on the alert,&mdash;sprang to arms, as it were. Blue jays joined in,
+robins hurried to the tops of the tallest trees and added their excited
+notes, with jerking wings and tail, and at the second or third
+repetition the whole party precipitated itself as one bird&mdash;upon what?
+Nothing that I could discover.</p>
+<br />
+<br /><a name="XII" id="XII"></a>
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<hr /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span>
+<br />
+<h2>XII.</h2>
+
+<h2>STORY OF THE NESTLINGS.</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>While I was studying the manners and customs of the bird in blue, babies
+were growing up in the pine-tree nest. Five days after I began to
+observe, I saw little heads above the edge. On the sixth day they began,
+as mothers say, to "take notice," stirring about in a lively way,
+clambering up into sight, and fluttering their draperies over the edge.
+Now came busy and hungry times in the jay family; the mother added her
+forces, and both parents worked industriously from morning till night.</p>
+
+<p>On the seventh day I was up early, as usual, and, also as usual, my
+first act was to admire the view from my window. I fancied it was the
+most beautiful in the early morning, when the sun, behind the rampart of
+locust and other trees, threw the yard into deep shade, painting a
+thousand shadow pictures on the grass; but at still noon, when every
+perfect tree stood on its own shadow, openings looked dark and
+mysterious, and a bird was lost in the depths, then I was sure it was
+never so lovely; again at night, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span>when wrapped in darkness, and all
+silent except the subdued whisper of the pine, with its</p>
+
+<p class="noin">
+<span style="margin-left: 14.5em;">"Sound of the Sea,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 14.5em;">O mournful tree,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 12.5em;">In thy boughs forever clinging,"</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>I knew it could not be surpassed. I was up early, as I said, when the
+dove was cooing to his mate in the distance, and before human noises had
+begun, and then I heard the baby cry from the pine-tree,&mdash;a whispered
+jay squawk, constantly repeated.</p>
+
+<p>On this day the first nestling mounted the edge of his high nursery, and
+fluttered his wings when food approached. Every night after that it grew
+more and more difficult to settle the household in bed, for everybody
+wanted to be on top; and no sooner would one arrange himself to his mind
+than some "under one," not relishing his crushed position, would
+struggle out, step over his brothers and sisters, and take his place on
+top, and then the whole thing would have to be done over. I think that
+mamma had often to put a peremptory end to these difficulties by sitting
+down on them, for frequently it was a very turbulent-looking nest when
+she calmly placed herself upon it.</p>
+
+<p>Often, in those days, I wished I could put myself on a level with that
+little castle in the air, and look into it, filled to the brim with
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span>beauty as I knew it was. But I had not long to wait, for speedily it
+became too full, and ran over into the outside world. On the eighth day
+one ambitious youngster stepped upon the branch beside the nest and
+shook himself out, and on the ninth came the plunge into the wide, wide
+world. While I was at breakfast he made his first effort, and on my
+return I saw him on a branch about a foot below the nest, the last step
+on papa's winding stair. Here he beat his wings and plumed himself
+vigorously, rejoicing, no doubt, in his freedom and in plenty of room.
+Again and again he nearly lost his balance, in his violent attempts to
+dress his beautiful plumage, and remove the last remnant of nest
+mussiness. But he did not fall, and at last he began to look about him.
+One cannot but wonder what he thought when he</p>
+
+<p class="noin">
+<span style="margin-left: 12.5em;">"First opened wondering eyes and found</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 12.5em;">A world of green leaves all around,"</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noin">looking down upon us from his high perch, complete to the little black
+necklace, and lacking only length of tail of being as big as his
+parents.</p>
+
+<p>After half an hour of restless putting to rights, the little jay sat
+down patiently to wait for whatever might come to him. The wind got up
+and shook him well, but he rocked safely on his airy seat. Then some one
+approached. He <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span>leaned over with mouth open, and across the yard I heard
+his coaxing voice. But alas! though he was on the very threshold, the
+food-bearer omitted that step, and passed him by. Then the little one
+looked up wistfully, apparently conscious of being at a disadvantage.
+Did he regret the nest privileges he had abandoned? Should he retrace
+his steps and be a nestling? That the thought passed through his head
+was indicated by his movements. He raised himself on his legs, turned
+his face to his old home, and started up, even stepped one small twig
+nearer. But perish the thought! he would not go back! He settled himself
+again on his seat.</p>
+
+<p>All things come in time to him who can wait, and the next provision
+stopped at the little wanderer. His father alighted beside him and fed
+him two mouthfuls. Thus fortified, his ambition was roused, and his
+desire to see more, to do more. He began to jump about on his perch,
+facing first this way, then that; he crept to the outer end of the
+branch he was on, and was lost to view behind a thick clump of pine
+needles. In a few minutes he returned, considered other branches near,
+and, after some study, did really go to the nearest one. Then, step by
+step, very deliberately, he mounted the winding stair of his father,
+using, however, every little twig that the elder had vaulted over at a
+bound. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span>Finally he reached the branch opposite his birthplace, only the
+tree-trunk between. The trunk was small, home was invitingly near, he
+was tired; the temptation was too great, and in a minute he was cuddled
+down with his brothers, having been on a journey of an hour. In the
+nest, all this time, there had been a hurry and skurry of dressing, as
+though the house were to be vacated, and no one wished to be late. After
+a rest and probably a nap, the ambitious young jay took a longer trip:
+he flew to the next tree, and, I believe, returned no more.</p>
+
+<p>The next day was spent by all the nestlings in hopping about the three
+branches on which their home was built, making beautiful pictures of
+themselves every moment; but whenever the bringer of supplies drew near,
+each little one hastened to scramble back to the nest, to be ready for
+his share. The last day in the old home had now arrived. One by one the
+birdlings flew to the maple, and turned their backs on their native tree
+forever; and that night the "mournful tree" was entirely deserted.</p>
+
+<p>The exit was not accomplished without its excitement. After tea, as I
+was congratulating myself that they were all safely out in the world,
+without accident, suddenly there arose a terrible outcry, robin and blue
+jay voices in chorus. I looked over to the scene of the fray, and saw a
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span>young jay on the ground, and the parents frantic with anxiety.
+Naturally, my first impulse was to go to their aid, and I started; but I
+was saluted with a volley of squawks that warned me not to interfere. I
+retired meekly, leaving the birds to deal with the difficulty as they
+best could, while from afar I watched the little fellow as he scrambled
+around in the grass. He tried to fly, but could not rise more than two
+feet. Both the elders were with him, but seemed unable to help him, and
+night was coming on. I resolved, finally, to "take my life in my hands,"
+brave those unreasoning parents, and place the infant out of the way of
+cats and boys.</p>
+
+<p>As I reached the doorstep I saw that the youngster had begun to climb
+the trunk of a locust-tree. I stood in amazement and saw that baby climb
+six feet straight up the trunk. He did it by flying a few inches,
+clinging to the bark and resting, then flying a few inches more. I
+watched, breathless, till he got nearly to the lowest branch, when alas!
+his strength or his courage gave out, and he fell back to the ground.
+But he pulled himself together, and after a few minutes more of
+struggling through the grass he came to the trunk of the maple next his
+native pine. Up this he went in the same way, till he reached a branch,
+where I saw <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span>him sitting with all the dignity of a young jay (old jays
+have no dignity). While he was wrestling with fate and his life was in
+the balance, the parents had kept near him and perfectly silent, unless
+some one came near, when they filled the air with squawks, and appeared
+so savage that I honestly believe they would have attacked any one who
+had tried to lend a hand.</p>
+
+<p>But still the little blue-coat had not learned sufficient modesty of
+endeavor, for the next morning he found himself again in the grass. He
+tried climbing, but unfortunately selected a tree with branches higher
+than he could hold out to reach; so he fell back to the ground. Then
+came the inexorable demands of breakfast, with which no one who has been
+up since four o'clock will decline to comply. On my return, the
+straggler was mounted on a post that held a tennis net, three or four
+feet from the ground. One of the old birds was on the rope close by him,
+and there I left them. Once more I saw him fall, but I concluded that
+since he had learned to climb, and the parents would not accept my
+assistance any way, he must take care of himself. I suppose he was the
+youngest of the brood, who could not help imitating his elders, but was
+not strong enough to do as they did. On the following day he was able to
+keep his place, and he came to the ground no more.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span>From that day I saw, and, what was more evident, heard the jay babies
+constantly, though they wandered far from the place of their birth.
+Their voices waxed stronger day by day; from morning to night they
+called vigorously; and very lovely they looked as they sat on the
+branches in their brand-new fluffy suits, with their tails a little
+spread, and showing the snowy borderings beautifully. Twenty-two days
+after they bade farewell to the old home before my window they were
+still crying for food, still following their hard-working parents, and,
+though flying with great ease, never coming to the ground (that I could
+see), and apparently having not the smallest notion of looking out for
+themselves.</p>
+<br />
+<br /><a name="XIII" id="XIII"></a>
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<hr /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span>
+<br />
+<h2>XIII.</h2>
+
+<h2>BLUE JAY MANNERS.</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>Early in my acquaintance with the jay family, wishing to induce the
+birds of the vicinity to show themselves, I procured a quantity of
+shelled corn, and scattered a few handfuls under my window every night.
+This gave me opportunity to note, among other things, the jay's way of
+conducting himself on the ground, and his table manners. To eat a kernel
+of dry corn, he flew with it to a small branch, placed it between his
+feet (the latter of course being close together), and, holding it thus,
+drew back his head and delivered a blow with that pickaxe beak of his
+that would have broken a toe if he had missed by the shadow of an inch
+the grain for which it was intended. I was always nervous when I saw him
+do it, for I expected an accident, but none ever happened that I know
+of. When the babies grew clamorous all over the place, the jay used to
+fill his beak with the whole kernels. Eight were his limit, and those
+kept the mouth open, with one sticking out at the tip. Thus loaded he
+flew off, but was back <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span>in two minutes for another supply. The
+red-headed woodpecker, who claimed to own the corn-field, seemed to
+think this a little grasping, and protested against such a wholesale
+performance; but the overworked jay simply jumped to one side when he
+came at him, and went right on picking up corn. When he had time to
+spare from his arduous duties, he sometimes indulged his passion for
+burying things by carrying a grain off on the lawn with an air of most
+important business, and driving it into the ground, hammering it well
+down out of sight.</p>
+
+<p>The blue jay's manner of getting over the ground was peculiar, and
+especially his way of leaving it. He proceeded by high hops, bounding up
+from each like a rubber ball; and when ready to fly he hopped farther
+and bounded higher each time, till it seemed as if he were too high to
+return, and so took to his wings. That is exactly the way it looked to
+an observer; for there is a lightness, an airiness of bearing about this
+apparently heavy bird impossible to describe, but familiar to those who
+have watched him.</p>
+
+<p>Some time after the blue jay family had taken to roaming about the
+grounds, I had a pleasing little interview with one of them in the
+raspberry patch. This was a favorite resort of the neighboring birds,
+where I often betook myself <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span>to see who came to the feast. This morning
+I was sitting quietly under a spruce-tree, when three blue jays came
+flying toward me with noise and outcries, evidently in excitement over
+something. The one leading the party had in his beak a white object,
+like a piece of bread, and was uttering low, complaining cries as he
+flew; he passed on, and the second followed him; but the third seemed
+struck by my appearance, and probably felt it his duty to inquire into
+my business, for he alighted on a tree before me, not ten feet from
+where I sat. He began in the regular way, by greeting me with a squawk;
+for, like some of his bigger (and wiser?) fellow-creatures, he assumed
+that a stranger must be a suspicious personage, and an unusual position
+must mean mischief. I was very comfortable, and I thought I would see if
+I could not fool him into thinking me a scarecrow, companion to those
+adorning the "patch" at that moment. I sat motionless, not using my
+glass, but looking him squarely in the eyes. This seemed to impress him;
+he ceased squawking, and hopped a twig nearer, stopped, turned one
+calmly observant eye on me, then quickly changed to the other, as if to
+see if the first had not deceived him. Still I did not move, and he was
+plainly puzzled to make me out. He came nearer and nearer, and I moved
+only my eyes to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span>keep them on his. All this time he did not utter a
+sound, but studied me as closely, and to all appearances as carefully,
+as ever I had studied him. Obviously he was in doubt what manner of
+creature it was, so like the human race, yet so unaccountably quiet. He
+tried to be unconcerned, while still not releasing me from strict
+surveillance; he dressed his feathers a little, uttering a soft whisper
+to himself, as if he said, "Well, I never!" then looked me over again
+more carefully than before. This pantomime went on for half an hour or
+more; and no one who had looked for that length of time into the eyes of
+a blue jay could doubt his intelligence, or that he had his thoughts and
+his well-defined opinions, that he had studied his observer very much as
+she had studied him, and that she had not fooled him in the least.</p>
+
+<p>The little boy blue is one of the birds suffering under a bad name whom
+I have wished to know better, to see if perchance something might be
+done to clear up his reputation a bit. I am not able to say that he
+never steals the eggs of other birds, though during nearly a month of
+hard work, when, if ever, a few eggs would have been a welcome addition
+to his resources, and sparrows were sitting in scores on the place, I
+did not see or hear anything of the sort. I have heard of his destroying
+the nest, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span>presumably eating the eggs or young of the English
+sparrow, but the hundred or two who raised their broods and squawked
+from morning to night in the immediate vicinity of the pine-tree
+household never intimated that they were disturbed, and never showed
+hostility to their neighbors in blue. Moreover, there is undoubtedly
+something to be said on the jay's side. Even if he does indulge in these
+little eccentricities, what is he but a "collector"? And though he does
+not claim to be working "in the interest of science," which bigger
+collectors invariably do, he is working in the interest of life, and
+life is more than science. Even a blue jay's life is to him as precious
+as ours to us, and who shall say that it is not as useful as many of
+ours in the great plan?</p>
+
+<p>The only indications of hostilities that I observed in four weeks' close
+study, at the most aggressive time of bird life, nesting-time, I shall
+relate exactly as I saw them, and the record will be found a very modest
+one. In this case, certainly, the jay was no more offensive than the
+meekest bird that has a nest to defend, and far less belligerent than
+robins and many others. On one occasion a strange blue jay flew up to
+the nest in the pine. I could not discover that he had any evil
+intention, except just to see what was going on, but one of the pair
+flew at <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span>him with loud cries, which I heard for some time after the two
+had disappeared in the distance, and when our bird returned, he perched
+on an evergreen, bowing and "jouncing" violently, his manner plainly
+defying the enemy to "try it again." At another time I observed a savage
+fight, or what looked like it, between two jays. I happened not to see
+the beginning, for I was particularly struck that morning with the
+behavior of a bouquet of nasturtiums which stood in a vase on my table.
+I never was fond of these flowers, and I noticed then for the first time
+how very self-willed and obstinate they were. No matter how nicely they
+were arranged, it would not be an hour before the whole bunch was in
+disorder, every blossom turning the way it preferred, and no two looking
+in the same direction. I thought, when I first observed this, that I
+must be mistaken, and I took them out and rearranged them as I
+considered best; but the result was always the same, and I began to feel
+that they knew altogether too much for their station in the vegetable
+world. I was trying to see if I could discover any method in their
+movements, when I was startled by a flashing vision of blue down under
+the locusts, and, on looking closely, saw two jays flying up like
+quarrelsome cocks,&mdash;only not together, but alternately, so that one was
+in the air all the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span>time. They flew three feet high, at least, all their
+feathers on end, and looking more like shapeless masses of blue feathers
+than like birds. They did not pause or rest till one seemed to get the
+other down. I could not see from my window well enough to be positive,
+but both were in the grass together, and only one in sight, who stood
+perfectly quiet. He appeared to be holding the other down, for
+occasionally there would be a stir below, and renewed vigilance on the
+part of the one I could see. Several minutes passed. I became very
+uneasy. Was he killing him? I could stand it no longer, so I ran down.
+But my coming was a diversion, and both flew. When I reached the place,
+one had disappeared, and the other was hopping around the tree in great
+excitement, holding in his beak a fluffy white feather about the size of
+a jay's breast feather. I did not see the act, and I cannot absolutely
+declare it, but I have no doubt that he pulled that feather from the
+breast of his foe as he held him down; how many more with it I could not
+tell, for I did not think of looking until it was too late.</p>
+
+<p>Again one day, somewhat later, when blue jay and catbird babies were
+rather numerous, I saw a blue jay dive into a lilac bush much frequented
+by catbirds, young and old together. Instantly <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span>there arose a great cry
+of distress, as though some one were hurt, and a rustling of leaves,
+proclaiming that a chase, if not a fight, was in progress. I hurried
+downstairs, and as I appeared the jay flew, with two catbirds after him,
+still crying in a way I had never heard before. I expected nothing less
+than to find a young catbird injured, but I found nothing. Whether the
+blue jay really had touched one, or it was a mere false alarm on the
+part of the very excitable catbirds, I could not tell. This is the only
+thing I have seen in the jay that might have been an interference with
+another bird's rights; and the catbirds made such a row when I came near
+their babies that I strongly suspect the only guilt of the jay was
+alighting in the lilac they had made their headquarters.</p>
+
+<p>The little boy blue in the apple-tree, already spoken of, did not get
+his family off with so little adventure as his pine-tree neighbor. The
+youngling of this nest came to the ground and stayed there. The people
+of the house returned him to the tree several times, but every time he
+fell again. Three or four days he wandered about the neighborhood, the
+parents rousing the country with their uproar, and terrorizing the
+household cat to such a point of meekness that no sooner did a jay begin
+to squawk than he ran to the door and begged to come in. At last, out of
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span>mercy, the family took the little fellow into the house, when they saw
+that he was not quite right in some way. One side seemed to be nearly
+useless; one foot did not hold on; one wing was weak; and his breathing
+seemed to be one-sided. The family, seeing that he could not take care
+of himself, decided to adopt him. He took kindly to human care and human
+food, and before the end of a week had made himself very much at home.
+He knew his food provider, and the moment she entered the room he rose
+on his weak little legs, fluttered his wings violently, and presented a
+gaping mouth with the jay baby cry issuing therefrom. Nothing was ever
+more droll than this sight. He was an intelligent youngster, knew what
+he wanted, and when he had had enough. He would eat bread up to a
+certain point, but after that he demanded cake or a berry, and his
+favorite food was an egg. He was exceedingly curious about all his
+surroundings, examined everything with great care, and delighted to look
+out of the window. He selected his own sleeping-place,&mdash;the upper one of
+a set of bookshelves,&mdash;and refused to change; and he watched the
+movements of a wounded woodcock as he ran around the floor with as much
+interest as did the people. Under human care he grew rapidly stronger,
+learned to fly more readily and to use his weak side; and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span>every day he
+was allowed to fly about in the trees for hours. Once or twice, when
+left out, he returned to the house for food and care; but at last came a
+day when he returned no more. No doubt he was taken in charge again by
+his parents, who, it was probable, had not left the neighborhood.</p>
+
+<p>After July came in, and baby blue jays could hardly be distinguished
+from their parents, my studies took me away from the place nearly all
+day, and I lost sight of the family whose acquaintance had made my June
+so delightful.</p>
+<br />
+<br /><a name="XIV" id="XIV"></a>
+
+<hr /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span>
+<br />
+<h2>XIV.</h2>
+
+<h2>THE GREAT CAROLINIAN.</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>All through June of that summer I studied the birds in the spacious
+inclosure around my "Inn of Rest." But as that month drew near its end,</p>
+
+<p class="noin">
+<span style="margin-left: 12.5em;">"The happy birds that change their sky</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 12.5em;">To build and brood, that live their lives</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 12.5em;">From land to land,"</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noin">almost disappeared. Blue jay babies wandered far off, where I could hear
+them it is true, but where&mdash;owing to the despair into which my
+appearance threw the whole jay family&mdash;I rarely saw them; orchard and
+Baltimore orioles had learned to fly, and carried their ceaseless cries
+far beyond my hearing; catbirds and cardinals, doves and golden-wings,
+all had raised their broods and betaken themselves wherever their fancy
+or food drew them, certainly without the bounds of my daily walks. It
+was evident that I must seek fresh fields, or remove my quarters to a
+more northerly region, where the sun is less ardent and the birds less
+in haste with their nesting.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span>Accordingly I sought a companion who should also be a guide, and turned
+my steps to the only promising place in the vicinity, a deep ravine,
+through which ran a little stream that was called a river, and dignified
+with a river's name, yet rippled and babbled, and conducted itself
+precisely like a brook.</p>
+
+<p>The Glen, as it was called, was a unique possession for a common
+work-a-day village in the midst of a good farming country. Long ago
+would its stately trees have been destroyed, its streamlet set to
+turning wheels, and Nature forced to express herself on those many
+acres, in corn and potatoes, instead of her own graceful and varied
+selection of greenery; or, mayhap, its underbrush cut out, its slopes
+sodded, its springs buried in pipes and put to use, and the whole
+"improved" into dull insipidity,&mdash;all this, but for the will of one man
+who held the title to the grounds, and rated it so highly, that, though
+willing to sell, no one could come up to his terms. Happy delusion! that
+blessed the whole neighborhood with an enchanting bit of nature
+untouched by art. Long may he live to keep the deeds in his possession,
+and the grounds in their own wild beauty.</p>
+
+<p>The place was surrounded by bristling barbed fences, and trespassers
+were pointedly warned off, so when one had paid for the privilege, and
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span>entered the grounds, he was supposed to be safe from intrusion, except
+of others who had also bought the right. The part easily accessible to
+hotel and railroad station was the scene of constant picnics, for which
+the State is famous, but that portion which lay near my place of study
+was usually left to the lonely kingfisher&mdash;and the cows. There the shy
+wood dwellers set up their households, and many familiar upland birds
+came with their fledglings; that was the land of promise for
+bird-lovers, and there one of them decided to study.</p>
+
+<p>We began with the most virtuous resolves. We would come at five o'clock
+in the morning; we would catch the birds at their breakfast. We did; it
+was a lovely morning after a heavy rain, on which we set out to explore
+the ravine for birds. The storm in passing had taken the breeze with it,
+and not a twig had stirred since. Every leaf and grass blade was loaded
+with rain-drops. Walking in the grass was like wading in a stream; to
+touch a bush was to evoke a shower. But though our shoes were wet
+through, and our garments well sprinkled, before we reached the barbed
+fence, over or under or through or around which we must pass to our
+goal, we would not be discouraged; we went on.</p>
+
+<p>As to the fence, let me, in passing, give my fellow drapery-bearers a
+hint. Carry a light <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span>shawl, or even a yard of muslin, to lay across the
+wire you can step over (thus covering the mischievous barbs), while a
+good friend holds up with strong hand the next wire, and you slip
+through. Thus you may pass this cruel device of man without accident.</p>
+
+<p>Having circumvented the fence, the next task was to descend the steep
+sides of the ravine. The difficulty was, not to get down, for that could
+be done almost anywhere, but to go right side up; to land on the feet
+and not on the head was the test of sure-footedness and climbing
+ability. We conquered that obstacle, cautiously creeping down rocky
+steps, and over slippery soil, steadying ourselves by bushes, clasping
+small tree-trunks, scrambling over big ones that lay prone upon the
+ground, and thus we safely reached the level of the stream. Then we
+passed along more easily, stooping under low trees, crossing the beds of
+tiny brooks, encircling clumps of shrubbery (and catching the night's
+cobwebs on our faces), till we reached a fallen tree-trunk that seemed
+made for resting. There we seated ourselves, to breathe, and to see who
+lived in the place.</p>
+
+<p>One of the residents proclaimed himself at once,</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 18.5em;">"To left and right</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 12.5em;">The cuckoo told his name to all the hills,"&mdash;</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noin"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span>and in a moment we saw him, busy with his breakfast. His manner of
+hunting was interesting; he stood perfectly still on a branch, his beak
+pointed upward, but his head so turned that one eye looked downward.
+When something attracted him, he almost fell off his perch, seized the
+morsel as he passed, alighted on a lower branch, and at once began
+looking around again. There was no frivolity, no flitting about like a
+little bird; his conduct was grave and dignified, and he was absolutely
+silent, except when at rare intervals he mounted a branch and uttered
+his call, or song, if one might so call it. He managed his long tail
+with grace and expression, holding it a little spread as he moved about,
+thus showing the white tips and "corners."</p>
+
+<p>While we were absorbed in cuckoo affairs the sun peeped over the trees,
+and the place was transfigured. Everything, as I said, was charged with
+water, and looking against the sun, some drops hanging from the tip of a
+leaf glowed red as rubies, others shone out blue as sapphires, while
+here and there one scintillated with many colors like a diamond, now
+flashing red, and now yellow or blue.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 17.5em;">"The humblest weed</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 12.5em;">Wore its own coronal, and gayly bold</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 12.5em;">Waved jeweled sceptre."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span>In that spot we sat an hour, and saw many birds, with whom it was
+evidently a favorite hunting-ground. But no one seemed to live there;
+every one appeared to be passing through; and realizing as we did, that
+it was late in the season, our search for nests in use was rather
+half-hearted anyway. As our breakfast-time drew near we decided to go
+home, having found nothing we cared to study. Just as we were taking
+leave of the spot I heard, nearly at my back, a gentle scolding cry, and
+glancing around, my eyes fell upon two small birds running down the
+trunk of a walnut sapling. A few inches above the ground one of the pair
+disappeared, and the other, still scolding, flew away. I hastened to the
+spot&mdash;and there I found my great Carolinian.</p>
+
+<p>The nest was made in a natural cavity in the side of a stump six or
+eight inches in diameter and a foot high. It seemed to be of moss,
+completely roofed over, and stooping nearer its level I saw the bird,
+looking flattened as if she had been crushed, but returning my gaze,
+bravely resolved to live or die with her brood. I noted her color, and
+the peculiar irregular line over her eye, and then I left her, though I
+did not know who she was. Nothing would have been easier than to put my
+hand over her door and catch her, but nothing would have induced me <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span>to
+do so&mdash;if I never knew her name. Time enough for formal introductions
+later in our acquaintance, I thought, and if it happened that we never
+met again, what did I care how she was named in the books?</p>
+
+<p>I did not at first even suspect her identity, for who would expect to
+find the great Carolina wren a personage of less than six inches! even
+though he were somewhat familiar with the vagaries of name-givers, who
+call one bird after the cat, whom he in no way resembles, and another
+after the bull, to whom the likeness is, if possible, still less. What
+was certain was that the nest belonged to wrens, and was admirably
+placed for study; and what I instantly resolved was to improve my
+acquaintance with the owners thereof.</p>
+
+<p>The little opening in the woods, which became the Wren's Court, when
+their rank was discovered, was a most attractive place, shaded enough to
+be pleasant, while yet leaving a goodly stretch of blue sky in sight,
+bounded on one side by immense forest trees&mdash;walnut, butternut, oak, and
+others&mdash;which looked as if they had stood there for generations; on the
+other side, the babbling stream, up and down which the kingfisher flew
+and clattered all day. One way out led to the thicket where a
+wood-thrush was sitting in a low tree, and the other, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span>by the Path
+Difficult, up to the world above. The seat, across the court from the
+nest, had plainly been arranged by some kind fate on purpose for us. It
+was the trunk of a tree, which in falling failed to quite reach the
+ground, and so had bleached and dried, and it was shaded and screened
+from observation by vigorous saplings which had sprung up about it. The
+whole was indeed an ideal nook, well worthy to be named after its
+distinguished residents.</p>
+
+<p>Thoreau was right in his assertion that one may see all the birds of a
+neighborhood by simply waiting patiently in one place, and into that
+charming spot came "sooner or later" every bird I had seen in my
+wanderings up and down the ravine. There sang the scarlet tanager every
+morning through July, gleaming among the leaves of the tallest trees,
+his olive-clad spouse nowhere to be seen, presumably occupied with
+domestic affairs. There the Acadian flycatcher pursued his calling,
+fluttering his wings and uttering a sweet little murmur when he
+alighted. Into that retired corner came the cries of flicker and blue
+jay from the high ground beyond. On the edge sang the indigo-bird and
+the wood-pewee, and cardinal and wood-thrush song formed the chorus to
+all the varied notes that we heard.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span>Upon our entrance the next morning, my first glance at the nest was one
+of dismay&mdash;the material seemed to be pulled out a little. Had it been
+robbed! had some vagabond squirrel thrust lawless paws into the little
+home! I looked closely; no, there sat, or rather there lay the little
+mother. But she did not relish this second call. She flew, fluttering
+and trailing on the ground, as if hurt, hoping, of course, to attract us
+away from her nest. Seeing that of no avail, however, which she quickly
+did, she retreated to a low branch, threw back her head, and uttered a
+soft "chur-r-r," again and again repeated, doubtless to her mate. But
+that personage did not make his appearance, and we examined the nest.
+There were five eggs, white, very thickly and evenly specked with fine
+dots of dark color. An end of one that stuck up was plain white, perhaps
+the others were the same; we did not inquire too closely, for what did
+we care for eggs, except as the cradles of the future birds?</p>
+
+<p>Very soon we retired to our seat across the court and became quiet, to
+wait for what might come. Suddenly, with almost startling effect,</p>
+
+<p class="noin">
+<span style="margin-left: 11.5em;">"A bird broke forth and sung</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 11.5em;">And trilled and quavered and shook his throat."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>It was a new voice to us, loud and clear, and the song, consisting of
+three clauses, sounded <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span>like "Whit-e-ar! Whit-e-ar! Whit-e-ar!" then a
+pause, and the same repeated, and so on indefinitely. It came nearer and
+still nearer, and in a moment we saw the bird, a tiny creature,
+red-brown on the back, light below&mdash;the image of the little sitter in
+the stump, as we remarked with delight; we hoped he was her mate. He did
+not seem inclined to go to the nest, but stayed on a twig of a dead
+branch which hung from a large tree near by.</p>
+
+<p>While the stranger was pouring out his rhapsody, head thrown back, tail
+hanging straight down, and wings slightly drooped, I noticed a movement
+by the nest, and fixed my eyes upon that. The little dame had stolen out
+of her place, and now began the ascent of the sapling which started out
+one side of her small stump. Up the trunk she went with perfect ease,
+running a few steps, and then pausing a moment before she took the next
+half-dozen. She did not go bobbing up like a woodpecker, nor did she
+steady herself with her tail, like that frequenter of tree-trunks; she
+simply ran up that almost perpendicular stick as a fly runs up the wall.
+Meanwhile her mate, if that he were, kept up his ringing song, till she
+reached the top of the sapling, perhaps seven or eight feet high, and
+flew over near him. In an instant the song ceased, and the next moment
+two small <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span>birds flew over our heads, and we heard chatting and
+churring, and then silence.</p>
+
+<p>Without this hint from the wren we should rarely have seen her leave the
+nest; we should naturally have watched for wings, and none might come or
+go, while she was using her feet instead. She returned in the same way;
+flying to the top, or part way up her sapling, she ran down to her nest
+as glibly as she had run up. The walnut-trunk was the ladder which led
+to the outside world. This pretty little scene was many times repeated,
+in the days that we spent before the castle of our Carolinians; the male
+announcing himself afar with songs, and approaching gradually, while his
+mate listened to the notes that had wooed her, and now again coaxed her
+away from her sitting, for a short outing with him. Sometimes, though
+rarely, she came out without this inducement, but during her sitting
+days she usually went only upon his invitation.</p>
+
+<p>Before many days we had fully identified the pair. The song had puzzled
+me at first, for though extraordinary in volume for a bird of his size,
+and possessing that indefinable wren quality, that abandon and
+unexpectedness, as if it were that instant inspired, it had yet few
+notes, and I missed the exquisite tremolo that makes the song of the
+winter-wren so <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span>bewitching. But I "studied him up," and learned that his
+finest and most characteristic song is uttered in the spring only. After
+nesting has begun, he gives merely these musical calls, which, though
+delightful, do not compare&mdash;say the books&mdash;with his ante-nuptial
+performance. I was too late for that, but I was glad and thankful for
+these.</p>
+
+<p>Moreover, the wren varied his songs as the days went on. There were from
+two to five notes in a clause, never more, and commonly but three. This
+clause he repeated again and again during the whole of one visit; but
+the next time he came he had a new one, which likewise he kept to while
+he stayed. Again, when, some days later, he took part in feeding, he
+frequently changed the song as he left the nest. Struck by the variety
+he gave to his few notes, after some days I began to take them down in
+syllables as they expressed themselves to my ear, for they were sharp
+and distinct. Of course, these syllables resemble his sound about as a
+dried flower resembles the living blossom, but they serve the same
+purpose, to reproduce them in memory. In that way I recorded in three
+days eighteen different arrangements of his notes. Doubtless there were
+many more; indeed, he seemed to delight in inventing new combinations,
+and his taste evidently agreed <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span>with mine, for when he succeeded in
+evolving a particularly charming one, he did not easily change it. One
+that specially pleased me I put down as "Shame-ber-ee!" and this was his
+favorite, too, for after the day he began it, he sang it oftener than
+any other. It had a peculiarly joyous ring, the second note being a
+third below the first, and the third fully an octave higher than the
+second. I believe he had just then struck upon it, his enjoyment of it
+was so plain to see.</p>
+
+<p>The Wren's Court was a distracting spot to study one pair of small
+birds. So many others came about, and always, it seemed, in some crisis
+in wren affairs, when I dared not take my eyes from my glass, lest I
+lose the sequence of events. There appeared sometimes to be a thousand
+whispering, squealing, and smacking titmice in the trees over my head,
+and a whole regiment of great-crested flycatchers and others on one
+side. I was glad I was familiar with all the flicker noises, or I should
+have been driven wild at these moments, so many, so various, and so
+peculiar were their utterances; likewise thankful that I knew the row
+made by the jay on the bank above was not a sign of dire distress, but
+simply the tragic manner of the family.</p>
+
+<p>Again, when the wind blew, it was impossible <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span>to see the little folk
+that chattered and whispered and "dee-dee'd" overhead, and though we
+were absolutely certain a party of tufted tits and chickadees and black
+and white creepers, who always seemed to travel in company, were
+frolicking about, we could not distinguish them from the dancing and
+fluttering leaves.</p>
+
+<p>When the day was favorable, and the wren had gone his way, foraging in
+silence over the low ground at our back, and an old stump that stood
+there, and the sitter had settled herself in her nest for another half
+hour, we could look about at whoever happened to be there. Thus I made
+further acquaintance with the great-crested flycatcher. Hitherto I had
+known these birds only as they travel through a neighborhood not their
+own, appearing on the tops of trees, and crying out in martial tones for
+the inhabitants to bring on their fighters, a challenge to all whom it
+may concern. It was a revelation, then, to see them quietly at home like
+other birds, setting up claims to a tree, driving strangers away from
+it, and spending their time about its foot, seeking food near the
+ground, and indulging in frolics or fights, whichever they might be,
+with squealing cries and a rushing flight around their tree. In the
+latter part of our study, the great-crest babies were out, noisy little
+fellows, who insisted on being fed as <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span>peremptorily as their elders
+demand their rights and privileges.</p>
+
+<p>To make the place still more maddening for study, the birds seemed to
+sweep through the woods in waves. For a long time not a peep would be
+heard, not a feather would stir; then all at once</p>
+
+<p class="cen">"The air would throb with wings,"</p>
+
+<p>and birds would pour in from all sides, half a dozen at a time, making
+us want to look six ways at once, and rendering it impossible to confine
+ourselves to one. Then, after half an hour of this superabundance, one
+by one would slip out, and by the time we began to realize it, we were
+alone again.</p>
+
+<p>We had watched the wren for nine days when there came an interruption.
+It happened thus: A little farther up the glen we had another study, a
+wood-thrush nest in a low tree, and every day, either coming or going,
+we were accustomed to spend an hour watching that. Our place of
+observation was a hidden nook in a pile of rocks, where we were entirely
+concealed by thick trees, through which, by a judicious thinning out of
+twigs and leaves, we had made peepholes, for the thrush mamma would not
+tolerate us in her sight. To reach our seats and not alarm the
+suspicious little dame, we always entered from the back, slowly and
+cautiously <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span>climbed the rocks by a rude path which already existed, and
+slipped in under cover of our leafy screen.</p>
+
+<p>On the morning of the tenth day we entered the ravine from the upper
+end, and made our first call upon the thrush. We had been seated in
+silence for ten or fifteen minutes, and I was beginning to get uneasy
+because no bird came to the nest, when a diversion occurred that drove
+thrush affairs out of our minds. We heard footsteps! It must be
+remembered that we were alone in this solitary place, far from a house,
+and naturally we listened eagerly. The steps drew nearer, and then we
+heard loud breathing. We exchanged glances of relief&mdash;it was a cow! But
+while we were congratulating ourselves began a crashing of branches, a
+fiercer breathing, a rush, and a low bellow!</p>
+
+<p>This was no meek cow! we turned pale,&mdash;at any rate we felt pale,&mdash;but we
+tried to encourage each other by suggesting in hurried whispers that he
+surely would not see us. Alas! the next instant he broke through the
+bushes, and to our horror started at once up our path to the rocks; in a
+moment he would be upon us! We rose hastily, prepared to sell our lives
+dearly, when, as suddenly as he had come, he turned and rushed back.
+Whether the sight of us was too much for his philosophy, or <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span>whether he
+had gone for reinforcements, we did not inquire. We instantly lost our
+interest in birds and birds' nests; we gathered up our belongings and
+fled, not stopping to breathe till we had put the barbiest of barbed
+wire fences between us and the foe.</p>
+
+<p>Once outside, however, we paused to consider: To give up our study was
+not to be thought of; to go every day in fear and dread was equally
+intolerable. I wrote to the authorities of whom I had purchased the
+right to enter the place. They promptly denied the existence of any such
+animal on the premises. I replied to the effect that "seeing is
+believing," but they reaffirmed their former statement, assuring me that
+there were none but harmless cows in the glen. I did not want to waste
+time in an unprofitable correspondence, and I did want to see the wrens,
+and at last a bright thought came,&mdash;I would hire an escort, a country
+boy used to cattle, and warranted not afraid of them. I inquired into
+the question of day's wages, I looked about among the college students
+who were working their way to an education, and I found an ideal
+protector,&mdash;an intelligent and very agreeable young man, brought up on a
+farm, and just graduated, who was studying up mathematics preparatory to
+school-teaching in the fall. The bargain was soon made, and the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span>next
+morning we started again for the glen, our guardian armed with his
+geometry and a big club. Three days, however, had been occupied in
+perfecting this arrangement, and I approached the spot with anxiety;
+indeed, I am always concerned till I see the whole family I am watching,
+after only a night's interval, and know they have survived the many
+perils which constantly threaten bird-life, both night and day.</p>
+<br />
+<br /><a name="XV" id="XV"></a>
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<hr /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span>
+<br />
+<h2>XV.</h2>
+
+<h2>THE WRENLINGS APPEAR.</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>The moment we entered the court I saw there was news. My eyes being
+attracted by a little commotion on a dogwood-tree, I saw a saucy tufted
+titmouse chasing with cries one of the wrens who had food in its beak.
+With most birds this proclaims the arrival of the young family as
+plainly as if a banner had been hung on the castle walls. Whether the
+tit was after the food, or trying to drive the wren off his own ground,
+we could not tell, nor did we much care; the important fact was that
+babies were out in the walnut-tree cottage. The food bearer went to the
+nest, and in a moment came up the ladder, so joyous and full of song
+that he could not wait to get off his own tree, but burst into a
+triumphant ringing "Whit-e-ar!" that must have told his news to all the
+world&mdash;who had ears to hear.</p>
+
+<p>The mother did not at once give up her brooding, nor did I wonder when I
+peeped into the nest while she was off with her spouse, and saw what
+appeared to be five big mouths with a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span>small bag of skin attached to
+each. Nothing else could be seen. She sat an hour at a time, and then
+her mate would come and call her off for a rest and a change, while he
+skipped down the ladder and fed the bairns. His way in this matter, as
+in everything else, was characteristic. He never went to the nest till
+he had called her off by his song. It was not till several days later,
+when she had given up brooding, that I ever saw the pair meet at the
+nest, and then it seemed to be accidental, and one of them always left
+immediately.</p>
+
+<p>During the first few days the young parents came and went as of old, by
+way of the ladder, and I learned to know them apart by their way of
+mounting that airy flight of steps. He was more pert in manner, held his
+head and tail more jauntily, though he rarely pointed his tail to the
+sky, as do some of the wren family. He went lightly up in a dancing
+style which she entirely lacked, sometimes jumping to a small shoot that
+grew up quite near the walnut, and running up that as easily as he did
+the tree. Her ascent was of a business character; she was on duty, head
+and tail level with her body, no airs whatever. He was so full of
+happiness in these early days that frequently he could not take time to
+go to the top, but, having reached a height of two or three feet, he
+flew, and at once burst into <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span>rapturous song, even sang while flying
+over to the next tree. From this time they almost abandoned the ladder
+they had been so fond of, and flew directly to the nest from the ground,
+where they got all their food. This change was not because they were
+hard worked; I never saw birds who took family cares more easily. At the
+expiration of three days the mother brooded no more, and indeed it would
+have troubled her to find a place for herself, the nest was so full.</p>
+
+<p>Every morning on entering the court I called at the nest, and always
+found five yellow beaks turned to the front. On the third day the heads
+were covered with slate-colored down; on the fourth, wing-feathers began
+to show among the heads, but the body was still perfectly bare; on the
+fifth, the eyes opened on the green world about them,&mdash;they were then
+certainly five days old, and may have been seven; owing to our
+unfortunate absence at the critical time I cannot be sure. On the
+seventh day the red-brown of the back began to show, and the white of
+the breast made itself visible, while the heads began to look feathery
+instead of fuzzy. Even then, however, they took no notice when I put my
+finger on them.</p>
+
+<p>Long before this time the manner of the parents had changed. In the
+first place, they were more busy; foraging industriously on the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span>ground,
+coming within ten or fifteen feet of us, without appearing to see us at
+all. In fact they had, after the first day, paid no attention to us, for
+we never had disturbed them, never went to the nest till sure that both
+were away, and kept still and quiet in our somewhat distant seat.</p>
+
+<p>About this time they began to show more anxiety in their manner. The
+first exhibition was on the fourth day since we knew the young were
+hatched (and let me say that I <i>believe</i> they were just out of the shell
+the morning that we found the father feeding). On this fourth day the
+singer perched near the nest-tree, three or four feet from the ground,
+and began a very loud wren "dear-r-r-r! dear-r-r-r! dear-r-r-r!"
+constantly repeated. He jerked himself about with great apparent
+excitement, looking always on the ground as if he saw an enemy there. We
+thought it might be a cat we had seen prowling about, but on examination
+no cat was there. Gradually his tone grew lower and lower, and he calmed
+down so far as a wren can calm, though he did not cease his cries. I did
+not know he could be still so long, but I learned more about wren
+possibilities in that line somewhat later.</p>
+
+<p>During this performance his mate came with food in her beak, and
+evidently saw nothing alarming, for she went to the nest with it. Still
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span>he stood gazing on the ground. Sometimes he flew down and returned at
+once, then began moving off, a little at a time, still crying, exactly
+as though he were following some one who went slowly. The call, when
+low, was very sweet and tender; very mournful too, and we got much
+wrought up over it, wishing&mdash;as bird students so often do&mdash;that we could
+do something to help. He was roused at last by the intrusion of a bird
+into his domain, and his discomfiture of this foe seemed to dispel his
+unhappy state of mind, for he at once broke out in joyous song, to our
+great relief. That was not the last exhibition of the wren's
+idiosyncrasy; he repeated it day after day, and finally he went so far
+as to interpolate low "dear-r-r's" into his sweetest songs. Perhaps that
+was his conception of his duty as protector to the family; if so, he was
+certainly faithful in doing it. It was ludicrously like the attitude of
+some people under similar circumstances.</p>
+
+<p>While the young father was manifesting his anxiety in this way, the
+mother showed hers in another; she took to watching, hardly leaving the
+place at all. When she had her babies well fed for the moment, she went
+up the trunk a little, in a loitering way that I had never seen her
+indulge in before,&mdash;and a loitering wren is a curiosity. It was plain
+that she simply wished <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span>to pass away the time. She stepped from the
+trunk upon a twig on one side, stayed a little while, then passed to one
+on the other side, lingered a few moments, and so she went on. When she
+arrived at the height of two feet she perched on a small dead twig, and
+remained a long time&mdash;certainly twenty minutes&mdash;absolutely motionless.
+It was hard to see her, and if I had not watched her progress from the
+first, I should not have suspected her presence. A leaf would hide her,
+even the crossing of two twigs was ample screen, and when she was still
+it was hopeless to look for her. The only way we were able to keep track
+of either of the pair was by their incessant motions.</p>
+
+<p>The Great Carolinian had a peculiar custom which showed that his coming
+with song was a ceremony he would not dispense with. He would often
+start off singing, gradually withdraw till fifty or seventy-five feet
+away, singing at every pause, and then, if one watched him closely, he
+might see him stop, drop to the ground, and hunt about in silence. When
+he was ready to come again, he would fly quietly a little way off, and
+then begin his singing and approaching, as if he had been a mile away.
+He never sang when on the ground after food, but so soon as he finished
+eating, he flew to a perch at least two feet high, generally between six
+and ten, and sometimes as high as twenty feet, and sang.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span>After a day or two of the wren's singular uneasiness, we discovered at
+least one object of his concern. It was a chipmunk, whom we had often
+noticed perched on the highest point of the little ledge of rocks near
+the nest. He seemed to be attending strictly to his own affairs, but
+after a good deal of "dear-r-r"-ing, the wren flew furiously at him,
+almost, if not quite, hitting him, and doing it again and again. The
+little beast did not relish this treatment and ran off, the bird
+following and repeating the assault. This was undoubtedly the foe that
+he had been troubled about all the time.</p>
+
+<p>On the tenth or eleventh day of their lives (as I believe) I examined
+the babies in the nest a little more closely than before. I even touched
+them with my finger on head and beak. They looked sleepily at me, but
+did not resent it. If the mother were somewhat bigger, I should suspect
+her of giving them "soothing syrup," for they had exactly the appearance
+of being drugged. They were not overfed; I never saw youngsters so much
+let alone. The parents had nothing like the work of the robin, oriole,
+or blue jay. They came two or three times, and then left for half an
+hour or more, yet the younglings were never impatient for food.</p>
+
+<p>The morning that the young wrens had reached the age of twelve days
+(that we knew <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span>of) was the 22d of July, and the weather was intensely
+warm. On the 21st we had watched all day to see them go, sure that they
+were perfectly well able. Obviously it is the policy of this family to
+prepare for a life of extraordinary activity by an infancy of unusual
+stillness. Never were youngsters so perfectly indifferent to all the
+world. In storm or sunshine, in daylight or darkness, they lay there
+motionless, caring only for food, and even that showed itself only by
+the fact that all mouths were toward the front. The under one of the
+pile seemed entirely contented to be at the bottom, and the top ones not
+to exult in their position; in fact, so far as any show of interest in
+life was concerned, they might have been a nestful of wooden babies.</p>
+
+<p>On this morning, as we dragged ourselves wearily over the hot road to
+the ravine, we resolved that no handful of wrenlings should force us
+over that road again. Go off this day they should, if&mdash;as my comrade
+remarked&mdash;"we had to raise them by hand." My first call was at the nest,
+indifferent whether parents were there or not, for I had become
+desperate. There they lay, lazily blinking at me, and filling the nest
+overfull. The singer came rushing down a branch, bristled up,
+blustering, and calling "Dear-r-r-r!" at me, and I hoped he <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span>would be
+induced to hurry up his very leisurely brood.</p>
+
+<p>We took our usual seats and waited. Both parents remained near the
+homestead, and little singing was indulged in; this morning there was
+serious business on hand, as any one could see. We were desirous of
+seeing the first sign of movement, so we resolved to cut away the last
+few leaves that hid the entrance to the nest. We had not done it before,
+partly not to annoy the birds, and partly not to have them too easily
+discovered by prowlers.</p>
+
+<p>Miss R&mdash;&mdash; went to the stump, and cut away half a dozen leaves and twigs
+directly before their door. The young ones looked at her, but did not
+move. Then, as I had asked her to do, she pointed a parasol directly at
+the spot, so that I, in my distant seat, might locate the nest exactly.
+This seemed to be the last straw that the birdlings could endure; two of
+them flew off. One went five or six feet away, the other to the ground
+close by. Then she came away, and we waited again. In a moment two more
+ventured out and alighted on twigs near the nest. Then the mother came
+home, and acted as surprised as though she had never expected to have
+them depart. She went from a twig beside the tree to the nest, and back,
+about a dozen times, as if she really could not believe her eyes.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span>Anxious to see everything that went on, we moved our seats nearer, but
+this so disconcerted the pair that we did not stay long. It was long
+enough to hear the wren baby-cry, a low insect-like noise, and to see
+something that surprised and no less disgusted me, namely, every one of
+those babies hurry back to the tree, climb the trunk, and scramble back
+into the nest!&mdash;the whole exit to be begun again! It could not be their
+dislike of the "cold, cold world," for a cold world would be a luxury
+that morning.</p>
+
+<p>Of any one who would go back into that crowded nest, with the
+thermometer on the rampage as it was then, I had my opinion, and I began
+to think I didn't care much about wrens anyway; we stayed, however, as a
+matter of habit, and I suppose they all had a nap after their tremendous
+exertion. But they manifestly got an idea into their heads at last, a
+taste of life. After a proper amount of consideration, one of the
+nestlings took courage to move again, and went so far as a twig that
+grew beside the door, looked around on the world from that post for a
+while, then hopped to another, and so on till he encircled the home
+stump. But when he came again in sight of that delectable nest, he could
+not resist it, and again he added himself to the pile of birds within.
+This youth was apparently as well feathered as his parents, and, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span>except
+in length of tail, looked exactly like them; many a bird baby starts
+bravely out in life not half so well prepared for it as this little
+wren.</p>
+
+<p>After nearly three hours of waiting, we made up our minds that these
+young folk must be out some time during the day, unless they had decided
+to take up permanent quarters in that hole in the stump, and what was
+more to the point, that the weather was too warm to await their very
+deliberate movements. So we left them, to get off the best way they
+could without us, or to stay there all their lives, if they so desired.</p>
+
+<p>The nest, which at first was exceedingly picturesque&mdash;and I had resolved
+to bring it away, with the stump that held it&mdash;was now so demolished
+that I no longer coveted it. The last and sweetest song of the wren,
+"Shame-ber-ee!" rang out joyously as we turned our faces to the north,
+and bade a long farewell to the Great Carolinians.</p>
+<br />
+<br /><a name="XVI" id="XVI"></a>
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<hr /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span>
+<br />
+<h2>XVI.</h2>
+
+<h2>THE APPLE-TREE NEST.</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p class="noin">
+<span style="margin-left: 9.5em;">All day long in the elm, on their swaying perches swinging,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 9.5em;">New-fledged orioles utter their restless, querulous notes.</span></p>
+
+<p style="margin-left: 17.5em;"><span class="smcap">Harriet Prescott Spofford.</span></p>
+
+<p>The little folk let out the secret, as little folk often do, and after
+they had called attention to it, I was surprised that I had not myself
+seen the pretty hammock swinging high up in the apple boughs.</p>
+
+<p>It was, however, in a part of the grounds I did not often visit, partly
+because the trees close by, which formed a belt across the back of the
+place, grew so near together that not a breath of air could penetrate,
+and it was intolerable in the hot June days, and partly because my
+appearance there always created a panic. So seldom did a human being
+visit that neglected spot, that the birds did not look for guests, and a
+general stampede followed the approach of one.</p>
+
+<p>On the eventful day of my happy discovery I was returning from my daily
+call upon a blue jay who had set up her home in an apple-tree <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span>in a
+neighbor's yard. The moment I entered the grounds I noticed a great
+outcry. It was loud; it was incessant; and it was of many voices.
+Following the sound, I started across the unmown field,</p>
+
+<p class="noin">
+<span style="margin-left: 13.5em;">"Through the bending grasses,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 14.5em;">Tall and lushy green,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 13.5em;">All alive with tiny things,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 13.5em;">Stirring feet and whirring wings</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 14.5em;">Just an instant seen,"</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noin">and soon came in sight of the nest near the topmost twig of an old
+apple-tree.</p>
+
+<p>It was about noon of a bright, sunny day, and I could see only that the
+nest was straw-color, apparently run over with little ones, and both the
+parents were industriously feeding. The cries suggested the persistence
+of young orioles, but it was not a Baltimore's swinging cradle, and the
+old birds were so shy, coming from behind the leaves, every one of which
+turned itself into a reflector for the sunlight, that I could not
+identify them.</p>
+
+<p>Later in the day I paid them another visit, and finding a better post of
+observation under the shade of a sweet-briar bush, I saw at once they
+were orchard orioles, and that the young ones were climbing to the edge
+of the nest; I had nearly been too late!</p>
+
+<p>Four o'clock was the unearthly hour at which <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span>I rose next morning to
+pursue my acquaintance with the little family in the apple-tree, fearful
+lest they should get the start of me. The youngsters were calling
+vociferously, and both parents were very busy attending to their wants
+and trying to stop their mouths, when I planted my seat before their
+castle in the air, and proceeded to inquire into their manners and
+customs. My call was, as usual, not received with favor. The mother,
+after administering the mouthful she had brought, alighted on a twig
+beside the nest and gave me a "piece of her mind." I admitted my bad
+manners, but I could not tear myself away. The anxious papa, very
+gorgeous in his chestnut and black suit, scenting danger to the little
+brood in the presence of the bird-student with her glass, at once
+abandoned the business of feeding, and devoted himself to the protection
+of his family,&mdash;which indeed was his plain duty. His way of doing this
+was to take his position on the tallest tree in the vicinity, and fill
+the serene morning air with his cry of distress, a two-note utterance,
+with a pathetic inflection which could not fail to arouse the sympathy
+of all who heard it. It was not excited or angry, but it proclaimed that
+here was distress and danger, and it had the effect of making me ashamed
+of annoying him. But I hardened my heart, as I often have to do in my
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span>study, and kept my seat. Occasionally he returned to the lower part of
+his own tree, to see if the monster had been scared or shamed away, but
+finding me stationary, he returned to his post and resumed his mournful
+cry.</p>
+
+<p>At length the happy thought came to me that I might select a position a
+little less conspicuous, yet still within sight, so I moved my seat
+farther off, away back under a low-branched apple-tree, where a redbird
+came around with sharp "tsip's" to ascertain my business, and a catbird
+behind the briar-bush entertained me with delicious song. The oriole
+accepted my retirement as a compromise, and returned to his domestic
+duties, coming, as was natural and easiest, on my side of the tree. His
+habit was to cling to the side of the nest, showing his black and
+red-gold against it, while his mate alighted on the edge, and was seen a
+little above it. After feeding, both perched on neighboring twigs and
+looked about for a moment before the next food-hunting trip. I thought
+the father of the family exhibited an air of resignation, as if he
+concluded that, since the babies made so much noise, there was no use in
+trying longer to preserve the secret.</p>
+
+<p>As a matter of fact, both our orioles need a good stock of patience as
+well as of resignation, for the infants of both are unceasing in their
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span>cries, and fertile in inventing variations in manner and inflection,
+that would deceive those most familiar with them. Two or three times in
+the weeks that followed, I rushed out of the house to find some very
+distressed bird, who, I was sure, from the cries, must be impaled alive
+on a butcher-bird's meat-hook, or undergoing torture at the hands&mdash;or
+beak of somebody. It was rather dangerous going out at that time (just
+at dusk), for it was the chosen hour for young men and maidens, of whom
+there were several, to wander about under the trees. Often, before I
+gave up going out at that hour, my glass, turned to follow a flitting
+wing, would bring before my startled gaze a pair of sentimental young
+persons, who doubtless thought I was spying upon them. My only safety
+was in directing my glass into the trees, where nothing but wings could
+be sentimental, and if a bird flitted below the level of branches, to
+consider him lost. On following up the cry, I always found a young
+oriole and a hard-worked father feeding him. The voice did not even
+suggest an oriole to me, until I had been deceived two or three times
+and understood it.</p>
+
+<p>The young ones of the orchard oriole's nest lived up to the traditions
+of the family by being inveterate cry-babies, and making so much noise
+they could be heard far around. Sometimes <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span>their mother addressed them
+in a similar tone to their own, but the father resigned himself to the
+inevitable, and fed with dogged perseverance.</p>
+
+<p>The apple-tree nest looked in the morning sun of a bright flax color,
+and two of the young were mounted on the edge, dressing their yellow
+satin breasts, and gleaming in the sunshine like gold.</p>
+
+<p>A Baltimore oriole, passing over, seemed to be attracted by a familiar
+quality of sound, for he came down, alighted about a foot from the nest,
+and looked with interest upon the charming family scene. The protector
+of the pretty brood was near, but he kept his seat, and made no
+objections to the friendly call. Indeed, he flew away while the guest
+was still there, and having satisfied his curiosity, the Baltimore also
+departed upon his own business.</p>
+
+<p>When the sun appeared over the tree-tops, he came armed with all his
+terrors. The breeze dwindled and died; the very leaves hung lifeless on
+the trees, and though, knowing that</p>
+
+<p class="noin">
+<span style="margin-left: 12.5em;">"Somewhere the wind is blowing,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 13.5em;">Though here where I gasp and sigh</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 12.5em;">Not a breath of air is stirring,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 13.5em;">Not a cloud in the burning sky,"</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noin">the memory might comfort me, it did not in the slightest degree make me
+comfortable&mdash;I <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span>wilted, and retired before it. How the birds could
+endure it and carry on their work, I could not understand.</p>
+
+<p>At noon I ventured out over the burning grass. The first youngster had
+left the nest, and was shouting from a tree perhaps twenty feet beyond
+the native apple. The others were fluttering on the edge, crying as
+usual. As is the customary domestic arrangement with many birds, the
+moment the first one flew, the father stopped coming to the nest, and
+devoted himself to the straggler, which was a little hard on the mother
+that hot day, for she had four to feed.</p>
+
+<p>While I looked on, the second infant mustered up courage to start on the
+journey of life. A tall twig led from the nest straight up into the air,
+and this was the ladder he mounted. Step by step he climbed one
+leaf-stem after another, with several pauses to cry and to eat, and at
+last reached the topmost point, where he turned his face to the west,
+and took his first survey of the kingdoms of the earth. A brother
+nestling was close behind him, and the pretty pair, seeing no more steps
+above them, rested a while from their labors. In the mean time the first
+young oriole had gone farther into the trees, and papa with him.</p>
+
+<p>The little dame worked without ceasing, though it must have been an
+anxious time, with <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span>nestlings all stirring abroad. I noticed that she
+fed oftenest the birdlings who were out, whether to strengthen them for
+further effort, or to offer an inducement to those in the nest to come
+up higher where food was to be had, she did not tell. I observed, also,
+that when she came home she did not, as before, alight on the level of
+the little ones, but above them. Perhaps this was to coax them upward;
+at any rate, it had that effect: they stretched up and mounted the next
+stem above, and so they kept on ascending. About three o'clock I was
+again obliged to surrender to the power of the sun, and retire for a
+season to a place he could not enter, the house.</p>
+
+<p>Some hours passed before I made my next call, and I found that oriole
+matters had not rested, if I had; the two nestlings had taken flight to
+the tree the first one had chosen, and three were on the top twig above
+the nest, which latter swung empty and deserted. Mamma was feeding the
+three in her own tree, while papa attended as usual to the outsiders,
+and found leisure to drop in a song now and then.</p>
+
+<p>While I watched, number three took his life in his hands (as it were)
+and launched out upon the air. He reached a tree not so far away as his
+brothers had chosen, and his mother sought him out and fed him there.
+But he did <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span>not seem to be satisfied with his achievement, or possibly
+he found the position rather lonely; at any rate, the next use of his
+wings was to return to his native apple, to the lower part. During this
+visit, the mother of the little brood, seeing, I suppose, her labors
+growing lighter, indulged herself and delighted me with a scrap of song,
+very sweet, as the song of the female oriole always is.</p>
+
+<p>It was with forebodings that I approached the tree the next morning,
+foreboding speedily confirmed&mdash;the whole family was gone! Either I had
+not stayed late enough or I had not got up early enough to see the
+flitting; that song, then, meant something&mdash;it was my good-by.</p>
+
+<p>Indeed it turned out to be my farewell, as I thought, for the whole
+tribe seemed to have vanished. Usually it is not difficult to hunt up a
+little bird family in its wanderings, during the month following its
+leaving the nest, but this one I could neither see nor hear, and I was
+very sure those oriole babies had not so soon outgrown their crying;
+they must have been struck dumb or left the place.</p>
+
+<p>Nearly three weeks later I was wandering about in what was called the
+glen, half a mile or more from where the apple-tree babies had first
+seen the light. It was a wild spot, a ravine, through which ran a
+stream, where many <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span>wood-birds sang and nested. On approaching a
+linden-tree loaded with blossoms, and humming with swarms of bees, I was
+saluted with a burst of loud song, interspersed with scolding. No one
+but an orchard oriole could so mix things, and sure enough! there he
+was, scrambling over the flowers. Something he found to his taste,
+whether the blossoms or the insects, I could not decide. On waiting a
+little, I heard the young oriole cry, much subdued since nesting days,
+and the tender "ye-ep" of the parent. The whole family was evidently
+there together, and I was very glad to see them once more.</p>
+
+<p>The nest, which I had brought down, was a beautiful structure, made, I
+think, of very fine excelsior of a bright straw-color. It was suspended
+in an upright fork of four twigs, and lashed securely to three of them,
+while a few lines were passed around the fourth. Though it was in a
+fork, it did not rest on it, but was suspended three inches above it, a
+genuine hanging nest. It was three inches deep and wide, but drawn in
+about the top to a width of not more than two inches, with a bit of
+cotton and two small feathers for bedding. How five babies could grow up
+in that little cup is a problem. The material was woven closely
+together, and in addition stitched through and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span>through, up and down, to
+make a firm structure. Around and against it hung still six apples,
+defrauded of their manifest destiny, and remaining the size of
+hickory-nuts. Three twigs that ran up were cut off, but the fourth was
+left, the tallest, the one sustaining the burden of the nest, and upon
+which the young birds, one after another, had mounted to take their
+first flight.</p>
+
+<p>This pretty hammock, in its setting of leaves and apples, still swinging
+from the apple boughs, I brought home as a souvenir of a charming bird
+study.</p>
+<br />
+<br /><a name="XVII" id="XVII"></a>
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<hr /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span>
+<br />
+<h2>XVII.</h2>
+
+<h2>CEDAR-TREE LITTLE FOLK.</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p class="noin">
+<span style="margin-left: 12.5em;">'T is there that the wild dove has her nest,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 13.5em;">And whenever the branches stir,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 12.5em;">She presses closer the eggs to her breast,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 13.5em;">And her mate looks down on her.</span></p>
+
+<p style="margin-left: 17.5em;"><span class="smcap">Clare Beatrice Coffey.</span></p>
+
+
+<p>One of the voices that helped to make my June musical, and one more
+constantly heard than any other, was that of the</p>
+
+<p class="noin">
+<span style="margin-left: 12.5em;">"Mourning dove who grieves and grieves,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 12.5em;">And lost! lost! lost! still seems to say,"</span></p>
+
+<p class="noin">as the poet has it.</p>
+
+<p>Now, while I dearly love the poets, and always long to enrich my plain
+prose with gems from their verse, it is sometimes a little embarrassing,
+because one is obliged to disagree with them. If they would only look a
+little into the ways of birds, and not assert, in language so musical
+that one can hardly resist it, that</p>
+
+<p class="cen">"The birds come back to last year's nests,"</p>
+
+<p class="noin">when rarely was a self-respecting bird known to shirk the labor of
+building anew for every family; or sing, with Sill,</p>
+
+<p class="cen">"He has lost his last year's love, I know,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="noin">when he did not know any such thing; and add,</p>
+
+<p class="cen">"A thrush forgets in a year,"</p>
+
+<p class="noin">which I call a libel on one of our most intelligent birds; or cry, with
+another singer,</p>
+
+<p class="cen">"O voiceless swallow,"</p>
+
+<p class="noin">when not one of the whole tribe is defrauded of a voice, and at least
+one is an exquisite singer; or accuse the nightingale of the superfluous
+idiocy of holding his (though they always say her) breast to a thorn as
+he sings, as if he were so foolish as to imitate some forms of human
+self-torture,&mdash;if they would only be a little more sure of their facts,
+what a comfort it would be to those who love both poets and birds!</p>
+
+<p>No bird in our country is more persistently misrepresented by our sweet
+singers than the Carolina or wood dove&mdash;mourning dove, as he is
+popularly called; and in this case they are not to be blamed, for prose
+writers, even natural history writers, are quite as bad.</p>
+
+<p>"His song consists," says one, "of four notes: the first seems to be
+uttered with an inspiration of the breath, as if the afflicted creature
+were just recovering its voice from the last convulsive sob of distress,
+and followed by three long, deep, and mournful moanings, that no <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span>person
+of sensibility can listen to without sympathy." "The solemn voice of
+sorrow," another writer calls it. All this is mere sentimentality, pure
+imagination; and if the writers could sit, as I have, under the tree
+when the bird was singing, they would change their opinion, though they
+would thereby lose a pretty and attractive sentiment for their verse. I
+believe there is</p>
+
+<p class="noin">
+<span style="margin-left: 12.5em;">"No beast or bird in earth or sky,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 12.5em;">Whose voice doth not with gladness thrill,"</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noin">though it may not so express itself to our senses. Certainly the coo of
+the dove is anything but sad when heard very near. It has a rich,
+far-off sound, expressing deep serenity, and a happiness beyond words.</p>
+
+<p>First in the morning, and last at night, all through June, came to me
+the song of the dove. As early as four o'clock his notes began, and
+then, if I got up to look out on the lawn, where I had spread breakfast
+for him and other feathered friends, I would see him walking about with
+dainty steps on his pretty red toes, looking the pink of propriety in
+his Quaker garb, his satin vest smooth as if it had been ironed down,
+and quite worthy his reputed character for meekness and gentleness.</p>
+
+<p>But I wanted to see the dove far from the "madding crowd" of blackbirds,
+blue jays, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span>red-heads, who, as well as himself, took corn for
+breakfast, and I set out to look him up. At first the whole family
+seemed to consist of the young, just flying about, sometimes accompanied
+by their mother. Apparently the fathers of the race were all off in the
+cooing business.</p>
+
+<p>So early as the second of June I came upon my first pair of young doves,
+two charming little creatures, sitting placidly side by side. Grave,
+indeed, and very much grown-up looked these drab-coated little folk,
+silent and motionless, returning my gaze with an innocent openness that,
+it seemed to me, must disarm their most bitter enemy. When I came upon
+such a pair, as I frequently did, on the low branch of an apple-tree or
+a limb of their native cedar, I stopped instantly to look at them. Not
+an eyelid of the youngsters would move; if a head were turned as they
+heard me coming, it would remain at precisely that angle as long as I
+had patience to stay. They were invariably sitting down with the
+appearance of being prepared to stay all day, and almost always side by
+side, though looking in different directions, and one was always larger
+than the other. A lovely and picturesque group they never failed to
+make, and as for any show of hunger or impatience, one could hardly
+imagine they ever felt either. In every way they were a violent
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span>contrast to all their neighbors, the boisterous blue jays, lively
+catbirds, blustering robins, and vulgar-mannered blackbirds.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes I chanced upon a mother sitting by her youngling, and although
+when I found her alone she always flew, beside her little charge she was
+dignified and calm in bearing, and looked at me with fearless eyes,
+relying, as it appeared, upon absolute stillness, and the resemblance of
+her color to the branches, to escape observation; a ruse which must
+generally be successful.</p>
+
+<p>The nest, the remains of which I often saw on the tree where I found an
+infant, was the merest apology, hardly more than a platform, just enough
+to hold the pair of eggs which they are said always to contain. Indeed,
+no baby but a serene dove, with the repose of thirty generations behind
+it, could stay in it till his wings grew. As it is, he must be forced to
+perch, whether ready or not, for the structure cannot hold together
+long. The wonder is that the eggs do not roll out before they are
+hatched.</p>
+
+<p>Several things made the bird an interesting subject for study; his
+reputation for meekness, his alleged silence,&mdash;except at wooing
+time,&mdash;and the halo of melancholy with which the poets have invested
+him. I resolved to make acquaintance with my gentle neighbor, and I
+sought <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span>and found a favorite retreat of the silent family. This was a
+grove away down in the southeast corner of the grounds, little visited
+by people, and beloved by birds of several kinds. Till June was half
+over, the high grass, that I could not bear to trample, prevented
+exploration in that direction, but as soon as it was cut I made a trip
+to the little grove, and found it a sort of doves' headquarters, and
+there, in many hours of daily study, I learned to know him a little, and
+respect him a good deal.</p>
+
+<p>It was a delightful spot the doves had chosen to live in, and so
+frequented by birds that whichever way I turned my face, in two minutes
+I wished I had turned it the other, or that I had eyes in the back of my
+head. With reason, too, for the residents skipped around behind me, and
+all the interesting things went on at my back. I could hear the flit of
+wings, low, mysterious sounds, whispering, gentle complaints and
+hushings, but if I turned&mdash;lo! the scene shifted, and the drama of life
+was still enacted out of my sight. Yet I managed, in spite of this
+difficulty, to learn several things I did not know before.</p>
+
+<p>No one attends to his own business more strictly than the dove. On the
+ground, where he came for corn, he seemed to see no other bird, and paid
+not the slightest heed to me in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span>my window, but went about his own
+affairs in the most matter-of-fact way. Yet I cannot agree with the
+common opinion, which has made his name a synonym for all that is meek
+and gentle. He has a will of his own, and a "mild but firm" way of
+securing it. Sometimes, when all were busy at the corn, one of my
+Quaker-clad guests would take a notion, for what reason I could not
+discover, that some other dove must not stay, and he would drive him (or
+her) off. He was not rude or blustering, like the robin, nor did he make
+offensive remarks, after the manner of a blackbird; he simply signified
+his intention of having his neighbor go, and go he did, <i>nolens volens</i>.</p>
+
+<p>It was droll to see how this "meek and gentle" fellow met blackbird
+impudence. If one of the sable gentry came down too near a dove, the
+latter gave a little hop and rustled his feathers, but did not move one
+step away. For some occult reason the blackbird seemed to respect this
+mild protest, and did not interfere again.</p>
+
+<p>Would one suspect so solemn a personage of joking? yet what else could
+this little scene mean? A blackbird was on the ground eating, when a
+dove flew down and hovered over him as though about to alight upon him.
+It evidently impressed the blackbird exactly as it did me, for he
+scrambled out from under, very hastily. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span>But the dove had no intention
+of the sort; he came calmly down on one side.</p>
+
+<p>The first dove baby who accompanied its parent to the ground to be fed
+was the model of propriety one would expect from the demure infant
+already mentioned. He stood crouching to the ground in silence,
+fluttering his wings a little, but making no sound, either of begging,
+or when fed. A blackbird came to investigate this youngster, so
+different from his importunate offspring, upon which both doves flew.</p>
+
+<p>There is a unique quality claimed for the dove: that with the exception
+of the well-known coo in nesting time he is absolutely silent, and that
+the noise which accompanies his flight is the result of a peculiar
+formation of the wing that causes a whistle. Of this I had strong
+doubts. I could not believe that a bird who has so much to say for
+himself during wooing and nesting time could be utterly silent the rest
+of the year; nor, indeed, do I believe that any living creature, so
+highly organized as the feathered tribes, can be entirely without
+expression.</p>
+
+<p>I thought I would experiment a little, and one day, observing that a
+young dove spent most of his time alone on a certain cedar-tree, where a
+badly used-up nest showed that he had probably been hatched, or feeding
+on the ground near it, I resolved to see if I could draw him out. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span>I
+passed him six times a day, going and coming from my meals, and I always
+stopped to look at him&mdash;a scrutiny which he bore unmoved, in dove
+fashion. So one morning, when I stood three feet from him, I began a
+very low whistle to him. He was at once interested, and after about
+three calls he answered me, very low, it is true, but still
+unmistakably. Though he replied, however, it appeared to make him
+uneasy, for while he had been in the habit of submitting to my staring
+without being in any way disconcerted, he now began to fidget about. He
+stood up, changed his place, flew to a higher branch, and in a few
+moments to the next tree; all the time, however, answering my calls.</p>
+
+<p>I was greatly interested in my new acquaintance, and the next day I
+renewed my advances. As before, he answered, looking bright and eager,
+as I had never seen one of his kind look, and after three or four
+replies he became uneasy, as on the previous day, and in a moment he
+flew. But I was surprised and startled by his starting straight for me.
+I thought he would certainly alight on me, and such, I firmly believe,
+was his inclination, but he apparently did not quite dare trust me, so
+he passed over by a very few inches, and perched on the tree I was
+under. Then&mdash;still replying to me&mdash;he flew to the ground not six feet
+from me, and step by step, slowly moved <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span>away perhaps fifteen feet, when
+he turned and flew back to his own tree beside me. I was pleased to
+notice that the voice of this talkative dovekin was of the same quality
+as the "whistling" said to be of the wings, when a dove flies.</p>
+
+<p>The last interview I had with the dear baby, I found him sitting with
+his back toward me, but the instant I whistled he turned around to face
+me, and seated himself again. He replied to me, and fluttered his wings
+slightly, yet he soon became restless, as usual. He did not fly,
+however, and he answered louder than he had done previously, but I found
+that my call must be just right to elicit a response. I might whistle
+all day and he would pay no attention, till I uttered a two-note call,
+the second note a third above the first and the two slurred together. I
+was delighted to find that even a dove, and a baby at that, could "talk
+back." He was unique in other ways; for example, in being content to
+pass his days in, and around, his own tree. I do not believe he had ever
+been farther than a small group of cedars, ten feet from his own. I
+always found him there, though he could fly perfectly well. This
+interview was, I regret to say, the last; the next morning my little
+friend was nowhere to be seen. Perhaps mamma thought he was getting too
+friendly with one of a race capable of eating a baby dove.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span>After this episode in my dove acquaintance, I was more than ever
+interested in getting at the mode of expression in the family, and I
+listened on every occasion. One day two doves alighted over my head when
+I was sitting perfectly still, and I distinctly heard very low talk,
+like that of my lost baby; there was, in addition, a note or two like
+the coo, but exceedingly low. I could not have heard a sound ten feet
+from the tree, nor if I had been stirring myself. I observed also that a
+dove can fly in perfect silence; and, moreover, that the whistle of the
+wings sometimes continues after the bird has become still. I heard the
+regular coo&mdash;the whole four-note performance&mdash;both in a whisper and in
+the ordinary tone, and the latter, though right over my head, sounded a
+mile away. At the end of my month's study I was convinced that the dove
+is far from being a silent bird; on the contrary, he is quite a talker,
+with the "low, sweet voice" so much desired in other quarters. And
+further, that the whistling is not produced wholly (if at all) by the
+wings, and it is a gross injustice to assert that he is not capable of
+expressing himself at all times and seasons.</p>
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<hr /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span>
+<br />
+<h2>BESIDE THE GREAT SALT LAKE.</h2>
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<p class="noin">
+<span style="margin-left: 12.5em;">Up!&mdash;If thou knew'st who calls</span><br /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span>
+<span style="margin-left: 12.5em;">To twilight parks of beach and pine</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 12.5em;">High o'er the river intervals,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 12.5em;">Above the plowman's highest line,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 12.5em;">Over the owner's farthest walls!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 12.5em;">Up! where the airy citadel</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 12.5em;">O'erlooks the surging landscape's swell!</span></p>
+
+<p style="margin-left: 20.5em;"><span class="smcap">Emerson.</span></p>
+<br />
+<br /><a name="XVIII" id="XVIII"></a>
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<hr /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span>
+<br />
+<h2>XVIII.</h2>
+
+<h2>IN A PASTURE.</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>The word "pasture," as used on the shore of the Great Salt Lake, conveys
+no true idea to one whose associations with that word have been formed
+in States east of the Rocky Mountains. Imagine an extensive inclosure on
+the side of a mountain, with its barren-looking soil strewn with rocks
+of all sizes, from a pebble to a bowlder, cut across by an irrigating
+ditch or a mountain brook, dotted here and there by sage bushes, and
+patches of oak-brush, and wild roses, and one has a picture of a Salt
+Lake pasture. Closely examined, it has other peculiarities. There is no
+half way in its growths, no shading off, so to speak, as elsewhere; not
+an isolated shrub, not a solitary tree, flourishes in the strange soil,
+but trees and shrubs crowd together as if for protection, and the clump,
+of whatever size or shape, ends abruptly, with the desert coming up to
+its very edge. Yet the soil, though it seems to be the driest and most
+unpromising of baked gray mud, needs nothing more than a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span>little water,
+to clothe itself luxuriantly; the course of a brook or even an
+irrigating ditch, if permanent, is marked by a thick and varied border
+of greenery. What the poor creatures who wandered over those dreary
+wastes could find to eat was a problem to be solved only by close
+observation of their ways.</p>
+
+<p>"H. H." said some years ago that the magnificent yucca, the glory of the
+Colorado mesas, was being exterminated by wandering cows, who ate the
+buds as soon as they appeared. The cattle of Utah&mdash;or their owners&mdash;have
+a like crime to answer for; not only do they constantly feed upon
+rose-buds and leaves, notwithstanding the thorns, but they regale
+themselves upon nearly every flower-plant that shows its head; lupines
+were the chosen dainty of my friend's horse. The animals become expert
+at getting this unnatural food; it is curious to watch the deftness with
+which a cow will go through a currant or gooseberry bush, thrusting her
+head far down among the branches, and carefully picking off the tender
+leaves, while leaving the stems untouched, and the matter-of-course way
+in which she will bend over and pull down a tall sapling, to despoil it
+of its foliage.</p>
+
+<p>In a pasture such as I have described, on the western slope of one of
+the Rocky Mountains, desolate and forbidding though it looked, many
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span>hours of last summer's May and June "went their way," if not</p>
+
+<p class="cen">"As softly as sweet dreams go down the night,"</p>
+
+<p class="noin">certainly with interest and pleasure to two bird-students whose ways I
+have sometimes chronicled.</p>
+
+<p>Most conspicuous, as we toiled upward toward our breezy pasture, was a
+bird whose chosen station was a fence&mdash;a wire fence at that. He was a
+tanager; not our brilliant beauty in scarlet and black, but one far more
+gorgeous and eccentric in costume, having, with the black wings and tail
+of our bird, a breast of shining yellow and a cap of crimson. His
+occupation on the sweet May mornings that he lingered with us, on his
+way up the mountains for the summer, was the familiar one of getting his
+living, and to that he gave his mind without reserve. Not once did he
+turn curious eyes upon us as we sauntered by or rested awhile to watch
+him. Eagerly his pretty head turned this way and that, but not for us;
+it was for the winged creatures of the air he looked, and when one that
+pleased his fancy fluttered by he dashed out and secured it, returning
+to a post or the fence just as absorbed and just as eager for the next
+one. Every time he alighted it was a few feet farther down the fence,
+and thus he worked his way out of our sight, without seeming aware of
+our existence.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span>This was not stupidity on the part of the crimson-head, nor was it
+foolhardiness; it was simply trust in his guardian, for he had one,&mdash;one
+who watched every movement of ours with close attention, whose vigilance
+was never relaxed, and who appeared, when we saw her, to be above the
+need of food. A plain personage she was, clad in modest, dull
+yellow,&mdash;the female tanager. She was probably his mate; at any rate, she
+gradually followed him down the fence, keeping fifteen or twenty feet
+behind him, all the time with an eye on us, ready to give warning of the
+slightest aggressive movement on our part. It would be interesting to
+know how my lord behaves up in those sky-parlors where their summer
+homes are made. No doubt he is as tender and devoted as most of his race
+(all his race, I would say, if Mr. Torrey had not shaken our faith in
+the ruby-throat), and I have no doubt that the little red-heads in the
+nest will be well looked after and fed by their fly-catching papa.</p>
+
+<p>Far different from the cool unconcern of the crimson-headed tanager were
+the manners of another red-headed dweller on the mountain. The
+green-tailed towhee he is called in the books, though the red of his
+head is much more conspicuous than the green of his tail. In this bird
+the high-bred repose of his neighbor was replaced by the most fussy
+restlessness. When <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span>we surprised him on the lowest wire of the fence, he
+was terribly disconcerted, not to say thrown into a panic. He usually
+stood a moment, holding his long tail up in the air, flirted his wings,
+turned his body this way and that in great excitement, then hopped to
+the nearest bowlder, slipped down behind it, and ran off through the
+sage bushes like a mouse. More than this we were never able to see, and
+where he lived and how his spouse looked we do not know to this day.</p>
+
+<p>Most interesting of the birds that we saw on our daily way to the
+pasture were the gulls; great, beautiful, snowy creatures, who looked
+strangely out of place so far away from the seashore. Stranger, too,
+than their change of residence was their change of manners from the
+wild, unapproachable sea-birds, soaring and diving, and apparently
+spending their lives on wings such as the poet sings,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="noin">
+<span style="margin-left: 13.5em;">"When I had wings, my brother,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 14.5em;">Such wings were mine as thine;"</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noin">and of whose lives he further says,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 13.5em;">"What place man may, we claim it,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 13.5em;">But thine,&mdash;whose thought may name it?</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 13.5em;">Free birds live higher than freemen,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 13.5em;">And gladlier ye than we."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>From this high place in our thoughts, from this realm of poetry and
+mystery, to come down <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span>almost to the tameness of the barnyard fowl is a
+marvelous transformation, and one is tempted to believe the solemn
+announcement of the Salt Lake prophet, that the Lord sent them to his
+chosen people.</p>
+
+<p>The occasion of this alleged special favor to the Latter Day Saints was
+the advent, about twenty years ago, of clouds of grasshoppers, before
+which the crops of the Western States and Territories were destroyed as
+by fire. It was then, in their hour of greatest need, when the food upon
+which depended a whole people was threatened, that these beautiful
+winged messengers appeared. In large flocks they came, from no one knows
+where, and settled, like so many sparrows, all over the land, devouring
+almost without ceasing the hosts of the foe. The crops were saved, and
+all Deseret rejoiced. Was it any wonder that a people trained to regard
+the head of their church as the direct representative of the Highest
+should believe these to be really birds of God, and should accordingly
+cherish them? Well would it be for themselves if other Christian peoples
+were equally believing, and protected and cherished other winged
+messengers, sent just as truly to protect their crops.</p>
+
+<p>The shrewd man who wielded the destinies of his people beside the Salt
+Lake secured the future usefulness of what they considered the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span>miraculous visitation by fixing a penalty of five dollars upon the head
+of every gull in the Territory. And now, the birds having found
+congenial nesting-places on solitary islands in the lake, their
+descendants are so fearless and so tame that they habitually follow the
+plow like a flock of chickens, rising from almost under the feet of the
+indifferent horses and settling down at once in the furrow behind,
+seeking out and eating greedily all the worms and grubs and larv&aelig; and
+mice and moles that the plow has disturbed in its passage. The Mormon
+cultivator has sense enough to appreciate such service, and no man or
+boy dreams of lifting a finger against his best friend.</p>
+
+<p>Extraordinary indeed was this sight to eyes accustomed to seeing every
+bird who attempts to render like service shot and snared and swept from
+the face of the earth. Our hearts warmed toward the "Sons of Zion," and
+our respect for their intelligence increased, as we hurried down to the
+field to see this latter-day wonder.</p>
+
+<p>Whether the birds distinguished between "saints" and sinners, or whether
+their confidence extended only to plow-boys, they would not let us come
+near them. But our glasses brought them close, and we had a very good
+study of them, finding exceeding interest in their ways: their quaint
+faces as they flew toward <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span>us; their dignified walk; their expression of
+disapproval, lifting the wings high above the back till they met; their
+queer and constant cries in the tone of a child who whines; and, above
+all, their use of the wonderful wings,&mdash;"half wing, half wave," Mrs.
+Spofford calls them.</p>
+
+<p>To rise from the earth upon these beautiful great arms, seemed to be not
+so easy as it looks. Some of the graceful birds lifted them, and ran a
+little before leaving the ground, and all of them left both legs
+hanging, and both feet jerking awkwardly at every wing-beat, for a few
+moments on starting, before they carefully drew each flesh-colored foot
+up into its feather pillow,</p>
+
+<p class="noin">
+<span style="margin-left: 13.5em;">"And gray and silver up the dome</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 13.5em;">Of gray and silver skies went sailing,"</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noin">in ever-widening circles, without moving a feather that we could
+perceive. It was charming to see how nicely they folded down their
+splendid wings on alighting, stretching each one out, and apparently
+straightening every feather before laying it into its place.</p>
+
+<p>Several hours this interesting flock accompanied the horses and man
+around the field, taking possession of each furrow as it was laid open,
+and chattering and eating as fast as they could; and the question
+occurred to me, if a field that is thoroughly gleaned over every spring
+furnishes so great a supply of creatures hurtful to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span>vegetation, what
+must be the state of grounds which are carefully protected from such
+gleaning, on which no bird is allowed to forage?</p>
+
+<p>As noon approached, the hour when "birds their wise siesta take,"
+although the plow did not cease its monotonous round, the birds retired
+in a body to the still untouched middle of the field, and settled
+themselves for their "nooning," dusting themselves&mdash;their snowy
+plumes!&mdash;like hens on an ash heap, sitting about in knots like parties
+of ducks, preening and shaking themselves out, or going at once to
+sleep, according to their several tastes. Half an hour's rest sufficed
+for the more active spirits, and then they treated us, their patient
+observers, to an a&euml;rial exhibition. A large number, perhaps three
+quarters of the flock, rose in a body and began a spiral flight. Higher
+and higher they went, in wider and wider circles, till, against the
+white clouds, they looked like a swarm of midges, and against the blue
+the eye could not distinguish them. Then from out of the sky dropped one
+after another, leaving the soaring flock looking wonderfully ethereal
+and gauzy in the clear air, with the sun above him, almost like a spirit
+bird gliding motionless through the ether till he alighted at last
+quietly beside his fellows on the ground. In another half hour they were
+all behind the plow again, hard at work.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span>When we had looked our fill, we straightway sought out and questioned
+some of the wise men among the "peculiar people." This is what we
+learned: that when plowing is over the birds retire to their home, an
+island in the lake, where, being eminently social birds, their nests are
+built in a community. Their beneficent service to mankind does not end
+with the plowing season, for when that is over they turn their attention
+to the fish that are brought into the lake by the fresh-water streams,
+at once strangled by its excess of salt, and their bodies washed up on
+the shore. What would become of the human residents if that animal
+deposit were left for the fierce sun to dispose of, may perhaps be
+imagined. The gull should, indeed, be a sacred bird in Utah.</p>
+
+<p>What drew us first to the pasture&mdash;which we came to at last&mdash;was our
+search for a magpie's nest. The home of this knowing fellow is the Rocky
+Mountain region, and, naturally, he was the first bird we thought of
+looking for. There would be no difficulty in finding nests, we thought,
+for we came upon magpies everywhere in our walks. Now one alighted on a
+fence-post a few yards ahead of us, earnestly regarding our approach,
+tilting upward his long, expressive tail, the black of his plumage
+shining with brilliant blue reflections, and the white fairly <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span>dazzling
+the eyes. Again we caught glimpses of two or three of the beautiful
+birds walking about on the ground, holding their precious tails well up
+from the earth, and gleaning industriously the insect life of the horse
+pasture. At one moment we were saluted from the top of a tall tree, or
+shrieked at by one passing over our heads, looking like an immense
+dragonfly against the sky. Magpie voices were heard from morning till
+night; strange, loud calls of "mag! mag!" were ever in our ears. "Oh,
+yes," we had said, "we must surely go out some morning and find a nest."</p>
+
+<p>First we inquired. Everybody knew where they built, in oak-brush or in
+apple-trees, but not a boy in that village knew where there was a nest.
+Oh, no, not one! A man confessed to the guilty secret, and, directed by
+him, we took a long walk through the village with its queer little
+houses, many of them having the two front doors which tell the tale of
+Mormondom within; up the long sidewalk, with a beautiful bounding
+mountain brook running down the gutter, as if it were a tame irrigating
+ditch, to a big gate in a "combination fence." What this latter might be
+we had wondered, but relied upon knowing it when we saw it,&mdash;and we did:
+it was a fence of laths held together by wires woven between them, and
+we recognized the fitness of the name <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span>instantly. Then on through the
+big gate, down a long lane where we ran the gauntlet of the family cows;
+over or under bars, where awaited us a tribe of colts with their anxious
+mammas; and at last to the tree and the nest. There our guide met us and
+climbed up to explore. Alas! the nest robber had anticipated us.</p>
+
+<p>Slowly we took our way home, resolved to ask no more help, but to seek
+for ourselves, for the nest that is <i>known</i> is the nest that is robbed.
+So the next morning, armed with camp-chairs and alpenstocks,
+drinking-cups and notebooks, we started up the mountain, where we could
+at least find solitude, and the fresh air of the hills. We climbed till
+we were tired, and then, as was our custom, sat down to rest and
+breathe, and see who lived in that part of the world. Without thought of
+the height we had reached, we turned our backs to the mountain, rising
+bare and steep before us, and behold! the outlook struck us dumb.</p>
+
+<p>There at our feet lay the village, smothered in orchards and
+shade-trees, the locusts, just then huge bouquets of graceful bloom and
+delicious odor, buzzing with hundreds of bees and humming-birds; beyond
+was a stretch of cultivated fields in various shades of green and brown;
+and then the lake,&mdash;beautiful and wonderful Salt Lake,&mdash;glowing with
+exquisite colors, now <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span>hyacinth blue, changing in places to tender green
+or golden brown, again sparkling like a vast bed of diamonds. In the
+foreground lay Antelope Island, in hues of purple and bronze, with its
+chain of hills and graceful sky-line; and resting on the horizon beyond
+were the peaks of the grand Oquirrhs, capped with snow. Well might we
+forget our quest while gazing on this impressive scene, trying to fix
+its various features in our memories, to be an eternal possession.</p>
+
+<p>We were recalled to the business in hand by the sudden appearance on the
+top of a tree below us of one of the birds we sought. The branch bent
+and swayed as the heavy fellow settled upon it, and in a moment a
+comrade came, calling vigorously, and alighted on a neighboring branch.
+A few minutes they remained, with flirting tails, conversing in
+garrulous tones, then together they rose on broad wings, and passed
+away&mdash;away over the fields, almost out of sight, before they dropped
+into a patch of oak-brush. After them appeared others, and we sat there
+a long time, hoping to see at least one that had its home within our
+reach. But every bird that passed over turned its face to the mountains;
+some seemed to head for the dim Oquirrhs across the lake, while others
+disappeared over the top of the Wasatch behind <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span>us; not one paused in
+our neighborhood, excepting long enough to look at us, and express its
+opinion in loud and not very polite tones.</p>
+
+<p>It was then and there that we noticed our pasture; the entrance was
+beside us. Shall we go in? was always the question before an inclosure.
+We looked over the wall. It was plainly the abode of horses, meek
+work-a-day beings, who certainly would not resent our intrusion.
+Oak-brush was there in plenty, and that is the chosen home of the
+magpie. We hesitated; we started for the gate. It was held in place by a
+rope elaborately and securely tied in many knots; but we had learned
+something about the gates of this "promised land,"&mdash;that between the
+posts and the stone wall may usually be found space enough to slip
+through without disturbing the fastenings.</p>
+
+<p>In that country no one goes through a gate who can possibly go around
+it, and well is it indeed for the stranger and the wayfarer in "Zion"
+that such is the custom, for the idiosyncrasies of gates were endless;
+they agreed only in never fitting their place and never opening
+properly. If the gate was in one piece, it sagged so that it must be
+lifted; or it had lost one hinge, and fell over on the rash individual
+who loosened the fastenings; or it was about falling to pieces, and must
+be handled like a piece of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span>choice bric-a-brac. If it had a latch, it
+was rusty or did not fit; and if it had not, it was fastened, either by
+a board slipped in to act as a bar and never known to be of proper size,
+or in some occult way which would require the skill of "the lady from
+Philadelphia" to undo. If it was of the fashion that opens in the
+middle, each individual gate had its particular "kink," which must be
+learned by the uninitiated before he&mdash;or, what is worse, she&mdash;could
+pass. Many were held together by a hoop or link of iron, dropped over
+the two end posts; but whether the gate must be pulled out or pushed in,
+and at exactly what angle it would consent to receive the link, was to
+be found out only by experience.</p>
+
+<p>But not all gates were so simple even as this: the ingenuity with which
+a variety of fastenings,&mdash;all to avoid the natural and obvious one of a
+hook and staple,&mdash;had been evolved in the rural mind was fairly
+startling. The energy and thought that had been bestowed upon this
+little matter of avoiding a gate-hook would have built a bridge across
+Salt Lake, or tunneled the Uintas for an irrigating ditch.</p>
+
+<p>Happily, we too had learned to "slip through," and we passed the gate
+with its rope puzzle, and the six or eight horses who pointed inquiring
+ears toward their unwonted visitors, and hastened to get under cover
+before the birds, if any lived there, should come home.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span>The oak-brush, which we then approached, is a curious and interesting
+form of vegetation. It is a mass of oak-trees, all of the same age,
+growing as close as they can stand, with branches down to the ground. It
+looks as if each patch had sprung from a great fall of acorns from one
+tree, or perhaps were shoots from the roots of a perished tree. The
+clumps are more or less irregularly round, set down in a barren piece of
+ground, or among the sage bushes. At a distance, on the side of a
+mountain, they resemble patches of moss of varying shape. When two or
+three feet high, one is a thick, solid mat; when it reaches an altitude
+of six to eight feet, it is an impenetrable thicket; except, that is,
+when it happens to be in a pasture. Horses and cattle find such scanty
+pickings in the fields, that they nibble every green thing, even oak
+leaves, and so they clear the brush as high as they can reach. When
+therefore it is fifteen feet high, there is a thick roof the animals are
+not able to reach, and one may look through a patch to the light beyond.
+The stems and lower branches, though kept bare of leaves, are so close
+together and so intertwined and tangled, that forcing one's way through
+it is an impossibility. But the horses have made and kept open paths in
+every direction, and this turns it into a delightful grove, a cool
+retreat, which others appreciate as well as the makers.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span>Selecting a favorable-looking clump of oak-brush, we attempted to get in
+without using the open horse paths, where we should be in plain sight.
+Melancholy was the result; hats pulled off, hair disheveled, garments
+torn, feet tripped, and wounds and scratches innumerable. Several
+minutes of hard work and stubborn endurance enabled us to penetrate not
+more than half a dozen feet, when we managed, in some sort of fashion,
+to sit down, on opposite sides of the grove. Then, relying upon our
+"protective coloring" (not evolved, but carefully selected in the
+shops), we subsided into silence, hoping not to be observed when the
+birds came home, for there was the nest before us.</p>
+
+<p>A wise and canny builder is Madam Mag, for though her home must be large
+to accommodate her size, and conspicuous because of the shallowness of
+the foliage above her, it is, in a way, a fortress, to despoil which the
+marauder must encounter a weapon not to be despised,&mdash;a stout beak,
+animated and impelled by indignant motherhood. The structure was made of
+sticks, and enormous in size; a half-bushel measure would hardly hold
+it. It was covered, as if to protect her, and it had two openings under
+the cover, toward either of which she could turn her face. It looked
+like a big, coarsely woven basket resting in a crotch up under the
+leaves, with a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span>nearly close cover supported by a small branch above.
+The sitting bird could draw herself down out of sight, or she could
+defend herself and her brood, at either entrance.</p>
+
+<p>In my retreat, I had noted all these points before any sign of life
+appeared in the brush. Then there came a low cry of "mag! mag!" and the
+bird entered near the ground. She alighted on a dead branch, which swung
+back and forth, while she kept her balance with her beautiful tail. She
+did not appear to look around; apparently she had no suspicions and did
+not notice us, sitting motionless and breathless in our respective
+places. Her head was turned to the nest, and by easy stages and with
+many pauses, she made her way to it. I could not see that she had a
+companion, for I dared not stir so much as a finger; but while she moved
+about near the nest there came to the eager listeners on the ground low
+and tender utterances in the sweetest of voices,&mdash;whether one or two I
+know not,&mdash;and at last a song, a true melody, of a yearning, thrilling
+quality that few song-birds, if any, can excel. I was astounded! Who
+would suspect the harsh-voiced, screaming magpie of such notes! I am
+certain that the bird or birds had no suspicion of listeners to the home
+talk and song, for after we were discovered, we heard nothing of the
+sort.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span>This little episode ended, madam slipped into her nest, and all became
+silent, she in her place and I in mine. If this state of things could
+only remain; if she would only accept me as a tree-trunk or a misshapen
+bowlder, and pay no attention to me, what a beautiful study I should
+have! Half an hour, perhaps more, passed without a sound, and then the
+silence was broken by magpie calls from without. The sitting bird left
+the nest and flew out of the grove, quite near the ground; I heard much
+talk and chatter in low tones outside, and they flew. I slipped out as
+quickly as possible, wishing indeed that I had wings as she had, and
+went home, encouraged to think I should really be able to study the
+magpie.</p>
+
+<p>But I did not know my bird. The next day, before I knew she was about,
+she discovered me, though it was plain that she hoped I had not
+discovered her. Instantly she became silent and wary, coming to her nest
+over the top of the trees, so quietly that I should not have known it
+except for her shadow on the leaves. No talk or song now fell upon my
+ear; calls outside were few and subdued. Everything was different from
+the natural unconsciousness of the previous day; the birds were on
+guard, and henceforth I should be under surveillance.</p>
+
+<p>From this moment I lost my pleasure in the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span>study, for I feel little
+interest in the actions of a bird under the constraint of an unwelcome
+presence, or in the shadow of constant fear and dread. What I care to
+see is the natural life, the free, unstudied ways of birds who do not
+notice or are not disturbed by spectators. Nor have I any pleasure in
+going about the country staring into every tree, and poking into every
+bush, thrusting irreverent hands into the mysteries of other lives, and
+rudely tearing away the veils that others have drawn around their
+private affairs. That they are only birds does not signify to me; for me
+they are fellow-creatures; they have rights, which I am bound to
+respect.</p>
+
+<p>I prefer to make myself so little obvious, or so apparently harmless to
+a bird, that she will herself show me her nest, or at least the leafy
+screen behind which it is hidden. Then, if I take advantage of her
+absence to spy upon her treasures, it is as a friend only,&mdash;a friend who
+respects her desire for seclusion, who never lays profane hands upon
+them, and who shares the secret only with one equally reverent and
+loving. Naturally I do not find so many nests as do the vandals to whom
+nothing is sacred, but I enjoy what I do find, in a way it hath not
+entered into their hearts to conceive.</p>
+
+<p>In spite of my disinclination, we made one more call upon the magpie
+family, and this time <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span>we had a reception. This bird is intelligent and
+by no means a slave to habit; because he has behaved in a certain way
+once, there is no law, avian or divine, that compels him to repeat that
+conduct on the next occasion. Nor is it safe to generalize about him, or
+any other bird for that matter. One cannot say, "The magpie does thus
+and so," because each individual magpie has his own way of doing, and
+circumstances alter cases, with birds as well as with people.</p>
+
+<p>On this occasion we placed ourselves boldly, though very quietly, in the
+paths that run through the oak-brush. We had abandoned all attempt at
+concealment; we could hope only for tolerance. The birds readily
+understood; they appreciated that they were seen and watched, and their
+manners changed accordingly. The first one of the black-and-white gentry
+who entered the grove discovered my comrade, and announced the presence
+of the enemy by a loud cry, in what somebody has aptly called a
+"frontier tone of voice." Instantly another appeared and added his
+remarks; then another, and still another, till within five minutes there
+were ten or twelve excited magpies, shouting at the top of their voices,
+and hopping and flying about her head, coming ever nearer and nearer, as
+if they meditated a personal attack. I did not really fear it, but I
+kept close watch, while <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span>remaining motionless, in the hope that they
+would not notice me. Vain hope! nothing could escape those sharp eyes
+when once the bird was aroused. After they had said what they chose to
+my friend, who received the taunts and abuse of the infuriated mob in
+meek silence, lifting not her voice to reply, they turned the stream of
+their eloquence upon me.</p>
+
+<p>I was equally passive, for indeed I felt that they had a grievance. We
+have no right to expect birds to tell one human being from another, so
+long as we, with all our boasted intelligence, cannot tell one crow or
+one magpie from another; and all the week they had suffered persecution
+at the hands of the village boys. Young magpies, nestlings, were in
+nearly every house, and the birds had endured pillage, and doubtless
+some of them death. I did not blame the grieved parents for the
+reception they gave us; from their point of view we belonged to the
+enemy.</p>
+
+<p>After the storm had swept by, and while we sat there waiting to see if
+the birds would return, one of the horses of the pasture made his
+appearance on the side where I sat, now eating the top of a rosebush,
+now snipping off a flower plant that had succeeded in getting two leaves
+above the ground, but at every step coming nearer me. It was plain that
+he contemplated <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span>retiring to this shady grove, and, not so observing as
+the magpies, did not see that it was already occupied. When he was not
+more than ten feet away, I snatched off my sun hat and waved it before
+him, not wishing to make a noise. He stopped instantly, stared wildly
+for a moment, as if he had never seen such an apparition, then wheeled
+with a snort, flung out his heels in disrespect, and galloped off down
+the field.</p>
+
+<p>The incident was insignificant, but the result was curious. So long as
+we stayed in that bit of brush, not a horse attempted to enter, though
+they all browsed around outside. They avoided it as if it were haunted,
+or, as my comrade said, "filled with beckoning forms." Nor was that all;
+I have reason to think they never again entered that particular patch of
+brush, for, some weeks after we had abandoned the study of magpies and
+the pasture altogether, we found the spot transformed, as if by the wand
+of enchantment. From the burned-up desert outside we stepped at once
+into a miniature paradise, to our surprise, almost our consternation.
+Excepting the footpaths through it, it bore no appearance of having ever
+been a thoroughfare. Around the foot of every tree had grown up clumps
+of ferns or brakes, a yard high, luxuriant, graceful, and exquisite in
+form and color; <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span>and peeping out from under them were flowers, dainty
+wildings we had not before seen there. A bit of the tropics or a gem out
+of fairyland it looked to our sun and sand weary eyes. Outside were the
+burning sun of June, a withering hot wind, and yellow and dead
+vegetation; within was cool greenness and a mere rustle of leaves
+whispering of the gale. It was the loveliest bit of greenery we saw on
+the shores of the Great Salt Lake. It was marvelous; it was almost
+uncanny.</p>
+
+<p>Our daily trips to the pasture had ceased, and other birds and other
+nests had occupied our thoughts for a week or two, when we resolved to
+pay a last visit to our old haunts, to see if we could learn anything of
+the magpies. We went through the pasture, led by the voices of the birds
+away over to the farther side, and there, across another fenced pasture,
+we heard them plainly, calling and chattering and making much noise, but
+in different tones from any we had heard before. Evidently a magpie
+nursery had been established over there. We fancied we could distinguish
+maternal reproof and loving baby talk, beside the weaker voices of the
+young, and we went home rejoicing to believe, that in spite of nest
+robbers, and the fright we had given them, some young magpies were
+growing up to enliven the world another summer.</p>
+<br />
+<br /><a name="XIX" id="XIX"></a>
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<hr /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span>
+<br />
+<h2>XIX.</h2>
+
+<h2>THE SECRET OF THE WILD ROSE PATH.</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p class="noin">
+<span style="margin-left: 16.5em;">"Shall I call thee Bird,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 14.5em;">Or but a wandering Voice?"</span><br />
+</p>
+
+
+<p>Wordsworth's lines are addressed to the cuckoo of the Old World, a bird
+of unenviable reputation, notorious for imposing his most sacred duties
+upon others; naturally, therefore, one who would not court observation,
+and whose ways would be somewhat mysterious. But the American
+representative of the family is a bird of different manners. Unlike his
+namesake across the water, our cuckoo never&mdash;or so rarely as practically
+to be never&mdash;shirks the labor of nest-building and raising a family. He
+has no reason to skulk, and though always a shy bird, he is no more so
+than several others, and in no sense is he a mystery.</p>
+
+<p>There is, however, one American bird for whom Wordsworth's verse might
+have been written; one whose chief aim seems to be, reversing our
+grandmothers' rule for little people, to be heard, and not seen. To be
+seen is, with <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span>this peculiar fellow, a misfortune, an accident, which he
+avoids with great care, while his voice rings out loud and clear above
+all others in the shrubbery. I refer to the yellow-breasted chat
+(<i>Icteria virens</i>), whose summer home is the warmer temperate regions of
+our country, from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast, and whose
+unbirdlike utterances prepare one to believe the stories told of his
+eccentric actions; this, for example, by Dr. Abbott:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="noin">
+<span style="margin-left: 12.5em;">"Aloft in the sunny air he springs;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 14.5em;">To his timid mate he calls;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 12.5em;">With dangling legs and fluttering wings</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 14.5em;">On the tangled smilax falls;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 15.5em;">He mutters, he shrieks&mdash;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 16.5em;">A hopeless cry;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 15.5em;">You think that he seeks</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 16.5em;">In peace to die,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 12.5em;">But pity him not; 't is the ghostly chat,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 12.5em;">An imp if there is one, be sure of that."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>I first knew the chat&mdash;if one may be said to know a creature so shy&mdash;in
+a spot I have elsewhere described, a deserted park at the foot of
+Cheyenne Mountain. I became familiar with his various calls and cries
+(one can hardly call them songs); I secured one or two fleeting glimpses
+of his graceful form; I sought and discovered the nest, which thereupon
+my Lady Chat promptly abandoned, though I had not laid a finger upon it;
+and last of all, I had the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span>sorrow and shame of knowing that my
+curiosity had driven the pair from the neighborhood. This was the
+Western form of <i>Icteria</i>, differing from the Eastern only in a greater
+length of tail, which several of our Rocky Mountain birds affect, for
+the purpose, apparently, of puzzling the ornithologist.</p>
+
+<p>Two years after my unsuccessful attempt to cultivate friendly relations
+with "the ghostly chat," the middle of May found me on the shore of the
+Great Salt Lake, where I settled myself at the foot of the Wasatch
+Mountains, at that point bare, gray, and unattractive, showing miles of
+loose bowlders and great patches of sage-bush. In the monotonous
+stretches of this shrub, each plant of which looks exactly like every
+other, dwelt many shy birds, as well hidden as bobolinks in the meadow
+grass, or meadow-larks in the alfalfa.</p>
+
+<p>But on this mountain side no friendly cover existed from which I could
+spy out bird secrets. Whatever my position, and wherever I placed
+myself, I was as conspicuous as a tower in the middle of a plain; again,
+no shadow of protection was there from the too-ardent sun of Utah, which
+drew the vitality from my frame as it did the color from my gown; worse
+than these, the everywhere present rocks were the chosen haunts of the
+one enemy of a peaceful bird lover, the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span>rattlesnake, and I hesitated to
+pursue the bird, because I invariably forgot to watch and listen for the
+reptile. Bird study under these conditions was impossible, but the place
+presented a phase of nature unfamiliar to me, and for a time so
+fascinating that every morning my steps turned of themselves "up the
+stony pathway to the hills."</p>
+
+<p>The companion of my walks, a fellow bird-student, was more than
+fascinated; she was enraptured. The odorous bush had associations for
+her; she reveled in it; she inhaled its fragrance as a delicious
+perfume; she filled her pockets with it; she lay for hours at a time on
+the ground, where she could bask in the sunshine, and see nothing but
+the gray leaves around her and the blue sky above.</p>
+
+<p>I can hardly tell what was the fascination for me. It was certainly not
+the view of the mountains, though mountains are beyond words in my
+affections. The truth is, the Rocky Mountains, many of them, need a
+certain distance to make them either picturesque or dignified. The range
+then daily before our eyes, the Wasatch, was, to dwellers at its feet,
+bleak, monotonous, and hopelessly prosaic. The lowest foothills, being
+near, hid the taller peaks, as a penny before the eye will hide a whole
+landscape.</p>
+
+<p>Let me not, however, be unjust to the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span>mountains I love. There is a
+range which satisfies my soul, and will rest in my memory forever, a
+beautiful picture, or rather a whole gallery of pictures. I can shut my
+eyes and see it at this moment, as I have seen it a thousand times. In
+the early morning, when the level sun shines on its face, it is like one
+continuous mountain reaching across the whole western horizon; it has a
+broken and beautiful sky line; Pike's Peak looms up toward the middle,
+and lovely Cheyenne ends it in graceful slope on the south; lights and
+shadows play over it; its colors change with the changing sky or
+atmosphere,&mdash;sometimes blue as the heavens, sometimes misty as a dream;
+it is wonderfully beautiful then. But wait till the sun gets higher;
+look again at noon, or a little later. Behold the whole range has sprung
+into life, separated into individuals; gorges are cut where none had
+appeared; chasms come to light; ca&ntilde;ons and all sorts of divisions are
+seen; foothills move forward to their proper places, and taller peaks
+turn at angles to each other; shapes and colors that one never suspected
+come out in the picture: the transformation is marvelous. But the sun
+moves on, the magical moment passes, each mountain slips back into line,
+and behold, you see again the morning's picture.</p>
+
+<p>Indulge me one moment, while I try to show <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span>you the last picture
+impressed upon my memory as the train bore me, unwilling, away. It was
+cloudy, a storm was coming up, and the whole range was in deep shadow,
+when suddenly through some rift in the clouds a burst of sunshine fell
+upon the "beloved mountain" Cheyenne, and upon it alone. In a moment it
+was a smiling picture,</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 23.5em;">"Glad</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 12.5em;">With light as with a garment it was clad;"</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noin">all its inequalities, its divisions, its irregularities emphasized, its
+greens turned greener, its reds made more glowing,&mdash;an unequaled gem for
+a parting gift.</p>
+
+<p>To come back to Utah. One morning, on our way up to the heights, as we
+were passing a clump of oak-brush, a bird cry rang out. The voice was
+loud and clear, and the notes were of a peculiar character: first a
+"chack" two or three times repeated, then subdued barks like those of a
+distressed puppy, followed by hoarse "mews" and other sounds suggesting
+almost any creature rather than one in feathers. But with delight I
+recognized the chat; my enthusiasm instantly revived. I unfolded my camp
+chair, placed myself against a stone wall on the opposite side of the
+road, and became silent and motionless as the wall itself.</p>
+
+<p>My comrade, on the contrary, as was her <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span>custom, proceeded with equal
+promptness to follow the bird up, to hunt him out. She slipped between
+the barbed wires which, quite unnecessarily, one would suppose, defended
+the bleak pasture from outside encroachment, and passed out of sight
+down an obscure path that led into the brush where the bird was hidden.
+Though our ways differ, or rather, perhaps, <i>because</i> our ways differ,
+we are able to study in company. Certainly this circumstance proved
+available in circumventing the wily chat, and that happened which had
+happened before: in fleeing from one who made herself obvious to him, he
+presented himself, an unsuspecting victim, to another who sat like a
+statue against the wall. To avoid his pursuer, the bird slipped through
+the thick foliage of the low oaks, and took his place on the outside, in
+full view of me, but looking through the branches at the movements
+within so intently that he never turned his eyes toward me. This gave me
+an opportunity to study his manners that is rare indeed, for a chat off
+his guard is something inconceivable.</p>
+
+<p>He shouted out his whole <i>r&eacute;pertoire</i> (or so it seemed) with great
+vehemence, now "peeping" like a bird in the nest, then "chacking" like a
+blackbird, mewing as neatly as pussy herself, and varying these calls by
+the rattling of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span>castanets and other indescribable sounds. His perch was
+half way down the bush; his trim olive-drab back and shining golden
+breast were in their spring glory, and he stood nearly upright as he
+sang, every moment stretching up to look for the invader behind the
+leaves. The instant she appeared outside, he vanished within, and I
+folded my chair and passed on. His disturber had not caught a glimpse of
+him.</p>
+
+<p>My next interview with a chat took place a day or two later. Between the
+cottage which was our temporary home and the next one was a narrow
+garden bordered by thick hedges, raspberry bushes down each side, and a
+mass of flowering shrubs next the street. From my seat within the house,
+a little back from the open window, I was startled by the voice of a
+chat close at hand. Looking cautiously out, I saw him in the garden,
+foraging about under cover of the bushes, near the ground, and there for
+some time I watched him. He had not the slightest repose of manner; the
+most ill-bred tramp in the English sparrow family was in that respect
+his superior, and the most nervous and excitable of wrens could not
+outdo him in posturing, jerking himself up, flirting his tail, and
+hopping from twig to twig. When musically inclined, he perched on the
+inner side of the bushes against the front fence, a foot or two <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span>above
+the ground, and within three feet of any one who might pass, but
+perfectly hidden.</p>
+
+<p>The performance of the chat was exceedingly droll; first a whistle,
+clear as an oriole note, followed by chacks that would deceive a
+red-wing himself, and then, oddest of all, the laugh of a feeble old
+man, a weak sort of "yah! yah! yah!" If I had not seen him in the act, I
+could not have believed the sound came from a bird's throat. He
+concluded with a low, almost whispered "chur-r-r," a sort of private
+chuckle over his unique exhibition. After a few minutes' singing he
+returned to his foraging on the ground, or over the lowest twigs of the
+bushes, all the time bubbling over with low joyous notes, his graceful
+head thrown up, and his beautiful golden throat swelling with the happy
+song. The listener and looker behind the screen was charmed to absolute
+quiet, and the bird so utterly unsuspicious of observers that he was
+perfectly natural and at his ease, hopping quickly from place to place,
+and apparently snatching his repast between notes.</p>
+
+<p>The chat's secret of invisibility was thus plainly revealed. It is not
+in his protective coloring, for though his back is modest of hue, his
+breast is conspicuously showy; nor is it in his size, for he is almost
+as large as an oriole; it is in his manners. The bird I was watching
+never <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span>approached the top of a shrub, but invariably perched a foot or
+more below it, and his movements, though quick, were silence itself. No
+rustle of leaves proclaimed his presence; indeed, he seemed to avoid
+leaves, using the outside twigs near the main stalk or trunk, where they
+are usually quite bare, and no flit of wing or tail gave warning of his
+change of position. There was a seemingly natural wariness and
+cautiousness in every movement and attitude, that I never saw equaled in
+feathers.</p>
+
+<p>Then, too, the clever fellow was so constantly on his guard and so alert
+that the least stir attracted his attention. Though inside the house, as
+I said, not near the window, and further veiled by screens, I had to
+remain as nearly motionless as possible, and use my glass with utmost
+caution. The smallest movement sent him into the bushes like a shot,&mdash;or
+rather, like a shadow, for the passage was always noiseless. Suspicion
+once aroused, the bird simply disappeared. One could not say of him, as
+of others, that he flew, for whether he used his wings, or melted away,
+or sank into the earth, it would be hard to tell. All I can be positive
+about is, that whereas one moment he was there, the next he was gone.</p>
+
+<p>After this exhibition of the character of the chat, his constant
+watchfulness, his distrust, his <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span>love of mystery, it may appear strange
+that I should try again to study him at home, to find his nest and see
+his family. But there is something so bewitching in his individuality,
+that, though I may be always baffled, I shall never be discouraged.
+Somewhat later, when it was evident that his spouse had arrived and
+domestic life had begun, and I became accustomed to hearing a chat in a
+certain place every day as I passed, I resolved to make one more effort
+to win his confidence, or, if not that, at least his tolerance.</p>
+
+<p>The chat medley for which I was always listening came invariably from
+one spot on my pathway up the mountain. It was the lower end of a large
+horse pasture, and near the entrance stood a small brick house, in which
+no doubt dwelt the owner, or care-taker, of the animals. The wide gate,
+in a common fashion of that country, opened in the middle, and was
+fastened by a link of iron which dropped over the two centre posts. The
+rattle of the iron as I touched it, on the morning I resolved to go in,
+brought to the door a woman. She was rather young, with hair cut close
+to her head, and wore a dark cotton gown, which was short and scant of
+skirt, and covered with a "checked apron." She was evidently at work,
+and was probably the mistress, since few in that "working-bee" village
+kept maids.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span>I made my request to go into the pasture to look at the birds.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, certainly," she said, with a courtesy that I have found everywhere
+in Utah, though with a slow surprise growing in her face. "Come right
+in."</p>
+
+<p>I closed and fastened the gate, and started on past her. Three feet
+beyond the doorsteps I was brought to a standstill: the ground as far as
+I could see was water-soaked; it was like a saturated sponge. Utah is
+dominated by Irrigation; she is a slave to her water supply. One going
+there from the land of rains has much to learn of the possibilities and
+the inconveniences of water. I was always stumbling upon it in new
+combinations and unaccustomed places, and I never could get used to its
+vagaries. Books written in the interest of the Territory indulge in
+rhapsodies over the fact that every man is his own rain-maker; and I
+admit that the arrangement has its advantages&mdash;to the cultivator. But
+judging from the standpoint of an outsider, I should say that man is not
+an improvement upon the original providence which distributes the staff
+of life to plants elsewhere, spreading the vital fluid over the whole
+land, so evenly that every grass blade gets its due share; and as all
+parts are wet at once, so all are dry at the same time, and the surplus,
+if there be any, runs in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span>well-appointed ways, with delight to both eye
+and ear. All this is changed when the office of Jupiter Pluvius devolves
+upon man; different indeed are his methods. A man turns a stream loose
+in a field or pasture, and it wanders whither it will over the ground.
+The grass hides it, and the walker, bird-student or botanist, steps
+splash into it without the slightest warning. This is always unpleasant,
+and is sometimes disastrous, as when one attempts to cross the edge of a
+field of some close-growing crop, and instantly sinks to the top of the
+shoes in the soft mud.</p>
+
+<p>On the morning spoken of, I stopped before the barrier, considering how
+I should pass it, when the woman showed me a narrow passage between the
+house and the stone wall, through which I could reach the higher ground
+at the back. I took this path, and in a moment was in the grove of young
+oaks which made her out-of-doors kitchen and yard. A fire was burning
+merrily in the stove, which stood under a tree; frying-pans and
+baking-tins, dippers and dishcloths, hung on the outer wall of her
+little house, and the whole had a camping-out air that was captivating,
+and possible only in a rainless land. I longed to linger and study this
+open-air housekeeping; if that woman had only been a bird!</p>
+
+<p>But I passed on through the oak-grove back yard, following a path the
+horses had made, till <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span>I reached an open place where I could overlook
+the lower land, filled with clumps of willows with their feet in the
+water, and rosebushes</p>
+
+<p class="noin">
+<span style="margin-left: 12.5em;">"O'erburdened with their weight of flowers,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 12.5em;">And drooping 'neath their own sweet scent."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>A bird was singing as I took my seat, a grosbeak,&mdash;perhaps the one who
+had entertained me in the field below, while I had waited hour after
+hour, for his calm-eyed mate to point out her nest. He sang there from
+the top of a tall tree, and she busied herself in the low bushes, but up
+to that time they had kept their secret well. He was a beautiful bird,
+in black and orange-brown and gold,&mdash;the black-headed grosbeak; and his
+song, besides being very pleasing, was interesting because it seemed
+hard to get out. It was as if he had conceived a brilliant and beautiful
+strain, and found himself unable to execute it. But if he felt the
+incompleteness of his performance as I did, he did not let it put an end
+to his endeavor. I sat there listening, and he came nearer, even to a
+low tree over my head; and as I had a glimpse or two of his mate in a
+tangle of willow and roses far out in the wet land, I concluded he was
+singing to her, and not to me. Now that he was so near, I heard more
+than I had before, certain low, sweet notes, plainly not intended for
+the public ear. This undertone song ended always in "sweet! sweet!
+sweet!" <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span>usually followed by a trill, and was far more effective than
+his state performances. Sometimes, after the "sweet" repeated half a
+dozen times, each note lower than the preceding one, he ended with a
+sort of purr of contentment.</p>
+
+<p>I became so absorbed in listening that I had almost forgotten the object
+of my search, but I was suddenly recalled by a loud voice at one side,
+and the lively genius of the place was on hand in his usual r&ocirc;le.
+Indeed, he rather surpassed himself in mocking and taunting cries that
+morning, either because he wished, as my host, to entertain me, or, what
+was more probable, to reproach me for disturbing the serenity of his
+life. Whatever might have been his motive, he delighted me, as always,
+by the spirit and vigor with which he poured out his chacks and whistles
+and rattles and calls. Then I tried to locate him by following up the
+sound, picking my way through the bushes, and among the straggling arms
+of the irrigating stream. After some experiments, I discovered that he
+was most concerned when I came near an impenetrable tangle that skirted
+the lower end of the lot. I say "near:" it was near "as the crow flies,"
+but for one without wings it may have been half a mile; for between me
+and that spot was a great gulf fixed, the rallying point of the most
+erratic of wandering streamlets, and so given over to its <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span>vagaries that
+no bird-gazer, however enthusiastic, and indifferent to wet feet and
+draggled garments, dared attempt to pass. There I was forced to pause,
+while the bird flung out his notes as if in defiance, wilder, louder,
+and more vehement than ever.</p>
+
+<p>In that thicket, I said to myself, as I took my way home, behind that
+tangle, if I can manage to reach it, I shall find the home of the chat.
+The situation was discouraging, but I was not to be discouraged; to
+reach that stronghold I was resolved, if I had to dam up the irrigator,
+build a bridge, or fill up the quagmire.</p>
+
+<p>No such heroic treatment of the difficulty was demanded; my problem was
+very simply solved. As I entered the gate the next morning, my eyes fell
+upon an obscure footpath leading away from the house and the watery way
+beyond it, down through overhanging wild roses, and under the great
+tangle in which the chat had hidden. It looked mysterious, not to say
+forbidding, and, from the low drooping of the foliage above, it was
+plainly a horse path, not a human way. But it was undoubtedly the key to
+the secrets of the tangle, and I turned into it without hesitation.
+Stooping under the branches hanging low with their fragrant burden, and
+stopping every moment to loosen the hold of some hindering thorn, I
+followed in the footsteps of my <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span>four-footed pioneers till I reached the
+lower end of the marsh that had kept me from entering on the upper side.
+On its edge I placed my chair and seated myself.</p>
+
+<p>It was an ideal retreat; within call if help were needed, yet a solitude
+it was plain no human being, in that land where (according to the
+Prophet) every man, woman, and child is a working bee, ever invaded;</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 20.5em;">"A leafy nook</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 9.5em;">Where wind never entered, nor branch ever shook,"</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noin">known only to my equine friends and to me. I exulted in it! No
+discoverer of a new land, no stumbler upon a gold mine, was ever more
+exhilarated over his find than I over my solitary wild rose path.</p>
+
+<p>The tangle was composed of a varied growth. There seemed to have been
+originally a straggling row of low trees, chokecherry, peach, and
+willow, which had been surrounded, overwhelmed, and almost buried by a
+rich growth of shoots from their own roots, bound and cemented together
+by the luxuriant wild rose of the West, which grows profusely everywhere
+it can get a foothold, stealing up around and between the branches, till
+it overtops and fairly smothers in blossoms a fair-sized oak or other
+tree. Besides these were great ferns, or brakes, three or four feet
+high, which filled up the edges <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span>of the thicket, making it absolutely
+impervious to the eye, as well as to the foot of any straggler. Except
+in the obscure passages the horses kept open, no person could penetrate
+my jungle.</p>
+
+<p>I had hardly placed myself, and I had not noted half of these details,
+when it became evident that my presence disturbed somebody. A chat cried
+out excitedly, "chack! chack! whe-e-w!" whereupon there followed an
+angry squawk, so loud and so near that it startled me. I turned quickly,
+and saw madam herself, all ruffled as if from the nest. She was plainly
+as much startled as I was, but she scorned to flee. She perked up her
+tail till she looked like an exaggerated wren; she humped her shoulders;
+she turned this way and that, showing in every movement her anger at my
+intrusion; above all, she repeated at short intervals that squawk, like
+an enraged hen. Hearing a rustle of wings on the other side, I turned my
+eyes an instant, and when I looked again she had gone! She would not run
+while I looked at her, but she had the true chat instinct of keeping out
+of sight.</p>
+
+<p>She did not desert her grove, however. The canopy over my head, the roof
+to my retreat, was of green leaves, translucent, almost transparent. The
+sun was the sun of Utah; it cast strong shadows, and not a bird could
+move without my seeing it. I could see that she remained <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span>on guard,
+hopping and flying silently from one point of view to another, no doubt
+keeping close watch of me all the time.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the chat himself had not for a moment ceased calling. For some
+time his voice would sound quite near; then it would draw off, growing
+more and more distant, as if he were tired of watching one who did
+absolutely nothing. But he never got far away before madam recalled him,
+sometimes by the squawk alone, sometimes preceding it by a single clear
+whistle, exactly in his own tone. At once, as if this were a
+signal,&mdash;which doubtless it was,&mdash;his cries redoubled in energy, and
+seemed to come nearer again.</p>
+
+<p>Above the restless demonstrations of the chats I could hear the clear,
+sweet song of the Western meadow-lark in the next field. Well indeed
+might his song be serene; the minstrel of the meadow knew perfectly well
+that his nest and nestlings were as safely hidden in the middle of the
+growing lucern as if in another planet; while the chat, on the contrary,
+was plainly conscious of the ease with which his homestead might be
+discovered. A ruthless destroyer, a nest-robbing boy, would have had the
+whole thing in his pocket days ago. Even I, if I had not preferred to
+have the owners show it to me: if I had not made excuses to myself, of
+the marsh, of bushes too low to go under; if I had <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span>not hated to take it
+by force, to frighten the little folk I wished to make friends
+with,&mdash;even I might have seen the nest long before that morning. Thus I
+meditated as, after waiting an hour or two, I started for home.</p>
+
+<p>Outside the gate I met my fellow-student, and we went on together. Our
+way lay beside an old orchard that we had often noticed in our walks.
+The trees were not far apart, and so overgrown that they formed a deep
+shade, like a heavy forest, which was most attractive when everything
+outside was baking in the June sun. It was nearly noon when we reached
+the gate, and looking into a place</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 14.5em;">"So curtained with trunks and boughs</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">That in hours when the ringdove coos to his spouse</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">The sun to its heart scarce a way could win,"</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="noin">we could not resist its inviting coolness; we went in.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as we were quiet, we noticed that there were more robins than we
+had heretofore seen in one neighborhood in that part of the world; for
+our familiar bird is by no means plentiful in the Rocky Mountain
+countries, where grassy lawns are rare, and his chosen food is not
+forthcoming. The old apple-trees seemed to be a favorite nesting-place,
+and before we had been there five minutes we saw that there were at
+least two nests within fifty <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span>feet of us, and a grosbeak singing his
+love song, so near that we had hopes of finding his home, also, in this
+secluded nook.</p>
+
+<p>The alighting of a bird low down on the trunk of a tree, perhaps twenty
+feet away, called the attention of my friend to a neighbor we had not
+counted upon, a large snake, with, as we noted with horror, the color
+and markings of the dreaded rattler. He had, as it seemed, started to
+climb one of the leaning trunks, and when he had reached a point where
+the trunk divided into two parts, his head about two feet up, and the
+lower part of his body still on the ground, had stopped, and now rested
+thus, motionless as the tree itself. It may be that it was the sudden
+presence of his hereditary enemy that held him apparently spellbound, or
+it is possible that this position served his own purposes better than
+any other. Our first impulse was to leave his lordship in undisputed
+possession of his shady retreat; but the second thought, which held us,
+was to see what sort of reception the robins would give him. There was a
+nest full of young on a neighboring tree, and it was the mother who had
+come down to interview the foe. Would she call her mate? Would the
+neighbors come to the rescue? Should we see a fight, such as we had read
+of? We decided to wait for the result.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span>Strange to say, however, this little mother did not call for help. Not
+one of the loud, disturbed cries with which robins greet an innocent
+bird-student or a passing sparrow hawk was heard from her; though her
+kinsfolk sprinkled the orchard, she uttered not a sound. For a moment
+she seemed dazed; she stood motionless, staring at the invader as if
+uncertain whether he were alive. Then she appeared to be interested; she
+came a little nearer, still gazing into the face of her enemy, whose
+erect head and glittering eyes were turned toward her. We could not see
+that he made the slightest movement, while she hopped nearer and nearer;
+sometimes on one division of the trunk, and sometimes on the other, but
+always, with every hop, coming a little nearer. She did not act
+frightened nor at all anxious; she simply seemed interested, and
+inclined to close investigation. Was she fascinated? Were the old
+stories of snake power over birds true? Our interest was most intense;
+we did not take our eyes from her; nothing could have dragged us away
+then.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly the bird flew to the ground, and, so quickly that we did not
+see the movement, the head of the snake was turned over toward her,
+proving that it was the bird, and not us, he was watching. Still she
+kept drawing nearer till she was not more than a foot from him, when our
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span>sympathy with the unfortunate creature, who apparently was unable to
+tear herself away, overcame our scientific curiosity. "Poor thing,
+she'll be killed! Let us drive her away!" we cried. We picked up small
+stones which we threw toward her; we threatened her with sticks; we
+"shooed" at her with demonstrations that would have quickly driven away
+a robin in possession of its senses. Not a step farther off did she
+move; she hopped one side to avoid our missiles, but instantly fluttered
+back to her doom. Meanwhile her mate appeared upon the scene, hovering
+anxiously about in the trees overhead, but not coming near the snake.</p>
+
+<p>By this time we had lost all interest in the question whether a snake
+can charm a bird to its destruction; we thought only of saving the
+little life in such danger. We looked around for help; my friend ran
+across the street to a house, hurriedly secured the help of a man with a
+heavy stick, and in two minutes the snake lay dead on the ground.</p>
+
+<p>The bird, at once relieved, flew hastily to her nest, showing no signs
+of mental aberration, or any other effect of the strain she had been
+under. The snake was what the man called a "bull snake," and so closely
+resembled the rattler in color and markings that, although its
+exterminator had killed many of the more famous <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span>reptiles, he could not
+tell, until it was stretched out in death, which of the two it was. This
+tragedy spoiled the old orchard for me, and never again did I enter its
+gates.</p>
+
+<p>Down the wild rose path I took my way the next morning. Silently and
+quickly I gained my seat of yesterday, hoping to surprise the chat
+family. No doubt my hope was vain; noiseless, indeed, and deft of
+movement must be the human being who could come upon this alert bird
+unawares. He greeted me with a new note, a single clear call, like "ho!"
+Then he proceeded to study me, coming cautiously nearer and nearer, as I
+could see out of the corner of my eye, while pretending to be closely
+occupied with my notebook. His loud notes had ceased, but it is not in
+chat nature to be utterly silent; many low sounds dropped from his beak
+as he approached. Sometimes it was a squawk, a gentle imitation of that
+which rang through the air from the mouth of his spouse; again it was a
+hoarse sort of mewing, followed by various indescribable sounds in the
+same undertone; and then he would suddenly take himself in hand, and be
+perfectly silent for half a minute.</p>
+
+<p>After a little, madam took up the matter, uttering her angry squawk, and
+breaking upon my silence almost like a pistol shot. At once I forgot her
+mate, and though he retired to a little <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span>distance and resumed his
+brilliant musical performance, I did not turn my head at his
+beguilements. She was the business partner of the firm whose movements I
+wished to follow. She must, sooner or later, go to her nest, while he
+might deceive me for days. Indeed, I strongly suspected him of that very
+thing, and whenever he became bolder in approaching, or louder and more
+vociferous of tongue, I was convinced that it was to cover her
+operations. I redoubled my vigilance in watching for her, keeping my
+eyes open for any slight stirring of a twig, tremble of a leaf, or quick
+shadow near the ground that should point her out as she skulked to her
+nest. I had already observed that whenever she uttered her squawks he
+instantly burst into energetic shouts and calls. I believed it a
+concerted action, with the intent of drawing my attention from her
+movements.</p>
+
+<p>On this day the disturbed little mother herself interviewed me. First
+she came silently under the green canopy, in plain sight, stood a moment
+before me, jerking up her beautiful long tail and letting it drop slowly
+back, and posing her mobile body in different positions; then suddenly
+flying close past me, she alighted on one side, and stared at me for
+half a dozen seconds. Then, evidently, she resolved to take me in hand.
+She assumed the r&ocirc;le of deceiver, with all the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span>wariness of her family;
+her object being, as I suppose, carefully to point out where her nest
+was <i>not</i>. She circled about me, taking no pains to avoid my gaze. Now
+she squawked on the right; then she acted "the anxious mother" on the
+left; this time it was from the clump of rosebushes in front that she
+rose hurriedly, as if that was her home; again it was from over my head,
+in the chokecherry-tree, that she bustled off, as if she had been
+"caught in the act." It was a brilliant, a wonderful performance, a
+thousand times more effective than trailing or any of the similar
+devices by which an uneasy bird mother draws attention from her brood.
+It was so well done that at each separate man&oelig;uvre I could hardly be
+convinced by my own eyes that the particular spot indicated did not
+conceal the little homestead I was seeking. Several times I rose
+triumphant, feeling sure that "now indeed I <i>do</i> know where it is," and
+proceeded at once to the bush she had pointed out with so much simulated
+reluctance, parted the branches, and looked in, only to find myself
+deceived again. Her acting was marvelous. With just the properly
+anxious, uneasy manner, she would steal behind a clump of leaves into
+some retired spot admirably adapted for a chat's nest, and after a
+moment sneak out at the other side, and fly away near the ground,
+exactly as all <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span>bird-students have seen bird mothers do a thousand
+times.</p>
+
+<p>After this performance a silence fell upon the tangle and the solitary
+nook in which I sat,&mdash;and I meditated. It was the last day of my stay.
+Should I set up a search for that nest which I was sure was within
+reach? I could go over the whole in half an hour, examine every shrub
+and low tree and inch of ground in it, and doubtless I should find it.
+No; I do not care for a nest thus forced. The distress of parents, the
+panic of nestlings, give me no pleasure. I know how a chat's nest looks.
+I have seen one with its pinky-pearl eggs; why should I care to see
+another? I know how young birds look; I have seen dozens of them this
+very summer. Far better that I never lay eyes upon the nest than to do
+it at such cost.</p>
+
+<p>As I reached this conclusion, into the midst of my silence came the
+steady tramp of a horse. I knew the wild rose path was a favorite
+retreat from the sun, and it was very hot. The path was narrow; if a
+horse came in upon me, he could not turn round and retreat, nor was
+there room for him to pass me. Realizing all this in an instant, I
+snatched up my belongings, and hurried to get out before he should get
+in.</p>
+
+<p>When I emerged, the chat set up his loudest and most triumphant shouts.
+"Again we have <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span>fooled you," he seemed to say; "again we have thrown
+your poor human acuteness off the scent! We shall manage to bring up our
+babies in safety, in spite of you!"</p>
+
+<p>So indeed they might, even if I had seen them; but this, alas, I could
+not make him understand. So he treated me&mdash;his best friend&mdash;exactly as
+he treated the nest-robber and the bird-shooter.</p>
+
+<p>I shall never know whether that nest contained eggs or young birds; or
+whether perchance there was no nest at all, and I had been deceived from
+the first by the most artful and beguiling of birds. And through all
+this I had never once squarely seen the chat I had been following.</p>
+
+<p class="noin">
+<span style="margin-left: 13.5em;">"Even yet thou art to me</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 13.5em;">No bird, but, an invisible thing,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 13.5em;">A voice, a mystery."</span><br />
+</p>
+<br />
+<br /><a name="XX" id="XX"></a>
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<hr /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span>
+<br />
+<h2>XX.</h2>
+
+<h2>ON THE LAWN.</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>The first thing that strikes an Eastern bird-student in the Rocky
+Mountain region, as I have already said, is the absence of the birds he
+is familiar with. Instead of the chipping sparrow everywhere, one sees
+the lazuli-painted finch, or the Rocky Mountain bluebird; in place of
+the American robin's song, most common of sounds in country
+neighborhoods on the Atlantic side of the continent, is heard the silver
+bell of the towhee bunting, sometimes called marsh robin, or the harsh
+"chack" of Brewer's blackbird; the music that opens sleepy eyes at
+daybreak is not a chorus of robins and song-sparrows, but the ringing
+notes of the chewink, the clear-cut song of the Western meadow-lark, or
+the labored utterance of the black-headed grosbeak; it is not by the
+melancholy refrain of the whippoorwill or the heavenly hymns of thrushes
+that the approach of night is heralded, but by the cheery trill of the
+house wren or the dismal wail of the Western wood-pewee.</p>
+
+<p>Most of all does the bird-lover miss the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span>thrushes from the feathered
+orchestra. Some of them may dwell in that part of the world,&mdash;the books
+affirm it, and I cannot deny it,&mdash;but this I know: one whose eye is
+untiring, and whose ear is open night and day to bird-notes, may spend
+May, June, July, yes, and even August, in the haunts of Rocky Mountain
+birds, and not once see or hear either of our choice singing thrushes.</p>
+
+<p>However the student may miss the birds he knows at home, he must rejoice
+in the absence of one,&mdash;the English sparrow. When one sees the charming
+purple finch and summer yellow-bird, nesting and singing in the streets
+of Denver, and the bewitching Arkansas goldfinch and the beautiful
+Western bluebird perfectly at home in Colorado Springs, he is reminded
+of what might be in the Eastern cities, if only the human race had not
+interfered with Nature's distribution of her feathered families. In
+Utah, indeed, we meet again the foreigner, for in that unfortunate
+Territory the man, wise in his own conceit, was found to introduce him,
+and Salt Lake, the city of their pride and glory, is as completely
+infested by the feathered tramp as New York itself. Happy is Colorado
+that great deserts form her borders, and that chains of mountains
+separate her from her neighbors; for, since the sparrow is as fond of
+the city as <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span>Dr. Johnson, it may be hoped that neither he, nor his
+children, nor his grandchildren, will ever cross the barriers.</p>
+
+<p>In Utah, as everywhere, the English sparrows are sharp-witted rogues,
+and they have discovered and taken possession of the most comfortable
+place for bird quarters to be found, for protection from the terrible
+heat of summer, and the wind and snow of winter; it is between the roof
+and the stone or adobe walls of the houses. Wherever the inequalities of
+the stones or the shrinkage of the wood has left an opening, and made
+penetration possible, there an English sparrow has established a
+permanent abode.</p>
+
+<p>The first bird I noticed in the quiet Mormon village where I settled
+myself to study was a little beauty in blue. I knew him instantly, for I
+had met him before in Colorado. He was dining luxuriously on the
+feathery seeds of a dandelion when I discovered him, and at no great
+distance was his olive-clad mate, similarly engaged. They were
+conversing cheerfully in low tones, and in a few minutes I suppose he
+called her attention to the superior quality of his dandelion; for she
+came to his side, and he at once flew to a neighboring bush and burst
+into song. It was a pretty little ditty, or rather a musical rattle on
+one note, resembling the song of the indigo bird, his near relative.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span>The lazuli-painted finch should be called the blue-headed finch, for the
+exquisite blueness of his whole head, including throat, breast, and
+shoulders, as if he had been dipped so far into blue dye, is his
+distinguishing feature. The bluebird wears heaven's color; so does the
+jay, and likewise the indigo bird; but not one can boast the lovely and
+indescribable shade, with its silvery reflections, that adorns the
+lazuli. Across the breast, under the blue, is a broad band of chestnut,
+like the breast color of our bluebird, and back of that is white, while
+the wings and tail are dark. Altogether, he is charming to look upon.
+Who would not prefer him about the yard to the squawking house sparrow,
+or even the squabbling chippy?</p>
+
+<p>My catching the pair at dinner was not an accident; I soon found out
+that they lived there, and had settled upon a row of tall raspberry
+bushes that separated the garden from the lawn for their summer home.
+Madam was already at work collecting her building materials, and very
+soon the fragile walls of her pretty nest were formed in an upright
+crotch of the raspberries, about a foot below the top.</p>
+
+<p>Naturally, I was greatly interested in the fairy house building, and
+often inspected the work while the little dame was out of sight. One
+day, however, as I was about to part the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span>branches to look in, I heard
+an anxious "phit," and glanced up to see the owner alight on the lowest
+limb of a peach-tree near by. Of course I turned away at once,
+pretending that I was just passing, and had no suspicion of her precious
+secret in the raspberries, and hoping that she would not mind. But she
+did mind, very seriously; she continued to stand on that branch with an
+aggrieved air, as if life were no longer worth living, now that her home
+was perhaps discovered. Without uttering a sound or moving a muscle, so
+far as I could see, she remained for half an hour before she accepted my
+taking a distant seat and turning my attention to dragonflies as an
+apology, and ventured to visit her nest again. After that I made very
+sure that she was engaged elsewhere before I paid my daily call.</p>
+
+<p>The dragonflies, by the way, were well worth looking at; indeed, they
+divided my interest with the birds. So many and such variety I never
+noticed elsewhere, and they acted exactly like fly-catching birds,
+staying an hour at a time on one perch, from which every now and then
+they sallied out, sweeping the air and returning to the perch they had
+left. Sometimes I saw four or five of them at once, resting on different
+dead twigs in the yard the other side of the lawn, and I have even seen
+one knock <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span>a fellow-dragonfly off a favorite perch and take it himself.</p>
+
+<p>They were very beautiful, too: some with wings of transparent white or
+light amber barred off by wide patches of rich dark brown or black;
+others, again, smaller, and all over blue as the lazuli's head; and a
+third of brilliant silver, which sparkled as it flew, as if covered with
+spangles. One alighted there with wings which seemed to be covered with
+a close and intricate design in the most brilliant gold thread. I went
+almost near enough to put my hand on him, and I never saw a more
+gorgeous creature; beside his beautiful wings his back was of old gold,
+coming down in scallops over the black and dark blue under part.</p>
+
+<p>In due time four lovely blue eggs filled the nest of the lazuli, and
+about the middle of June madam began to sit, and I had to be more
+careful than ever in timing my visits.</p>
+
+<p>Some birds approach their nest in a loitering, aimless sort of way, as
+if they had no particular business, in that quarter, and, if they see
+any cause for alarm, depart with an indifferent air that reveals nothing
+of their secret. Not thus the ingenuous lazuli. She showed her anxiety
+every moment; coming in the most businesslike way, and proclaiming her
+errand to the most careless observer, till I thought every boy on <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span>the
+street would know where her eggs were to be found. She had a very pretty
+way of going to the nest; indeed, all her manners were winning. She
+always alighted on the peach-tree branch, looked about on all sides,
+especially at me in my seat on the piazza, flirted her tail, uttered an
+anxious "phit," and then jumped off the limb and dived under the bushes
+near the ground. It is to be presumed that she ascended to her nest
+behind the leaves by hopping from twig to twig, though this I could
+never manage to see.</p>
+
+<p>And what of her gay little spouse all this time? Did he spend his days
+cheering her with music, as all the fathers of feathered families are
+fabled to do? Indeed he did not, and until I watched very closely, and
+saw him going about over the poplars in silence, I thought he had left
+the neighborhood. Once in the day he had a good singing time, about five
+o'clock in the morning, two hours before the sun rose over the
+mountains. If one happened to be awake then, he would hear the most
+rapturous song, delivered at the top of his voice, and continuing for a
+long time. But as it grew lighter, and the human world began to stir, he
+became quiet again, and, if he sang at all, he went so far from home
+that I did not hear him.</p>
+
+<p>But the wise little blue-head had not deserted; <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span>he was merely cautious.
+Every time that the little sitter went off for food she met him
+somewhere, and he came back with her. Occasionally he took a peep at the
+treasures himself, but he never entered by her roundabout way. He always
+flew directly in from above.</p>
+
+<p>Ten days passed away in this quiet manner, my attention divided between
+the birds, the dragonflies, and the clacking grasshopper, who went
+jerking himself about with a noise like a subdued lawn-mower, giving one
+the impression that his machinery was out of order.</p>
+
+<p>The tenth day of sitting we had a south wind. That does not seem very
+terrible, but a south wind on the shore of the Great Salt Lake is
+something to be dreaded.</p>
+
+<p class="noin">
+<span style="margin-left: 12.5em;">"A wind that is dizzy with whirling play,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 12.5em;">A dozen winds that have lost their way."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>It starts up suddenly, and comes with such force as to snap off the
+leaves of trees, and even the tender twigs of shrubs. As it waxes
+powerful it bends great trees, and tries the strength of roofs and
+chimneys. From the first breath it rolls up tremendous clouds of dust,
+that come and come, and never cease, long after it seems as if every
+particle in that rainless land must have been driven by. It is in the
+"Great Basin," and the south wind is the broom that sweeps it clean. Not
+only dust does the south <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span>wind bring, but heat, terrible and
+suffocating, like that of a fiery furnace. Before it the human and the
+vegetable worlds shrink and wither, and birds and beasts are little
+seen.</p>
+
+<p>Such a day was the birthday in the little nest in the raspberries, and
+on my usual morning call I found four featherless birdlings, with beaks
+already yawning for food. Every morning, of course, I looked at the
+babies, but it was not till the eighth day of their life that I found
+their eyes open. Before this they opened their mouths when I jarred the
+nest in parting the branches, thus showing they were not asleep, but did
+not open their eyes, and I was forced to conclude that they were not yet
+unclosed.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes the daily visit was made under difficulties, and I was
+unpleasantly surprised when I stepped upon the grass of the little lawn
+that I was obliged to cross. The grass looked as usual; the evening
+before we had been sitting upon it. But all night a stream had been
+silently spreading itself upon it, and my hasty step was into water two
+or three inches deep, which swished up in a small fountain and filled a
+low shoe in an instant.</p>
+
+<p>This is one of the idiosyncrasies of irrigation, which it seemed I
+should never get accustomed to, and several times I was obliged to turn
+back for overshoes before I could pay my usual call. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span>A lawn asoak is a
+curious sight, and always reminds me of Lanier's verses,</p>
+
+<p class="noin">
+<span style="margin-left: 20.5em;">"A thousand rivulets run</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 9.5em;">'Twixt the roots of the soil; the blades of the marsh grass stir;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 12.5em;">... and the currents cease to run,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 12.5em;">And the sea and the marsh are one."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>The morning the lazulis were ten days old, before I came out of the
+house, that happened which so often puts an end to a study of bird
+life,&mdash;the nest was torn out of place and destroyed, and the little
+family had disappeared. The particulars will never be known. Whether a
+nest-robbing boy or a hungry cat was the transgressor, and whether the
+nestlings were carried off or eaten, or had happily escaped, who can
+tell? I could only judge by the conduct of the birds themselves, and as
+they did not appear disturbed, and continued to carry food, it is to be
+presumed that part, if not all, of the brood was saved from the wreck of
+their home.</p>
+
+<p>Happily, to console me in my sorrow for this catastrophe, the lazuli was
+not the only bird to be seen on the lawn, though his was the only nest.
+I had for some time been greatly interested in the daily visits of a
+humming-bird, a little dame in green and white, who had taken possession
+of a honeysuckle vine beside the door, claiming the whole as her own,
+and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span>driving away, with squeaky but fierce cries, any other of her race
+who ventured to sip from the coral cups so profusely offered.</p>
+
+<p>The season for humming-birds opened with the locust blossoms next door,
+which were for days a mass of blooms and buzzings, of birds and bees.
+But when the fragrant flowers began to fall and the ground was white
+with them, one bird settled herself on our honeysuckle, and there took
+her daily meals for a month. Being not six feet from where I sat for
+hours every day, I had the first good opportunity of my life to learn
+the ways of one of these queer little creatures in feathers.</p>
+
+<p>After long searching and much overhauling of the books, I made her out
+to be the female broad-tailed humming-bird, who is somewhat larger than
+the familiar ruby-throat of the East. Her mate, if she had one, never
+came to the vine; but whether she drove him away and discouraged him, or
+whether he had an independent source of supply, I never knew. She was
+the only one whose acquaintance I made, and in a month's watching I came
+to know her pretty well.</p>
+
+<p>In one way she differed strikingly from any humming-bird I have seen:
+she alighted, and rested frequently and for long periods. Droll enough
+it looked to see such an atom, such a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span>mere pinch of feathers, conduct
+herself after the fashion of a big bird; to see her wipe that
+needle-like beak, and dress those infinitesimal feathers, combing out
+her head plumage with her minute black claws, running the same useful
+appendages through her long, gauzy-looking wings, and carefully removing
+the yellow pollen of the honeysuckle blooms which stuck to her face and
+throat. Her favorite perch was a tiny dead twig on the lowest branch of
+a poplar-tree, near the honeysuckle. There she spent a long time each
+day, sitting usually, though sometimes she stood on her little wiry
+legs.</p>
+
+<p>But though my humming friend might sit down, there was no repose about
+her; she was continually in motion. Her head turned from side to side,
+as regularly, and apparently as mechanically, as an elephant weaves his
+great head and trunk. Sometimes she turned her attention to me, and
+leaned far over, with her large, dark eyes fixed upon me with interest
+or curiosity. But never was there the least fear in her bearing; she
+evidently considered herself mistress of the place, and reproved me if I
+made the slightest movement, or spoke too much to a neighbor. If she
+happened to be engaged among her honey-pots when a movement was made,
+she instantly jerked herself back a foot or more from the vine, and
+stood upon nothing, as it were, motionless, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span>except the wings, while she
+looked into the cause of the disturbance, and often expressed her
+disapproval of our behavior in squeaky cries.</p>
+
+<p>The toilet of this lilliputian in feathers, performed on her chosen twig
+as it often was, interested me greatly. As carefully as though she were
+a foot or two, instead of an inch or two long, did she clean and put in
+order every plume on her little body, and the work of polishing her beak
+was the great performance of the day. This member was plainly her pride
+and her joy; every part of it, down to the very tip, was scraped and
+rubbed by her claws, with the leg thrown over the wing, exactly as big
+birds do. It was astonishing to see what she could do with her leg. I
+have even seen her pause in mid-air and thrust one over her vibrating
+wing to scratch her head.</p>
+
+<p>Then when the pretty creature was all in beautiful order, her
+emerald-green back and white breast immaculate, when she had shaken
+herself out, and darted out and drawn back many times her long
+bristle-like tongue, she would sometimes hover along before the tips of
+the fence-stakes, which were like laths, held an inch apart by
+wires,&mdash;collecting, I suppose, the tiny spiders which were to be found
+there. She always returned to the honeysuckle, however, to finish her
+repast, opening and closing her tail <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span>as one flirts a fan, while the
+breeze made by her wings agitated the leaves for two feet around her.
+Should a blossom just ready to fall come off on her beak like a coral
+case, as it sometimes did, she was indignant indeed; she jerked herself
+back and flung it off with an air that was comical to see.</p>
+
+<p>When the hot wind blew, the little creature seemed to feel the
+discomfort that bigger ones did: she sat with open beak as though
+panting for breath; she flew around with legs hanging, and even alighted
+on a convenient leaf or cluster of flowers, while she rifled a blossom,
+standing with sturdy little legs far apart, while stretching up to reach
+the bloom she desired.</p>
+
+<p>Two statements of the books were not true in the case of this bird: she
+did not sit on a twig upright like an owl or a hawk, but held her body
+exactly as does a robin or sparrow; and she did fly backward and
+sideways, as well as forward.</p>
+
+<p>Toward the end of June my tiny visitor began to make longer intervals
+between her calls, and when she did appear she was always in too great
+haste to stop; she passed rapidly over half a dozen blossoms, and then
+flitted away. Past were the days of loitering about on poplar twigs or
+preening herself on the peach-tree. It was plain that she had set up a
+home for herself, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span>and the mussy state of her once nicely kept breast
+feathers told the tale,&mdash;she had a nest somewhere. Vainly, however, did
+I try to track her home: she either took her way like an arrow across
+the garden to a row of very tall locusts, where a hundred humming-birds'
+nests might have been hidden, or turned the other way over a neighbor's
+field to a cluster of thickly grown apple-trees, equally impossible to
+search. If she had always gone one way I might have tried to follow, but
+to look for her infinitesimal nest at opposite poles of the earth was
+too discouraging, even if the weather had been cool enough for such
+exertion.</p>
+
+<p>When at last I could endure the wind and the dust and the heat no
+longer, and stood one morning on the porch, waiting for the most
+deliberate of drivers with his carriage to drive me to the station, that
+I might leave Utah altogether, the humming-bird appeared on the scene,
+took a sip or two out of her red cups, flirted her feathers saucily in
+my very face, then darted over the top of the cottage and disappeared;
+and that was the very last glimpse I had of the little dame in green.</p>
+
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span>
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<hr /><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span>
+<br />
+<h2>INDEX.</h2>
+
+
+
+<ul><li> Acadian flycatcher, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>.</li>
+
+<li> Arkansas goldfinch, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>.</li>
+
+<li> At four o'clock in the morning, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>.</li>
+
+
+<li> Barbed wire fence, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>.</li>
+
+<li> Behind the tangle, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>.</li>
+
+<li> Birds:
+  <ul class="nest">
+  <li>   and poets, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>.</li>
+  <li>   a strange song, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>.</li>
+  <li>   different ways, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>.</li>
+  <li>   hard to study, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>.</li>
+  <li>   in Colorado, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>.</li>
+  <li>   in Colorado Springs, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>.</li>
+  <li>   in Denver, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>.</li>
+  <li>   in the "Wrens' Court," <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>.</li>
+  <li>   leave nesting place, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>.</li>
+  <li>   morning chorus, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>.</li>
+  <li>   music in Colorado, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>.</li>
+  <li>   not on exhibition, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>.</li>
+  <li>   not sing alike, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>.</li>
+  <li>   panic among, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>.</li>
+  <li>   unfamiliar, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>.</li>
+  <li>   Utah, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+
+<li> Black-headed grosbeak, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>.
+  <ul class="nest">
+  <li>   song of, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+
+<li> Blue jay, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.
+  <ul class="nest">
+  <li>   and doll, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>.</li>
+  <li>   and red-headed woodpecker, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>.</li>
+  <li>   apple-tree nest, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>.</li>
+  <li>   a struggle, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>.</li>
+  <li>   attentive to mate, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>.</li>
+  <li>   bad name, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>.</li>
+  <li>   devoted mother, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>.</li>
+  <li>   eating, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>.</li>
+  <li>   getting over the ground, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>.</li>
+  <li>   home deserted, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>.</li>
+  <li>   interview with, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>.</li>
+  <li>   joke or war-cry? <a href="#Page_134">134</a>.</li>
+  <li>   manners, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>.</li>
+  <li>   my search for nest, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.</li>
+  <li>   no pretense, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>.</li>
+  <li>   pine-tree nest, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.</li>
+  <li>   vocabulary, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>.</li>
+  <li>   when babies are noisy, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>.</li>
+  <li>   with a stranger, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span></li>
+  <li>   with catbirds, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+
+<li> Blue jay, the young:
+  <ul class="nest">
+  <li>   accident to, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>.</li>
+  <li>   beauty of, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>.</li>
+  <li>   climber, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>.</li>
+  <li>   first outing, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>.</li>
+  <li>   imperfect, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>.</li>
+  <li>   intelligence in house, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>.</li>
+  <li>   on edge of nest, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>.</li>
+  <li>   returned to parents, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+
+<li> Bobolink song, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>.</li>
+
+<li> Burro an investigator, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>.<br /><br /></li>
+
+
+<li> Camp Harding, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>.</li>
+
+<li> Camping in Colorado, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>.</li>
+
+<li> Ca&ntilde;on wren, the, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>.
+  <ul class="nest">
+  <li>   manners, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>.</li>
+  <li>   song, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+
+<li> Cardinal grosbeak, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>.
+  <ul class="nest">
+  <li>   abandoning the nest, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>.</li>
+  <li>   as a father, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>.</li>
+  <li>   confidence in people, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>.</li>
+  <li>   delight of parents, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>.</li>
+  <li>   eating corn, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>.</li>
+  <li>   importance of the builder, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>.</li>
+  <li>   kindness to young, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>.</li>
+  <li>   manners, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>.</li>
+  <li>   nest, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>.</li>
+  <li>   on grass, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>.</li>
+  <li>   politeness to mate, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>.</li>
+  <li>   reception of woodpecker, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>.</li>
+  <li>   rose trellis nest, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>.</li>
+  <li>   speeding the parting guest, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>.</li>
+  <li>   victim of English sparrow, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+
+<li> Cardinal, the young, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>.
+  <ul class="nest">
+  <li>   characteristics, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>.</li>
+  <li>   first baby out, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>.</li>
+  <li>   food of, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>.</li>
+  <li>   song of, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>.</li>
+  <li>   training, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>.</li>
+  <li>   with sparrows, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+
+<li> Carolina wren, the great:
+  <ul class="nest">
+  <li>   babies appear, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>.</li>
+  <li>   ceremony of approaching, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>.</li>
+  <li>   father disturbed, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>.</li>
+  <li>   first sight of, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span></li>
+  <li>   fighting a chipmunk, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>.</li>
+  <li>   hard to see, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>.</li>
+  <li>   interruption to study, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>.</li>
+  <li>   manners, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>.</li>
+  <li>   mother anxious, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>.</li>
+  <li>   nest, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>.</li>
+  <li>   song, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>.</li>
+  <li>   trailing, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>.</li>
+  <li>   "Wrens' Court," <a href="#Page_160">160</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+
+<li> Carolina wren, the young:
+  <ul class="nest">
+  <li>   cries of, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>.</li>
+  <li>   delay in taking flight, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>.</li>
+  <li>   development of, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>.</li>
+  <li>   first sallies, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>.</li>
+  <li>   manners, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+
+<li> Catbird song, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>.</li>
+
+<li> Cat on lawn, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>.</li>
+
+<li> Cedar-tree little folk, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>.</li>
+
+<li> Charming nook, a, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>.</li>
+
+<li> Chat, long-tailed, yellow-breasted, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>.
+  <ul class="nest">
+  <li>   alertness of, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>.</li>
+  <li>   bewitching, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>.</li>
+  <li>   comes in sight, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>.</li>
+  <li>   eccentric, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>.</li>
+  <li>   egg stolen, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>.</li>
+  <li>   farewell, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>.</li>
+  <li>   first sight of, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>.</li>
+  <li>   hard to study, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>.</li>
+  <li>   haunts of, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>.</li>
+  <li>   home of, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>.</li>
+  <li>   humor, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>.</li>
+  <li>   manners, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>.</li>
+  <li>   nest, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>.</li>
+  <li>   on hand, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>.</li>
+  <li>   saucy, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>.</li>
+  <li>   secret of invisibility, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>.</li>
+  <li>   studies me, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>,</li>
+  <li>   triumphant, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>.</li>
+  <li>   voice, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+
+<li> Chat, the madam:
+  <ul class="nest">
+  <li>   interviews me, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>.</li>
+  <li>   keeps her mate up to duty, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>.</li>
+  <li>   manners, <a href="#Page_248">248</a>.</li>
+  <li>   squawks, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>.</li>
+  <li>   wonderful acting, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+
+<li> Chewink, or towhee bunting:
+  <ul class="nest">
+  <li>   babies, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>.</li>
+  <li>   green-tailed towhee, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>.</li>
+  <li>   husky cry, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>.</li>
+  <li>   manners, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>.</li>
+  <li>   nest, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>.</li>
+  <li>   song, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+
+<li> Cheyenne Ca&ntilde;on, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>.
+  <ul class="nest">
+  <li>   solitary possession of, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+
+<li> Cheyenne Mountain, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>.</li>
+
+<li> Chipmunk, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>.</li>
+
+<li> Cinderella among the flowers, a, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>.</li>
+
+<li> Cliff-dwellers in the ca&ntilde;on, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>.</li>
+
+<li> Colorado, a restful way to see, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>.
+  <ul class="nest">
+  <li>   the wonderland, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span></li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+
+<li> Cotton storm, a, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>.</li>
+
+<li> Cottonwoods, in the, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>.</li>
+
+<li> Cuckoo, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>.<br /><br /></li>
+
+
+<li> Doll as a bogy, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>.</li>
+
+<li> Dragonflies in Utah, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>.<br /><br /></li>
+
+
+<li> English or house sparrow:
+  <ul class="nest">
+  <li>   as a climber, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>.</li>
+  <li>   autocrat, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>.</li>
+  <li>   in Utah, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>.</li>
+  <li>   robbing blackbirds, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>.</li>
+  <li>   robbing red-headed woodpecker, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+<br />
+</li>
+
+
+<li> Feast of flowers, the, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>.</li>
+
+<li> Flicker a character, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>.</li>
+
+<li> Flowers:
+  <ul class="nest">
+  <li>   abundance of bloom, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>.</li>
+  <li>   anemone, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>.</li>
+  <li>   cactus, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>.</li>
+  <li>   castilleia, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>.</li>
+  <li>   cleome, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>.</li>
+  <li>   columbine, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>.</li>
+  <li>   cyclamen, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>.</li>
+  <li>   extermination by cattle, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>.</li>
+  <li>   extermination by tourists, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>.</li>
+  <li>   geranium, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>.</li>
+  <li>   gilia, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>.</li>
+  <li>   golden prince's feather, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>.</li>
+  <li>   gummy and clinging stems, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>.</li>
+  <li>   harebells, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>.</li>
+  <li>   in a niche, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>.</li>
+  <li>   in Kansas, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>.</li>
+  <li>   mariposa lily, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>.</li>
+  <li>   mentzelia, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>.</li>
+  <li>   mertensia, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>.</li>
+  <li>   Mexican poppy, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>.</li>
+  <li>   milky juice, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>.</li>
+  <li>   moccasin plant, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>.</li>
+  <li>   nasturtium, self-willed, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>.</li>
+  <li>   ox-eye daisy, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>.</li>
+  <li>   painter of, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>.</li>
+  <li>   paradise of, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>.</li>
+  <li>   pentstemon, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>.</li>
+  <li>   pink stranger, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>.</li>
+  <li>   primrose, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>.</li>
+  <li>   roses, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>.</li>
+  <li>   spiderwort, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>.</li>
+  <li>   symphony in green, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>.</li>
+  <li>   varieties, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>.</li>
+  <li>   vetches, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>.</li>
+  <li>   wild garden, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>.</li>
+  <li>   wild mignonette, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>.</li>
+  <li>   yellow daisies, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>.</li>
+  <li>   yucca, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+<br />
+</li>
+
+
+<li> Gates, idiosyncrasies of, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>.</li>
+
+<li> Getting up in the morning, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>.</li>
+
+<li> Glen, a beautiful, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>.
+  <ul class="nest">
+  <li>   frightened out of, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+
+<li> Grasshopper, a clacking, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>.</li>
+
+<li> Grave of "H. H.," <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span></li>
+
+<li> Great-crested flycatcher, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>.</li>
+
+<li> Gull, the herring, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>.
+  <ul class="nest">
+  <li>   following the plow, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>.</li>
+  <li>   flight, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>.</li>
+  <li>   manners, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>.</li>
+  <li>   nesting, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>.</li>
+  <li>   nooning, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>.</li>
+  <li>   penalty for killing, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>.</li>
+  <li>   sent to the "Chosen People," <a href="#Page_212">212</a>.</li>
+  <li>   value of, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+<br />
+</li>
+
+
+<li> Horned lark:
+  <ul class="nest">
+  <li>   horns, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>.</li>
+  <li>   nest, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>.</li>
+  <li>   song, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+
+<li> Horse, a scared, and result, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>.
+  <ul class="nest">
+  <li>   drive me away, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+
+<li> House wren, the Western, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>.
+  <ul class="nest">
+  <li>   babies, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>.</li>
+  <li>   disturbed, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>.</li>
+  <li>   manners, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>.</li>
+  <li>   nest, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>.</li>
+  <li>   song, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>.</li>
+  <li>   strange cry, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+
+<li> Humming-bird:
+  <ul class="nest">
+  <li>   collecting spiders, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>.</li>
+  <li>   different from the Eastern, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>.</li>
+  <li>   dislike of heat, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>.</li>
+  <li>   in ca&ntilde;on, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>.</li>
+  <li>   last glimpse, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>.</li>
+  <li>   manners, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>.</li>
+  <li>   nesting, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>.</li>
+  <li>   noisy, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>.</li>
+  <li>   precious beak, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>.</li>
+  <li>   scolding, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>.</li>
+  <li>   surveillance, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>.</li>
+  <li>   the broad-tailed, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>.</li>
+  <li>   toilet of, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+<br />
+</li>
+
+
+<li> Ideal retreat, an, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>.</li>
+
+<li> In a pasture, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>.</li>
+
+<li> In the Middle Country, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>.</li>
+
+<li> In the Rocky Mountains, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>.</li>
+
+<li> Irrigation vagaries, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>.<br /><br /></li>
+
+
+<li> Kansas, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>.</li>
+
+<li> Kitchen, an al fresco, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>.</li>
+
+<li> Kitten, a lost, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>.<br /><br /></li>
+
+
+<li> Lazuli-painted finch, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>.
+  <ul class="nest">
+  <li>   anxiety of mother, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>.</li>
+  <li>   babies, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>.</li>
+  <li>   manners, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>.</li>
+  <li>   nest, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>.</li>
+  <li>   nest destroyed, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+<br />
+</li>
+
+
+<li> Magpie:
+  <ul class="nest">
+  <li>   discover us, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>.</li>
+  <li>   manners, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>.</li>
+  <li>   nest, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span></li>
+  <li>   nursery, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>.</li>
+  <li>   reception to us, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>.</li>
+  <li>   search for nest, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>.</li>
+  <li>   song, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+
+<li> Meadow-lark, the Western, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>.
+  <ul class="nest">
+  <li>   cry, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>.</li>
+  <li>   song, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+
+<li> Morning tramp, a, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>.</li>
+
+<li> Mosquito, absence of, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>.
+  <ul class="nest">
+  <li>   a lonely, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+
+<li> Mourning dove, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>.
+  <ul class="nest">
+  <li>   headquarters, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>.</li>
+  <li>   joke of, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>.</li>
+  <li>   manners, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>.</li>
+  <li>   nest, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>.</li>
+  <li>   silence of, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>.</li>
+  <li>   song, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>.</li>
+  <li>   talk, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>.</li>
+  <li>   wing whistle, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>.</li>
+  <li>   young, interview with, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>.</li>
+  <li>   young, manners of, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+<br />
+</li>
+
+
+<li> Oak-brush, the, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>.</li>
+
+<li> On the lawn, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>.</li>
+
+<li> Orchard, an old, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>.</li>
+
+<li> Orchard oriole:
+  <ul class="nest">
+  <li>   a later view, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>.</li>
+  <li>   anxiety of parents, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>.</li>
+  <li>   baby cries, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>.</li>
+  <li>   babies' first flight, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>.</li>
+  <li>   call from a Baltimore, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>.</li>
+  <li>   called by nestlings, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>.</li>
+  <li>   manners, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>.</li>
+  <li>   nest, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>.</li>
+  <li>   song of female, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>.</li>
+  <li>   song of male, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+<br />
+</li>
+
+
+<li> Park, a deserted, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>.</li>
+
+<li> Pewee, Western wood, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>.
+  <ul class="nest">
+  <li>   nest, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>.</li>
+  <li>   song, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>.</li>
+  <li>   voice, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+
+<li> Purple grackle, the, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>.
+  <ul class="nest">
+  <li>   discouraging them, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>.</li>
+  <li>   eating, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>.</li>
+  <li>   greeting to me, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>.</li>
+  <li>   husky tones, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>.</li>
+  <li>   humor, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>.</li>
+  <li>   no repose of manner, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>.</li>
+  <li>   plumage, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>.</li>
+  <li>   robbed by sparrows, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>.</li>
+  <li>   strange utterances, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>.</li>
+  <li>   treatment of young, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>.</li>
+  <li>   young, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>.</li>
+  <li>   young, persistence of, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+<br />
+</li>
+
+
+<li> Red-headed woodpecker:
+  <ul class="nest">
+  <li>   autocrat, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>.</li>
+  <li>   eating corn, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>.</li>
+  <li>   protecting the place, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span></li>
+  <li>   treatment of cardinal grosbeak, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>.</li>
+  <li>   treatment of doll, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+
+<li> Rest, to find, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>.</li>
+
+<li> Robin, absence of, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>.
+  <ul class="nest">
+  <li>   and corn, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>.</li>
+  <li>   and doll, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>.</li>
+  <li>   not plentiful, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>.</li>
+  <li>   reception of snake, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+
+<li> Rocky Mountains:
+  <ul class="nest">
+  <li>   a pasture on, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>.</li>
+  <li>   Cheyenne range, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>.</li>
+  <li>   Wasatch range, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+<br />
+</li>
+
+
+<li> Sage-bush, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>.</li>
+
+<li> Sage the delight of my friend, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>.</li>
+
+<li> Salt Lake, view of, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>.</li>
+
+<li> Secret of the Wild Rose Path, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>.</li>
+
+<li> Seven Sisters' Falls, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>.</li>
+
+<li> Sight-seeing travelers, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>.</li>
+
+<li> South wind, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>.</li>
+
+<li> Strange character of feathered world, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>.</li>
+
+<li> Strangers not allowed, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>.</li>
+
+<li> Study of birds, my way, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>.</li>
+
+<li> Study of birds, two ways, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>.<br /><br /></li>
+
+
+<li> Tents to live in, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span></li>
+
+<li> Thrushes absent, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>.</li>
+
+<li> Tourist, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>.</li>
+
+<li> Tourist, the unscrupulous, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>.</li>
+
+<li> Towhee (see Chewink).</li>
+
+<li> Tragedy of a nest, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>.<br /><br /></li>
+
+
+<li> Uproar of song, an, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>.<br /><br /></li>
+
+
+<li> Vagaries of name-givers, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>.</li>
+
+<li> View, a beautiful, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>.<br /><br /></li>
+
+
+<li> Walks from the camp, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>.
+  <ul class="nest">
+  <li>   the evening, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>.</li>
+  <li>   the morning, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>.</li>
+  <li>   up to the ca&ntilde;on, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+
+<li> Water ouzel, or American dipper:
+  <ul class="nest">
+  <li>   baby, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>.</li>
+  <li>   cry, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>.</li>
+  <li>   "dipping," <a href="#Page_80">80</a>.</li>
+  <li>   feats in the water, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>.</li>
+  <li>   manners, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>.</li>
+  <li>   nest, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>.</li>
+  <li>   song, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>.</li>
+  <li>   the mother, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+
+<li> Wood-thrush nest, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>.<br /><br /></li>
+
+
+<li> Yellow warbler:
+  <ul class="nest">
+  <li>   nest, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>.</li>
+  <li>   song, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+</ul>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<div class="tr">
+<p class="cen"><a name="TN" id="TN"></a>Transcriber's Note</p>
+<br />
+
+Typographical errors corrected in the text:<br />
+<br />
+Page&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;  72&nbsp;  standstone changed to sandstone<br />
+Page&nbsp; 153&nbsp;  Word "to" added before "one side"<br />
+Page&nbsp; 250&nbsp;  cooes changed to coos<br />
+Page&nbsp; 277&nbsp;  " added to "Wrens' Court,<br />
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Bird-Lover in the West, by
+Olive Thorne Miller and Harriet Mann Miller
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: A Bird-Lover in the West
+
+Author: Olive Thorne Miller
+        Harriet Mann Miller
+
+Release Date: January 27, 2009 [EBook #27902]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A BIRD-LOVER IN THE WEST ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Stephen Hope, Barbara Kosker, Joseph Cooper
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ A BIRD-LOVER IN THE WEST
+
+
+ BY
+
+ OLIVE THORNE MILLER
+
+
+
+
+ BOSTON AND NEW YORK
+ HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY
+ The Riverside Press, Cambridge
+ 1900
+
+
+
+
+ Copyright, 1894,
+ BY H. M. MILLER.
+
+ _All rights reserved._
+
+
+ _The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A._
+ Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton & Co.
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTORY.
+
+
+The studies in this volume were all made, as the title indicates, in the
+West; part of them in Colorado (1891), in Utah (1893), and the remainder
+(1892) in what I have called "The Middle Country," being Southern Ohio,
+and West only relatively to New England and New York, where most of my
+studies have been made.
+
+Several chapters have appeared in the "Atlantic Monthly" and other
+magazines, and in the "Independent" and "Harper's Bazar," while others
+are now for the first time published.
+
+ OLIVE THORNE MILLER.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+ IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
+
+                                                                PAGE
+
+     I. CAMPING IN COLORADO                                         3
+
+    II. IN THE COTTONWOODS                                         17
+
+           Western wood-pewee. _Contopus richardsonii._
+           Western house wren. _Troglodytes aedon aztecus._
+           Towhee. _Pipilo erythrophthalmus._
+
+   III. AN UPROAR OF SONG                                          32
+
+           Western meadow-lark. _Sturnella magna neglecta._
+           Horned lark. _Otocoris alpestris leucolaema._
+           Yellow warbler. _Dendroica aestiva._
+           Western wood-pewee. _Contopus richardsonii._
+           Humming-bird. _Trochilus colubris._
+           Long-tailed chat. _Icteria virens longicauda._
+
+    IV. THE TRAGEDY OF A NEST                                      42
+
+           Long-tailed chat. _Icteria virens longicauda._
+
+     V. A FEAST OF FLOWERS                                         52
+
+    VI. A CINDERELLA AMONG FLOWERS                                 60
+
+   VII. CLIFF-DWELLERS IN THE CANYON                               70
+
+           Canyon wren. _Catherpes mexicanus conspersus._
+           American dipper. _Cinclus mexicanus._
+
+
+ IN THE MIDDLE COUNTRY.
+
+  VIII. AT FOUR O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING                             95
+
+           Purple grackle. _Quiscalus quiscula._
+           Mourning dove. _Zenaidura macroura._
+           Red-headed woodpecker. _Melanerpes erythrocephalus._
+           Blue jay. _Cyanocitta cristata._
+           Cardinal grosbeak. _Cardinalis cardinalis._
+           American robin. _Merula migratoria._
+           Golden-wing woodpecker. _Colaptes auratus._
+           House sparrow. _Passer domesticus._
+
+    IX. THE LITTLE REDBIRDS                                       113
+
+           Cardinal grosbeak. _Cardinalis cardinalis._
+           House sparrow. _Passer domesticus._
+
+     X. THE CARDINAL'S NEST                                       119
+
+           Cardinal grosbeak. _Cardinalis cardinalis._
+           Bobolink. _Dolichonyx oryzivorus._
+           Meadow-lark. _Sturnella magna._
+
+    XI. LITTLE BOY BLUE                                           126
+
+           Blue jay. _Cyanocitta cristata._
+
+   XII. STORY OF THE NESTLINGS                                    136
+
+           Blue jay. _Cyanocitta cristata._
+
+  XIII. BLUE JAY MANNERS                                          144
+
+           Blue jay. _Cyanocitta cristata._
+
+   XIV. THE GREAT CAROLINIAN                                      154
+
+           Great Carolina wren. _Thryothorus ludovicianus._
+           Yellow-billed cuckoo. _Coccyzus americanus._
+           Crested flycatcher. _Myiarchus crinitus._
+
+    XV. THE WRENLINGS APPEAR                                      172
+           Great Carolina wren. _Thryothorus ludovicianus._
+
+   XVI. THE APPLE-TREE NEST                                       183
+
+           Orchard oriole. _Icterus spurius._
+
+  XVII. CEDAR-TREE LITTLE FOLK                                    194
+
+           Mourning dove. _Zenaidura macroura._
+
+
+ BESIDE THE GREAT SALT LAKE.
+
+ XVIII. IN A PASTURE                                              207
+
+           Louisiana tanager. _Piranga ludoviciana._
+           Green-tailed towhee. _Pipilo chlorurus._
+           Magpie. _Pica pica hudsonica._
+
+   XIX. THE SECRET OF THE WILD ROSE PATH                          231
+
+           Long-tailed chat. _Icteria virens longicauda._
+           Western robin. _Merula migratoria propinqua._
+           Black-headed grosbeak. _Habia melanocephala._
+
+    XX. ON THE LAWN                                               259
+
+           Lazuli-painted finch. _Passerina amoena._
+           Broad-tailed humming-bird. _Trochilus platycercus._
+           House sparrow. _Passer domesticus._
+
+
+
+
+IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
+
+ Trust me, 't is something to be cast
+ Face to face with one's self at last,
+ To be taken out of the fuss and strife,
+ The endless clatter of plate and knife,
+   The bore of books, and the bores of the street,
+ From the singular mess we agree to call Life.
+
+        *       *       *       *       *
+
+   And to be set down on one's own two feet
+ So nigh to the great warm heart of God,
+   You almost seem to feel it beat
+ Down from the sunshine and up from the sod;
+   To be compelled, as it were, to notice
+ All the beautiful changes and chances
+ Through which the landscape flits and glances,
+     And to see how the face of common day
+     Is written all over with tender histories.
+
+ JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL.
+
+
+
+
+A BIRD-LOVER IN THE WEST.
+
+
+
+
+I.
+
+CAMPING IN COLORADO.
+
+
+This chronicle of happy summer days with the birds and the flowers, at
+the foot of the Rocky Mountains, begins in the month of May, in the year
+eighteen hundred and ninety-two.
+
+As my train rolled quietly out of Jersey City late at night, I uttered a
+sigh of gratitude that I was really off; that at last I could rest. Up
+to the final moment I had been hurried and worried, but the instant I
+was alone, with my "section" to myself, I "took myself in hand," as is
+my custom.
+
+At the risk of seeming to stray very far from my subject, I want at this
+point to say something about rest, the greatly desired state that all
+busy workers are seeking, with such varying success.
+
+A really re-creative recreation I sought for years, and
+
+ "I've found some wisdom in my quest
+ That's richly worth retailing,"
+
+and that cannot be too often repeated, or too urgently insisted upon.
+What is imperatively needed, the sole and simple secret of rest, is
+this: To go to our blessed mother Nature, and to go with the whole
+being, mind and heart as well as body. To deposit one's physical frame
+in the most secret and sacred "garden of delights," and at the same time
+allow the mind to be filled, and the thoughts to be occupied, with the
+concerns of the world we live in year after year, is utterly useless;
+for it is not the external, but the internal man that needs recreation;
+it is not the body, but the spirit that demands refreshment and relief
+from the wearing cares of our high-pressure lives. "It is of no use,"
+says a thoughtful writer, "to carry my body to the woods, unless I get
+there myself."
+
+Let us consult the poets, our inspired teachers, on this subject. Says
+Lowell,--
+
+ "In June 't is good to lie beneath a tree
+ While the blithe season comforts every sense,
+ Steeps all the brain in rest, and heals the heart,
+ Brimming it o'er with sweetness unawares,
+ Fragrant and silent as that rosy snow
+ Wherewith the pitying apple-tree fills up
+ And tenderly lines some last-year's robin's nest."
+
+And our wise Emerson, in his strong and wholesome, if sometimes rugged
+way,--
+
+ "Quit thy friends as the dead in doom,
+ And build to them a final tomb.
+
+        *       *       *       *       *
+
+ Behind thee leave thy merchandise,
+ Thy churches and thy charities.
+
+        *       *       *       *       *
+
+ Enough for thee the primal mind
+ That flows in streams--that breathes in wind."
+
+Even the gentle Wordsworth, too; read his exquisite sonnet, beginning,--
+
+ "The world is too much with us; late and soon,
+ Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers."
+
+All recognize that it is a mental and spiritual change that is needed.
+
+With the earnest desire of suggesting to tired souls a practicable way
+of resting, I will even give a bit of personal history; I will tell the
+way in which I have learned to find recreation in nature.
+
+When I turn my back upon my home, I make a serious and determined effort
+to leave behind me all cares and worries. As my train, on that beautiful
+May evening, passed beyond the brick and stone walls, and sped into the
+open country, and I found myself alone with night, I shook off, as well
+as I was able, all my affairs, all my interests, all my
+responsibilities, leaving them in that busy city behind me, where a few
+burdens more or less would not matter to anybody. With my trunks
+checked, and my face turned toward the far-off Rocky Mountains, I left
+the whole work-a-day world behind me, departing--so far as possible--a
+liberated soul, with no duties excepting to rejoice and to recruit.
+This is not an easy thing to do; it is like tearing apart one's very
+life; but it can be done by earnest endeavor, it has been done, and it
+is a charm more potent than magic to bring restoration and recreation to
+the brain and nerve-weary worker.
+
+To insure any measure of success I always go alone; one familiar face
+would make the effort of no avail; and I seek a place where I am a
+stranger, so that my ordinary life cannot be recalled to me. When I
+reach my temporary home I forget, or at least ignore, my notions as to
+what I shall eat or drink, or how I shall sleep. I take the goods the
+gods provide, and adjust myself to them. Even these little things help
+one out of his old ways of thought and life. To still further banish
+home concerns, I mark upon my calendar one week before the day I shall
+start for home, and sternly resolve that not until I reach that day will
+I give one thought to my return, but will live as though I meant to stay
+always. I take no work of any sort, and I banish books, excepting a few
+poets and studies of nature.
+
+Such is the aim of my honest and earnest striving; that I do not quite
+reach my goal is merely to say I am human. Letters from home and friends
+will drag me back to old interests, and times will come, in sleepless
+nights and unguarded moments, when the whole world of old burdens and
+cares sweep in and overwhelm me. But I rouse my will, and resolutely,
+with all my power, push them back, refuse to entertain them for a
+moment.
+
+The result, even under these limitations, is eminently satisfactory.
+Holding myself in this attitude of mind, I secure a change almost as
+complete as if I stepped out of my body and left it resting, while I
+refreshed myself at the fountain of life. A few weeks in the country
+make me a new being; all my thoughts are turned into fresh channels; the
+old ruts are smoothed over, if not obliterated; nerves on the strain all
+the year have a chance to recreate themselves; old worries often weaken
+and fade away.
+
+The morning after I left home that balmy evening in May dawned upon me
+somewhere in western New York, and that beautiful day was passed in
+speeding through the country, and steadily getting farther and farther
+from work and care.
+
+And so I went on, day after day, night after night, till I entered
+Kansas, which was new to me. By that time I had succeeded in banishing
+to the farthest corner of my memory, behind closed and locked doors, all
+the anxieties, all the perplexities and problems, all the concerns, in
+fact, of my home life. I was like a newly created soul, fresh and eager
+to see and enjoy everything. I refused the morning papers; I wished to
+forget the world of strife and crime, and to get so into harmony with
+the trees and flowers, the brooks and the breezes, that I would realize
+myself
+
+ "Kith and kin to every wild-born thing that thrills and blows."
+
+In one word, I wished as nearly as possible to walk abroad out of my
+hindering body of clay.
+
+I looked out of the windows to see what the Cyclone State had to give
+me. It offered flowers and singing birds, broad fields of growing grain,
+and acres of rich black soil newly turned up to the sun. Everything was
+fresh and perfect, as if just from the hands of its maker; it seemed the
+paradise of the farmer.
+
+From the fertile fields and miles of flowers the train passed to bare,
+blossomless earth; from rich soil to rocks; from Kansas to Colorado.
+That part of the State which appeared in the morning looked like a vast
+body of hardly dry mud, with nothing worth mentioning growing upon it.
+Each little gutter had worn for itself a deep channel with precipitous
+sides, and here and there a great section had sunken, as though there
+was no solid foundation. Soon, however, the land showed inclination to
+draw itself up into hills, tiny ones with sharp peaks, as though
+preparing for mountains. Before long they retreated to a distance and
+grew bigger, and at last, far off, appeared the mountains, overtopping
+all one great white peak, the
+
+ "Giver of gold, king of eternal hills."
+
+A welcome awaited me in the summer home of a friend at Colorado Springs,
+in the presence of the great Cheyenne Range, with the snow-cap of Pike's
+Peak ever before me. Four delightful days I gave to friendship, and then
+I sought and found a perfect nook for rest and study, in a cottonwood
+grove on the banks of the Minnelowan (or Shining Water). This is a mad
+Colorado stream which is formed by the junction of the North and South
+Cheyenne Canyon brooks, and comes tumbling down from the Cheyenne,
+rushing and roaring as if it had the business of the world on its
+shoulders, and must do it man-fashion, with confusion and noise enough
+to drown all other sounds.
+
+Imagine a pretty, one-story cottage, set down in a grove of
+cottonwood-trees, with a gnarly oak and a tall pine here and there, to
+give it character, and surrounded as a hen by her chickens, by tents,
+six or eight in every conceivable position, and at every possible angle
+except a right angle. Add to this picture the sweet voices of birds, and
+the music of water rushing and hurrying over the stones; let your
+glance take in on one side the grand outlines of Cheyenne Mountain,
+
+ "Made doubly sacred by the poet's pen
+ And poet's grave,"
+
+and on the other the rest of the range, overlooked by Pike's Peak,
+fourteen thousand feet higher than the streets of New York. Do this, and
+you will come as near to realizing Camp Harding as one can who is
+hundreds of miles away and has never seen a Colorado camp.
+
+Do not think, however, that such camps are common, even in that land of
+outdoors, where tents are open for business in the streets of the towns,
+and where every householder sets up his own canvas in his yard, for the
+invalids to sleep in, from June to November. The little settlement of
+tents was an evolution, the gradual growth of the tent idea in the mind
+of one comfort-loving woman. She went there seven or eight years before,
+bought a grove under the shadow of Cheyenne, put up a tent, and passed
+her first summer thus. The next year, and several years thereafter, she
+gradually improved her transient abode in many ways that her womanly
+taste suggested,--as a wooden floor, a high base-board, partitions of
+muslin or cretonne, door and windows of wire gauze. The original
+dwelling thus step by step grew to a framed and rough-plastered house,
+with doors and windows _en regle_.
+
+Grouped picturesquely around the house, however, were some of the most
+unique abiding-places in Colorado. On the outside they were permanent
+tents with wooden foundations; on the inside they were models of
+comfort, with regular beds and furniture, rugs on the floor, gauzy
+window curtains, drapery wardrobes, and even tiny stoves for cool
+mornings and evenings. They combined the comforts of a house with the
+open air and delightful freshness of a tent, where one might hear every
+bird twitter, and see the dancing leaf shadows in the moonlight. Over
+the front platform the canvas cover extended to form an awning, and a
+wire-gauze door, in addition to one of wood, made them airy or snug as
+the weather demanded.
+
+The restfulness craved by the weary worker was there to be had for both
+soul and body, if one chose to take it. One might swing in a hammock all
+day, and be happy watching "the clouds that cruise the sultry sky"--a
+sky so blue one never tires of it; or beside the brook he might "lie
+upon its banks, and dream himself away to some enchanted ground." Or he
+might study the ever-changing aspect of the mountains,--their dreamy,
+veiled appearance, with the morning sun full upon them; their deep
+violet blueness in the evening, with the sun behind them, and the
+mystery of the moonlight, which "sets them far off in a world of their
+own," as tender and unreal as mountains in a dream.
+
+He _might_ do all these things, but he is far more likely to become
+excited, and finally bewitched by guide-books, and photographs, and talk
+all about him of this or that canyon, this or that pass, the Garden of
+the Gods, Manitou, the Seven Sisters' Falls, the grave of "H. H.;" and
+unless a fool or a philosopher, before he knows it to be in the full
+swing of sight-seeing, and becoming learned in the ways of burros, the
+"Ship of the Rockies," so indispensable, and so common that even the
+babies take to them.
+
+This traveler will climb peaks, and drive over nerve-shaking roads, a
+steep wall on one side and a frightful precipice on the other; he will
+toil up hundreds of steps, and go quaking down into mines; he will look,
+and admire, and tremble, till sentiment is worn to threads, purse
+depleted, and body and mind alike a wreck. For this sort of a traveler
+there is no rest in Colorado; there always remains another mountain to
+thrill him, another canyon to rhapsodize over; to one who is greedy of
+"sights," the tameness of Harlem, or the mud flats of Canarsie, will
+afford more rest.
+
+For myself I can always bear to be near sights without seeing them. I
+believed what I heard--never were such grand mountains! never such
+soul-stirring views! never such hairbreadth roads! I believed--and
+stayed in my cottonwood grove content. I knew how it all looked; did I
+not peer down into one canyon, holding my breath the while? and, with
+slightly differing arrangement of rocks and pine-trees and brooks, are
+not all canyons the same? Did I not gaze with awe at the "trail to the
+grave of H. H.," and watch, without envy, the sight-seeing tourist
+struggle with its difficulties? Could I not supply myself with
+photographs, and guide-books, and poems, and "H. H.'s" glowing words,
+and picture the whole scene? I could, I did, and to me Colorado was a
+delightful place of rest, with mountain air that it was a luxury to
+breathe (after the machinery adjusted itself to the altitude), with
+glorious sunshine every morning, with unequaled nights of coolness, and
+a new flower or two for every day of the month.
+
+If to "see Colorado" one must ascend every peak, toil through every
+canyon, cast the eyes on every waterfall, shudder over each precipice,
+wonder at each eccentric rock, drink from every spring, then I have not
+seen America's Wonderland. But if to steep my spirit in the beauty of
+its mountains so that they shall henceforth be a part of me; to inhale
+its enchanting air till my body itself seemed to have wings; if to paint
+in my memory its gorgeous procession of flowers, its broad mesa crowned
+with the royal blossoms of the yucca, its cosy cottonwood groves, its
+brooks rushing between banks of tangled greenery; if this is to "see
+Colorado," then no one has ever seen it more thoroughly.
+
+The "symphony in yellow and red," which "H. H." calls this wonderland,
+grows upon the sojourner in some mysterious way, till by the time he has
+seen the waxing and waning of one moon he is an enthusiast. It is
+charming alike to the sight-seer whose jaded faculties pine for new and
+thrilling emotions, to the weary in brain and body who longs only for
+peace and rest, and to the invalid whose every breath is a pain at home.
+To the lover of flowers it is an exhaustless panorama of beauty and
+fragrance, well worth crossing the continent to enjoy; to the mountain
+lover it offers endless attractions.
+
+Nothing is more fascinating to the stranger in Colorado than the
+formation of its canyons, not only the grand ones running up into the
+heart of the mountains, but the lesser ones cutting into the high
+table-land, or mesa, at the foot of the hills. The above mentioned
+cottonwood grove, for example, with its dozen of dwellings and a
+natural park of a good many acres above it, with tall pines that bear
+the marks of age, is so curiously hidden that one may come almost upon
+it without seeing it. It is reached from Colorado Springs by an electric
+road which runs along the mesa south of the town. As the car nears the
+end of the line, one begins to look around for the grove. Not a tree is
+in sight; right and left as far as can be seen stretches the treeless
+plain to the foot of the eternal hills; not even the top of a tall pine
+thrusts itself above the dead level. Before you is Cheyenne--grim,
+glorious, but impenetrable. The conductor stops. "This is your place,"
+he says. You see no place; you think he must be mistaken.
+
+"But where is Camp Harding?" you ask. He points to an obscure
+path--"trail" he calls it--which seems to throw itself over an edge. You
+approach that point, and there, to your wonder and your surprise, at
+your feet nestles the loveliest of smiling canyon-like valleys, filled
+with trees, aspen, oak, and pine, with here and there a tent or red roof
+gleaming through the green, and a noisy brook hurrying on its way
+downhill. By a steep scramble you reach the lower level, birds singing,
+flowers tempting on every side, and the picturesque, narrow trail
+leading you on, around the ledge of rock, over the rustic bridge, till
+you reach the back entrance of the camp. Before it, up the narrow
+valley, winds a road, the carriage-way to the Cheyenne canyons.
+
+
+
+
+II.
+
+IN THE COTTONWOODS.
+
+
+A cottonwood grove is the nearest approach to our Eastern rural
+districts to be found in Colorado, and a cotton storm, looking exactly
+like a snowstorm, is a common sight in these groves. The white, fluffy
+material grows in long bunches, loosely attached to stems, and the fibre
+is very short. At the lightest breeze that stirs the branches, tiny bits
+of it take to flight, and one tree will shed cotton for weeks. It clings
+to one's garments; it gets into the houses, and sticks to the carpets,
+often showing a trail of white footprints where a person has come in; it
+clogs the wire-gauze screens till they keep out the air as well as the
+flies; it fills the noses and the eyes of men and beasts. But its most
+curious effect is on the plants and flowers, to which it adheres, being
+a little gummy. Some flowers look as if they were encased in ice, and
+others seem wrapped in the gauziest of veils, which, flimsy as it looks,
+cannot be completely cleared from the leaves.
+
+It covers the ground like snow, and strangely enough it looks in June,
+but it does not, like snow, melt, even under the warm summer sunshine.
+It must be swept from garden and walks, and carted away. A heavy rain
+clears the air and subdues it for a time, but the sun soon dries the
+bunches still on the trees, and the cotton storm is again in full blast.
+This annoyance lasts through June and a part of July, fully six weeks,
+and then the stems themselves drop to, the ground, still holding enough
+cotton to keep up the storm for days. After this, the first rainfall
+ends the trouble for that season.
+
+In the midst of the cottonwoods, in beautiful Camp Harding, I spent the
+June that followed the journey described in the last chapter,--
+
+ "Dreaming sweet, idle dreams of having strayed
+ To Arcady with all its golden lore."
+
+The birds, of course, were my first concern. Ask of almost any resident
+not an ornithologist if there are birds in Colorado, and he will shake
+his head.
+
+"Not many, I think," he will probably say. "Camp birds and magpies. Oh
+yes, and larks. I think that's about all."
+
+This opinion, oft repeated, did not settle the matter in my mind, for I
+long ago discovered that none are so ignorant of the birds and flowers
+of a neighborhood as most of the people who live among them. I sought
+out my post, and I looked for myself.
+
+There are birds in the State, plenty of them, but they are not on
+exhibition like the mountains and their wonders. No driver knows the way
+to their haunts, and no guide-book points them out. Even a bird student
+may travel a day's journey, and not encounter so many as one shall see
+in a small orchard in New England. He may rise with the dawn, and hear
+nothing like the glorious morning chorus that stirs one in the Atlantic
+States. He may search the trees and shrubberies for long June days, and
+not find so many nests as will cluster about one cottage at home.
+
+Yet the birds are here, but they are shy, and they possess the true
+Colorado spirit,--they are mountain-worshipers. As the time approaches
+when each bird leaves society and retires for a season to the bosom of
+its own family, many of the feathered residents of the State bethink
+them of their inaccessible canyons. The saucy jay abandons the
+settlements where he has been so familiar as to dispute with the dogs
+for their food, and sets up his homestead in a tall pine-tree on a slope
+which to look at is to grow dizzy; the magpie, boldest of birds, steals
+away to some secure retreat; the meadow-lark makes her nest in the
+monotonous mesa, where it is as well hidden as a bobolink's nest in a
+New England meadow.
+
+The difficulties in the way of studying Colorado birds are several,
+aside from their excessive suspicion of every human being. In the first
+place, observations must be made before ten o'clock, for at that hour
+every day a lively breeze, which often amounts to a gale, springs up,
+and sets the cottonwood and aspen leaves in a flutter that hides the
+movements of any bird. Then, all through the most interesting month of
+June the cottonwood-trees are shedding their cotton, and to a person on
+the watch for slight stirrings among the leaves the falling cotton is a
+constant distraction. The butterflies, too, wandering about in their
+aimless way, are all the time deceiving the bird student, and drawing
+attention from the bird he is watching.
+
+On the other hand, one of the maddening pests of bird study at the East
+is here almost unknown,--the mosquito. Until the third week in June I
+saw but one. That one was in the habit of lying in wait for me when I
+went to a piece of low, swampy ground overgrown with bushes. Think of
+the opportunity this combination offers to the Eastern mosquito, and
+consider my emotions when I found but a solitary individual, and even
+that one disposed to coquette with me.
+
+I had hidden myself, and was keeping motionless, in order to see the
+very shy owners of a nest I had found, when the lonely mosquito came as
+far as the rim of my shade hat, and hovered there, evidently meditating
+an attack--a mosquito hesitating! I could not stir a hand, or even shake
+my leafy twig; but it did not require such violent measures; a light
+puff of breath this side or that was enough to discourage the gentle
+creature, and in all the hours I sat there it never once came any
+nearer. The race increased, however, and became rather troublesome on
+the veranda after tea; but in the grove they were never annoying; I
+rarely saw half a dozen. When I remember the tortures endured in the
+dear old woods of the East, in spite of "lollicopop" and pennyroyal, and
+other horrors with which I have tried to repel them, I could almost
+decide to live and die in Colorado.
+
+The morning bird chorus in the cottonwood grove where I spent my June
+was a great shock to me. If my tent had been pitched near the broad
+plains in which the meadow-lark delights, I might have wakened to the
+glorious song of this bird of the West. It is not a chorus, indeed, for
+one rarely hears more than a single performer, but it is a solo that
+fully makes up for want of numbers, and amply satisfies the lover of
+bird music, so strong, so sweet, so moving are his notes.
+
+But on my first morning in the grove, what was my dismay--I may almost
+say despair--to find that the Western wood-pewee led the matins! Now,
+this bird has a peculiar voice. It is loud, pervasive, and in quality of
+tone not unlike our Eastern phoebe, lacking entirely the sweet
+plaintiveness of our wood-pewee. A pewee chorus is a droll and dismal
+affair. The poor things do their best, no doubt, and they cannot prevent
+the pessimistic effect it has upon us. It is rhythmic, but not in the
+least musical, and it has a weird power over the listener. This morning
+hymn does not say, as does the robin's, that life is cheerful, that
+another glorious day is dawning. It says, "Rest is over; another day of
+toil is here; come to work." It is monotonous as a frog chorus, but
+there is a merry thrill in the notes of the amphibian which are entirely
+wanting in the song. If it were not for the light-hearted tremolo of the
+chewink thrown in now and then, and the loud, cheery ditty of the summer
+yellow-bird, who begins soon after the pewee, one would be almost
+superstitious about so unnatural a greeting to the new day. The evening
+call of the bird is different. He will sit far up on a dead twig of an
+old pine-tree, and utter a series of four notes, something like "do, mi,
+mi, do," repeating them without pausing till it is too dark to see him,
+all the time getting lower, sadder, more deliberate, till one feels
+like running out and committing suicide or annihilating the bird of
+ill-omen.
+
+I felt myself a stranger indeed when I reached this pleasant spot, and
+found that even the birds were unfamiliar. No robin or bluebird greeted
+me on my arrival; no cheerful song-sparrow tuned his little pipe for my
+benefit; no phoebe shouted the beloved name from the peak of the barn.
+Everything was strange. One accustomed to the birds of our Eastern
+States can hardly conceive of the country without robins in plenty; but
+in this unnatural corner of Uncle Sam's dominion I found but one pair.
+
+The most common song from morning till night was that of the summer
+yellow-bird, or yellow warbler. It was not the delicate little strain we
+are accustomed to hear from this bird, but a loud, clear carol, equal in
+volume to the notes of our robin. These three birds, with the addition
+of a vireo or two, were our main dependence for daily music, though we
+were favored occasionally by others. Now the Arkansas goldfinch uttered
+his sweet notes from the thick foliage of the cottonwood-trees; then the
+charming aria of the catbird came softly from the tangle of rose and
+other bushes; the black-headed grosbeak now and then saluted us from the
+top of a pine-tree; and rarely, too rarely, alas! a passing meadow-lark
+filled all the grove with his wonderful song.
+
+And there was the wren! He interested me from the first; for a wren is a
+bird of individuality always, and his voice reminded me, in a feeble
+way, of the witching notes of the winter wren, the
+
+ "Brown wren from out whose swelling throat
+ Unstinted joys of music float."
+
+This bird was the house wren, the humblest member of his musical family;
+but there was in his simple melody the wren quality, suggestive of the
+thrilling performances of his more gifted relatives; and I found it and
+him very pleasing.
+
+The chosen place for his vocal display was a pile of brush beside a
+closed-up little cottage, and I suspected him of having designs upon
+that two-roomed mansion for nesting purposes. After hopping all about
+the loose sticks, delivering his bit of an aria a dozen times or more,
+in a most rapturous way, he would suddenly dive into certain secret
+passages among the dead branches, when he was instantly lost to sight.
+Then, in a few seconds, a close watcher might sometimes see him pass
+like a shadow, under the cottage, which stood up on corner posts, dart
+out the farther side, and fly at once to the eaves.
+
+One day I was drawn from the house by a low and oft-repeated cry, like
+"Hear, hear, hear!" It was emphatic and imperative, as if some
+unfortunate little body had the business of the world on his shoulders,
+and could not get it done to his mind. I carefully approached the
+disturbed voice, and was surprised to find it belonged to the wren, who
+was so disconcerted at sight of me, that I concluded this particular
+sort of utterance must be for the benefit of his family alone. Later,
+that kind of talk, his lord-and-master style as I supposed, was the most
+common sound I heard from him, and not near the cottage and the brush
+heap, but across the brook. I thought that perhaps I had displeased him
+by too close surveillance, and he had set up housekeeping out of my
+reach. Across the brook I could not go, for between "our side" and the
+other raged a feud, which had culminated in torn-up bridges and barbed
+wire protections.
+
+One day, however, I had a surprise. In studying another bird, I was led
+around to the back of the still shut-up cottage, and there I found, very
+unexpectedly, an exceedingly busy and silent wren. He did sing
+occasionally while I watched him from afar, but in so low a tone that it
+could not be heard a few steps away. Of course I understood this
+unnatural circumspection, and on observing him cautiously, I saw that
+he made frequent visits to the eaves of the cottage, the very spot I
+had hoped he would nest. Then I noted that he carried in food, and on
+coming out he alighted on a dead bush, and sang under his breath. Here,
+then, was the nest, and all his pretense of scolding across the brook
+was but a blind! Wary little rogue! Who would ever suspect a house wren
+of shyness?
+
+I had evidently done him injustice when I regarded the scolding as his
+family manner, for here in his home he was quiet as a mouse, except when
+his joy bubbled over in trills.
+
+To make sure of my conclusions I went close to the house, and then for
+the first time (to know it) I saw his mate. She came with food in her
+beak, and was greatly disturbed at sight of her uninvited guest. She
+stood on a shrub near me fluttering her wings, and there her anxious
+spouse joined her, and fluttered his in the same way, uttering at the
+same time a low, single note of protest.
+
+On looking in through the window, I found that the cottage was a mere
+shell, all open under the eaves, so that the birds could go in and out
+anywhere. The nest was over the top of a window, and the owner thereof
+ran along the beam beside it, in great dudgeon at my impertinent
+staring. Had ever a pair of wrens quarters so ample,--a whole cottage to
+themselves? Henceforth, it was part of my daily rounds to peep in at
+the window, though I am sorry to say it aroused the indignation of the
+birds, and always brought them to the beam nearest me, to give me a
+piece of their mind.
+
+Bird babies grow apace, and baby wrens have not many inches to achieve.
+One day I came upon a scene of wild excitement: two wrenlings flying
+madly about in the cottage, now plump against the window, then tumbling
+breathless to the floor, and two anxious little parents, trying in vain
+to show their headstrong offspring the way they should go, to the
+openings under the eaves which led to the great out-of-doors. My face at
+the window seemed to be the "last straw." A much-distressed bird came
+boldly up to me behind the glass, saying by his manner--and who knows
+but in words?--"How can you be so cruel as to disturb us? Don't you see
+the trouble we are in?" He had no need of Anglo-Saxon (or even of
+American-English!). I understood him at once; and though exceedingly
+curious to see how they would do it, I had not the heart to insist. I
+left them to manage their willful little folk in their own way.
+
+The next morning I was awakened by the jolliest wren music of the
+season. Over and over the bird poured out his few notes, louder, madder,
+more rapturously than I had supposed he could. He had guided his family
+safely out of their imprisoning four walls, I was sure. And so I found
+it when I went out. Not a wren to be seen about the house, but soft
+little "churs" coming from here and there among the shrubbery, and every
+few minutes a loud, happy song proclaimed that wren troubles were over
+for the summer. Far in among the tangle of bushes and vines, I came upon
+him, as gay as he had been of yore:--
+
+ "Pausing and peering, with sidling head,
+ As saucily questioning all I said;
+ While the ox-eye danced on its slender stem,
+ And all glad Nature rejoiced with them."
+
+The chewink is a curious exchange for the robin. When I noticed the
+absence of the red-breast, whom--like the poor--we have always with us
+(at the East), I was pleased, in spite of my fondness for him, because,
+as every one must allow, he is sometimes officious in his attentions,
+and not at all reticent in expressing his opinions. I did miss his voice
+in the morning chorus,--the one who lived in the grove was not much of a
+singer,--but I was glad to know the chewink, who was almost a stranger.
+His peculiar trilling song was heard from morning till night; he came
+familiarly about the camp, eating from the dog's dish, and foraging for
+crumbs at the kitchen door. Next to the wood-pewee, he was the most
+friendly of our feathered neighbors.
+
+He might be seen at any time, hopping about on the ground, one moment
+picking up a morsel of food, and the next throwing up his head and
+bursting into song:--
+
+ "But not for you his little singing,
+ Soul of fire its flame is flinging,
+ Sings he for himself alone,"
+
+as was evident from the unconscious manner in which he uttered his notes
+between two mouthfuls, never mounting a twig or making a "performance"
+of his music. I have watched one an hour at a time, going about in his
+jerky fashion, tearing up the ground and searching therein, exactly
+after the manner of a scratching hen. This, by the way, was a droll
+operation, done with both feet together, a jump forward and a jerk back
+of the whole body, so rapidly one could hardly follow the motion, but
+throwing up a shower of dirt every time. He had neither the grace nor
+the dignity of our domestic biddy.
+
+Matter of fact as this fussy little personage was on the ground, taking
+in his breakfast and giving out his song, he was a different bird when
+he got above it. Alighting on the wren's brush heap, for instance, he
+would bristle up, raising the feathers on head and neck, his red eyes
+glowing eagerly, his tail a little spread and standing up at a sharp
+angle, prepared for instant fight or flight, whichever seemed desirable.
+
+I was amused to hear the husky cry with which this bird expresses most
+of his emotions,--about as nearly a "mew," to my ears, as the catbird
+executes. Whether frolicking with a comrade among the bushes, reproving
+a too inquisitive bird student, or warning the neighborhood against some
+monster like a stray kitten, this one cry seemed to answer for all his
+needs, and, excepting the song, was the only sound I heard him utter.
+
+Familiar as the chewink might be about our quarters, his own home was
+well hidden, on the rising ground leading up to the mesa,--
+
+                           "An unkempt zone,
+ Where vines and weeds and scrub oaks intertwine,"
+
+which no one bigger than a bird could penetrate. Whenever I appeared in
+that neighborhood, I was watched and followed by anxious and disturbed
+chewinks; but I never found a nest, though, judging from the conduct of
+the residents, I was frequently "very warm" (as the children say).
+
+About the time the purple aster began to unclose its fringed lids, and
+the mariposa lily to unfold its delicate cups on the lower
+mesa,--nearly the middle of July,--full-grown chewink babies, in brown
+coats and streaked vests, made their appearance in the grove, and after
+that the whole world might search the scrub oaks and not a bird would
+say him nay.
+
+                       "All is silent now
+ Save bell-note from some wandering cow,
+ Or rippling lark-song far away."
+
+
+
+
+III.
+
+AN UPROAR OF SONG.
+
+
+The bird music of Colorado, though not so abundant as one could wish, is
+singularly rich in quality, and remarkable for its volume. At the
+threshold of the State the traveler is struck by this peculiarity. As
+the train thunders by, the Western meadow-lark mounts a telegraph pole
+and pours out such a peal of melody that it is distinctly heard above
+the uproar of the iron wheels.
+
+This bird is preeminently the bird of the mesa, or high table-land of
+the region, and only to hear his rare song is well worth a journey to
+that distant wonderland. Not of his music could Lucy Larcom say, as she
+so happily does of our bird of the meadow,--
+
+ "Sounds the meadow-lark's refrain
+     Just as sad and clear."
+
+Nor could his sonorous song be characterized by Clinton Scollard's
+exquisite verse,--
+
+ "From whispering winds your plaintive notes were drawn."
+
+For the brilliant solo of Colorado's bird is not in the least like the
+charming minor chant of our Eastern lark. So powerful that it is heard
+at great distances in the clear air, it is still not in the slightest
+degree strained or harsh, but is sweet and rich, whether it be close at
+one's side in the silence, or shouted from the housetop in the tumult of
+a busy street. It has, moreover, the same tender winsomeness that charms
+us in our own lark song; something that fills the sympathetic listener
+with delight, that satisfies his whole being; a siren strain that he
+longs to listen to forever. The whole breadth and grandeur of the great
+West is in this song, its freedom, its wildness, the height of its
+mountains, the sweep of its rivers, the beauty of its flowers,--all in
+the wonderful performance. Even after months of absence, the bare memory
+of the song of the mesa will move its lover to an almost painful
+yearning. Of him, indeed, Shelley might truthfully say,--
+
+ "Better than all measures
+   Of delightful sound,
+ Better than all treasures
+   That in books are found,
+ Thy skill to poet were,
+   Thou scorner of the ground."
+
+Nor is the variety of the lark song less noteworthy than its quality.
+That each bird has a large _repertoire_ I cannot assert, for my
+opportunities for study have been too limited; but it is affirmed by
+those who know him better, that he has, and I fully believe it.
+
+One thing is certainly true of nearly if not quite all of our native
+birds, that no two sing exactly alike, and the close observer soon
+learns to distinguish between the robins and the song-sparrows of a
+neighborhood, by their notes alone. The Western lark seems even more
+than others to individualize his utterances, so that constant surprises
+reward the discriminating listener. During two months' bird-study in
+that delightful canyon-hidden grove at the foot of Cheyenne Mountain, one
+particular bird song was for weeks an unsolved mystery. The strain
+consisted of three notes in loud, ringing tones, which syllabled
+themselves very plainly in my ear as "Whip-for-her."
+
+This unseemly, and most emphatic, demand came always from a distance,
+and apparently from the top of some tall tree, and it proved to be most
+tantalizing; for although the first note invariably brought me out,
+opera-glass in hand, I was never able to come any nearer to a sight of
+the unknown than the sway of a twig he had just left.
+
+One morning, however, before I was up, the puzzling songster visited the
+little grove under my windows, and I heard his whole song, of which it
+now appeared the three notes were merely the conclusion. The
+performance was eccentric. It began with a soft warble, apparently for
+his sole entertainment, then suddenly, as if overwhelmed by memory of
+wrongs received or of punishment deserved, he interrupted his tender
+melody with a loud, incisive "Whip-for-her!" in a totally different
+manner. His nearness, however, solved the mystery; the ring of the
+meadow-lark was in his tones, and I knew him at once. I had not
+suspected his identity, for the Western bird does not take much trouble
+to keep out of sight, and, moreover, his song is rarely less than six or
+eight notes in length.
+
+Another unique singer of the highlands is the horned lark. One morning
+in June a lively carriage party passing along the mountain side, on a
+road so bare and bleak that it seemed nothing could live there, was
+startled by a small gray bird, who suddenly dashed out of the sand
+beside the wheels, ran across the path, and flew to a fence on the other
+side. Undisturbed, perhaps even stimulated, by the clatter of two horses
+and a rattling mountain wagon, undaunted by the laughing and talking
+load, the little creature at once burst into song, so loud as to be
+heard above the noisy procession, and so sweet that it silenced every
+tongue.
+
+"How exquisite! What is it?" we asked each other, at the end of the
+little aria.
+
+"It's the gray sand bird," answered the native driver.
+
+"Otherwise the horned lark," added the young naturalist, from his
+broncho behind the carriage.
+
+Let not his name mislead: this pretty fellow, in soft, gray-tinted
+plumage, is not deformed by "horns;" it is only two little tufts of
+feathers, which give a certain piquant, wide-awake expression to his
+head, that have fastened upon him a title so incongruous. The nest of
+the desert-lover is a slight depression in the barren earth, nothing
+more; and the eggs harmonize with their surroundings in color. The whole
+is concealed by its very openness, and as hard to find, as the
+bobolink's cradle in the trackless grass of the meadow.
+
+Most persistent of all the singers of the grove beside the house was the
+yellow warbler, a dainty bit of featherhood the size of one's thumb. On
+the Atlantic coast his simple ditty is tender, and so low that it must
+be listened for; but in that land of "skies so blue they flash," he
+sings it at the top of his voice, louder than the robin song as we know
+it, and easily heard above the roar of the wind and the brawling of the
+brook he haunts.
+
+Before me at this moment is the nest of one of these little sprites,
+which I watched till the last dumpy infant had taken flight, and then
+secured with the branchlet it was built upon. It was in a young oak, not
+more than twelve feet from the ground, occupying a perpendicular fork,
+where it was concealed and shaded by no less than sixteen twigs,
+standing upright, and loaded with leaves. The graceful cup itself, to
+judge by its looks, might be made of white floss silk,--I have no
+curiosity to know the actual material,--and is cushioned inside with
+downy fibres from the cottonwood-tree. It is dainty enough for a fairy's
+cradle.
+
+The wood-pewee, in dress and manners nearly resembling his Eastern
+brother,
+
+ "The pewee of the loneliest woods,
+ Sole singer in the solitudes,"
+
+has a strange and decidedly original utterance. While much louder and
+more continuous, it lacks the sweetness of our bird's notes; indeed, it
+resembles in quality of tone the voice of our phoebe, or his beautiful
+relative, the great-crested flycatcher. The Westerner has a great deal
+to say for himself. On alighting, he announces the fact by a single
+note, which is a habit also of our phoebe; he sings the sun up in the
+morning, and he sings it down in the evening, and he would be a
+delightful neighbor if only his voice were pleasing. But there is little
+charm in the music, for it is in truth a dismal chant, with the air and
+cheerfulness of a funeral dirge--a pessimistic performance that inspires
+the listener with a desire to choke him then and there.
+
+This bird's nest, as well as his song, is unlike that of our wood-pewee.
+Instead of a delicate, lichen-covered saucer set lightly upon a
+horizontal crotch of a dead branch,--our bird's chosen home,--it is a
+deeper cup, fastened tightly upon a large living branch, and, at least
+in a cottonwood grove, decorated on the outside with the fluffy cotton
+from the trees.
+
+Even the humming-bird, who contents himself in this part of the world
+with a modest hum, heard but a short distance away, at the foot of the
+Rocky Mountains may almost be called a noisy bird. The first one I
+noticed dashed out of a thickly leaved tree with loud, angry cries,
+swooped down toward me, and flew back and forth over my head, scolding
+with a hum which, considering his size, might almost be called a roar. I
+could not believe my ears until my eyes confirmed their testimony. The
+sound was not made by the wings, but was plainly a cry strong and harsh
+in an extraordinary degree.
+
+The Western ruby-throat has other singularities which differentiate him
+from his Eastern brother. It is very droll to see one of his family take
+part in the clamors of a bird mob, perching like his bigger fellows,
+and adding his excited cries to the notes of catbird and robin, chewink
+and yellow-bird. Attracted one morning by a great bird outcry in a dense
+young oak grove across the road, I left my seat under the cottonwoods
+and strolled over toward it. It was plain that some tragedy was in the
+air, for the winged world was in a panic. Two robins, the only pair in
+the neighborhood, uttered their cry of distress from the top of the
+tallest tree; a catbird hopped from branch to branch, flirting his tail
+and mewing in agitation; a chewink or two near the ground jerked
+themselves about uneasily, adding their strange, husky call to the
+hubbub; and above the din rose the shrill voice of a humming-bird. Every
+individual had his eyes fixed upon the ground, where it was evident that
+some monster must be lurking. I expected a big snake at the very least,
+and, putting the lower branches aside, I, too, peered into the
+semi-twilight of the grove.
+
+No snake was there; but my eyes fell upon an anxious little gray face,
+obviously much disturbed to find itself the centre of so much attention.
+As I appeared, this bugaboo, who had caused all the excitement,
+recognized me as a friend and ran toward me, crying piteously. It was a
+very small lost kitten!
+
+I took up the stray little beastie, and a silence fell upon the
+assembly in the trees, which began to scatter, each one departing upon
+his own business in a moment. But the humming-bird refused to be so
+easily pacified; he was bound to see the end of the affair, and he
+followed me out of the grove, still vigorously speaking his mind about
+the enemy in fur. I suspected that the little creature had wandered away
+from the house on the hill above, and I went up to see. The hummer
+accompanied me every step of the way, sometimes flying over my head, and
+again alighting for a minute on a branch under which I passed. Not until
+he saw me deliver pussy into the hands of her own family, and return to
+my usual seat in the grove, did he release me from surveillance and take
+his leave.
+
+The yellow-breasted chat, the long-tailed variety belonging to the West,
+delivers his strange medley of "chacks" and whistles, and rattles and
+other indescribable cries, in a voice that is loud and distinct, as well
+as sweet and rich. He is a bird of humor, too, with a mocking spirit not
+common in his race. One day, while sitting motionless in a hidden nook,
+trying to spy upon the domestic affairs of this elusive individual, I
+was startled by the so-called "laugh" of a robin, which was instantly
+repeated by a chat, unseen, but quite near. The robin, apparently
+surprised or interested, called again, and was a second time mocked.
+Then he lost his temper, and began a serious reproof to the levity of
+his neighbor, which ended in a good round scolding, as the saucy chat
+continued to repeat his taunting laugh. This went on till the red-breast
+flew away in high dudgeon.
+
+Why our little brothers in feathers are so much more boisterous than
+elsewhere,
+
+ "Up in the parks and the mesas wide,
+ Under the blue of the bluest sky,"
+
+has not, so far as I know, been discovered.
+
+Whether it be the result of habitual opposition to the strong winds
+which, during the season of song, sweep over the plains every day, or
+whether the exhilaration of the mountain air be the cause--who can
+tell?
+
+
+
+
+IV.
+
+THE TRAGEDY OF A NEST.
+
+
+Near to the Camp, a little closer to beautiful Cheyenne Mountain, lay a
+small park. It was a continuation of the grove, through which the brook
+came roaring and tumbling down from the canyons above, and, being several
+miles from the town, it had never become a popular resort. A few winding
+paths, and a rude bench here and there, were the only signs of man's
+interference with its native wildness; it was practically abandoned to
+the birds--and me.
+
+The birds had full possession when I appeared on the scene, and though I
+did my best to be unobtrusive, my presence was not so welcome as I could
+have wished. Every morning when I came slowly and quietly up the little
+path from the gate, bird-notes suddenly ceased; the grosbeak, pouring
+out his soul from the top of a pine-tree, dived down the other side; the
+towhee, picking up his breakfast on the ground, scuttled behind the
+bushes and disappeared; the humming-bird, interrupted in her morning
+"affairs," flew off over my head, scolding vigorously; only the
+vireo--serene as always--went on warbling and eating, undisturbed.
+
+Then I made haste to seek out an obscure spot, where I could sit and
+wait in silence, to see who might unwittingly show himself.
+
+I was never lonely, and never tired; for if--as sometimes happened--no
+flit of wing came near to interest me, there before me was beautiful
+Cheyenne, with its changing face never twice alike, and its undying
+associations with its poet and lover, whose lonely grave makes it
+forever sacred to those who loved her. There, too, was the wonderful sky
+of Colorado, so blue it looked almost violet, and near at hand the
+"Singing Water," whose stirring music was always inspiring.
+
+One morning I was startled from my reverie by a sudden cry, so loud and
+clear that I turned quickly to see what manner of bird had uttered it.
+The voice was peculiar and entirely new to me. First came a scolding
+note like that of an oriole, then the "chack" of a blackbird, and next a
+sweet, clear whistle, one following the other rapidly and vehemently, as
+if the performer intended to display all his accomplishments in a
+breath. Cheyenne vanished like "the magic mountain of a dream," blue
+skies were forgotten, the babbling brook unheard, every sense was
+instantly alert to see that extraordinary bird,--
+
+ "Like a poet hidden,
+ Singing songs unbidden."
+
+But he did not appear. Not a leaf rustled, not a twig bent, though the
+strange medley kept on for fifteen minutes, then ceased as abruptly as
+it had begun, and not a whisper more could be heard. The whole thing
+seemed uncanny. Was it a bird at all, or a mere "wandering voice"? It
+seemed to come from a piece of rather swampy ground, overgrown with
+clumps of willow and low shrubs; but what bird of earthly mould could
+come and go, and make no sign that a close student of bird ways could
+detect? Did he creep on the ground? Did he vanish into thin air?
+
+Hours went by. I could not go, and my leafy nook was "struck through
+with slanted shafts of afternoon" before I reluctantly gave up that I
+should not see my enchanter that day, and slowly left the grove, the
+mystery unexplained.
+
+Very early the next morning I was saluted by the same loud, clear calls
+near the house. Had then the Invisible followed me home? I sprang up and
+hurried to the always open window. The voice was very near; but I could
+not see its author, though I was hidden behind blinds.
+
+This time the bird--if bird it were--indulged in a fuller _repertoire_.
+I seized pencil and paper, and noted down phonetically the different
+notes as they were uttered. This is the record: "Rat-t-t-t-t" (very
+rapid); "quit! quit! quit!" (a little slower); "wh-eu! wh-eu!" (still
+more deliberately); "chack! chack! chack!" (quite slow); "cr[=e],
+cr[=e], cr[=e], cr[=e]" (fast); "hu-way! hu-way!" (very sweet). There
+was a still more musical clause that I cannot put into syllables, then a
+rattle exactly like castanets, and lastly a sort of "Kr-r-r! kr-r-r!" in
+the tone of a great-crested flycatcher. While this will not express to
+one who has not heard it the marvelous charm of it all, it will at least
+indicate the variety.
+
+Hardly waiting to dispose of breakfast, I betook myself to my "woodland
+enchanted," resolved to stay till I saw that bird.
+
+ "All day in the bushes
+ The woodland was haunted."
+
+The voice was soon on hand, and once more I was treated to the
+incomparable recitative.
+
+This day, too, my patience was rewarded; the mystery was solved; I saw
+the Unknown! While my eyes were fixed upon a certain bush before me, the
+singer incautiously ventured too near the top of a twig, and I saw him
+plainly, standing almost upright, and vehemently chanting his fantasia,
+opening his mouth very wide with every call. I knew him at once, the
+rogue! from having read of him; he was the yellow-breasted chat. It was
+well, indeed, that I happened to be looking at that very spot, and that
+I was quick in my observation; for in a moment he saw the blunder he had
+made, and slipped back down the stem, too late for his secret--I had him
+down in black and white.
+
+From that time the little park was never lonely, nor did I spend much
+time dreaming over Cheyenne. The moment I appeared in the morning my
+lively host began his vocal gymnastics, while I sat spellbound,
+bewitched by the magic of his notes. In spite of being absorbed in
+listening to him, I retained my faculties sufficiently to reflect that
+the chat had probably other employment than entertaining me, and that
+doubtless his object was to distract my attention from looking about me,
+or to reproach me for intruding upon his private domain. In either case
+there was, of course,
+
+         "A nest unseen
+ Somewhere among the million stalks;"
+
+and, delightful as I found the unseen bird, his nest was a treasure I
+was even more anxious to see.
+
+Not to disturb him more than necessary, I spent part of an evening
+studying up the nesting habits of the chat,--the long-tailed,
+yellow-breasted, as I found him to be,--and the next morning made a
+thorough search through the swamp, looking into every bush and examining
+every thicket. An hour or two of this hard work satisfied me for the
+day, and I went home warm and tired, followed to the very door by the
+mocking voice, triumphing, as it seemed, in my failure.
+
+The next day, however, fortune smiled upon me; I came upon a nest, not
+far above the ground, among the stems of a clump of shrubs, which
+exactly answered the description of the one I sought. Careful not to lay
+a finger on it, I slightly parted the branches above, and looked in upon
+three pinkish-white eggs, small in size and dainty as tinted pearls.
+Happy day, I thought, and the forerunner of happy to-morrows when I
+should watch
+
+ "The green nest full of pleasant shade
+ Wherein three speckled eggs were laid,"
+
+and see and delight in the family life centring about it.
+
+To study a bird so shy required extraordinary precautions; I therefore
+sought, and found, a post of observation a long way off, where I could
+look through a natural vista among the shrubs, and with my glass bring
+the bush and its precious contents into view. For greater seclusion in
+my retreat, so that I should be as little conspicuous as possible, I
+drew down a branch of the low tree over my seat, and fastened it with a
+fine string to a stout weed below. Then I thought I had a perfect
+screen; I devoutly hoped the birds would not notice me.
+
+Vain delusion! and labor as vain! Doubtless two pairs of anxious eyes
+watched from some neighboring bush all my careful preparations, and then
+and there two despairing hearts bade farewell to their lovely little
+home, abandoned it and its treasures to the spy and the destroyer, which
+in their eyes I seemed to be.
+
+This conclusion was forced upon me by the experiences of the next few
+days. The birds absolutely would not approach the nest while I was in
+the park. The first morning I sat motionless for nearly two hours, and
+not a feather showed itself near that bush; it was plainly "tabooed."
+During the next day the chat called from this side and that, moving
+about in his wonderful way, without disturbing a twig, rustling a leaf,
+or flitting a wing--as silently, indeed, as if he were a spirit
+unclothed.
+
+While waiting for him to show himself, making myself as nearly a part of
+nature about me as a mortal is gifted to do, I congratulated myself upon
+the one good look I had secured, for, with all my efforts and all my
+watching, I saw him but twice more all summer. The enigma of that
+remarkable voice would have been maddening indeed, if I could not have
+known to whom it belonged.
+
+After several days of untiring observation I had but two glimpses to
+record. On one occasion a chat alighted on the top sprig of the fateful
+shrub, as if going to the nest, but almost on the instant vanished. The
+same day, a little later, one of these birds flitted into my view,
+without a sound. So perfectly silent were his movements that I should
+not have seen him if he had not come directly before my eyes. He, or
+she, for the pair are alike, alighted in a low bush and scrambled about
+as if in search of insects, climbing, not hopping. He stayed but a few
+seconds and departed like a shadow, as he had come.
+
+On the tenth day after my discovery of the nest with its trio of eggs I
+went out as usual, for I could not abandon hope. In passing the nest I
+glanced in and saw one egg; I could never see but one as I went by, but,
+not liking to go too near, I presumed that the other two were there, as
+I had always found them, and slipped quietly into my usual place.
+
+In a few moments the chat shouted a call so near that it fairly startled
+me. From that he went on to make his ordinary protest, but, as happened
+nearly every time, I was not able to see him. I saw something--something
+that took my breath away. A shadowy form creeping stealthily through the
+shrubs five or six feet from me. It glided across the opening in front,
+and in a moment went to the bush I was watching. In silence, but with
+evident excitement, it moved about, approached the nest, and in a few
+seconds flew quickly across the path in plain sight, holding in its mouth
+something white which was large for its beak. I was reminded of an
+English sparrow carrying a piece of bread as big as his head, a sight
+familiar to every one. In a minute or two the same bird, or his twin,
+came to the nest again and disappeared on the other side.
+
+When I left my place to go home, I looked with misgivings into the nest
+on which I had built so many hopes. Lo! it was empty!
+
+Now I identified that stealthy visitor absolutely, but I shall never
+name him. I have never heard him accused of nest-robbing, and I shall
+not make the charge; for I am convinced that the chat had deserted the
+nest, and that this abstracter of eggs knew it, and simply took the good
+things the gods threw in his way--as would the best of us.
+
+After that unfortunate ending the chat disappeared from the little park;
+but a week later I came upon him, or his voice, in a private and rarely
+visited pasture down the road, where many clumps of small trees and much
+low growth offered desirable nesting-places. He made his usual protest,
+and feeling that I had been the cause of the tragedy of the first nest,
+though I had grieved over it as much as the owners could, the least I
+could do, to show my regret, was to take myself and my curiosity out of
+his neighborhood. So I retired at once, and left the whole broad pasture
+to the incorrigible chat family, who, I hope, succeeded at last in
+enriching the world by half a dozen more of their bewitching kind.
+
+
+
+
+V.
+
+A FEAST OF FLOWERS.
+
+ When first the crocus thrusts its point of gold
+ Up through the still snow-drifted garden mould,
+ And folded green things in dim woods unclose
+ Their crinkled spears, a sudden tremor goes
+ Into my veins and makes me kith and kin
+ To every wild-born thing that thrills and blows.
+
+ T. B. ALDRICH.
+
+
+My feast of flowers began before I entered Colorado. For half the
+breadth of Kansas the banks of the railroad were heavenly blue with
+clustered blossoms of the spiderwort. I remember clumps of this flower
+in my grandmother's old-fashioned garden, but my wildest dreams never
+pictured miles of it, so profuse that, looking backward from the train,
+the track looked like threads of steel in a broad ribbon of blue.
+
+Through the same State, also, the Western meadow-larks kept us company,
+and I shall never again think of "bleeding Kansas," but of smiling
+Kansas, the home of the bluest of blossoms and the sweetest of singers.
+The latter half of the way through the smiling State was golden with
+yellow daisies in equal abundance, and beside them many other flowers.
+Beginning at noon, I counted twenty-seven varieties, so near the track
+that I could distinguish them as we rushed past.
+
+The Santa Fe road enters Colorado in a peculiarly desolate region.
+Flowers and birds appear to have stayed behind in Kansas, and no green
+thing shows its head, excepting one dismal-looking bush, which serves
+only to accentuate the poverty of the soil. As we go on, the mud is
+replaced by sand and stones, from gravel up to big bowlders, and flowers
+begin to struggle up through the unpromising ground.
+
+Nothing is more surprising than the amazing profusion of wild-flowers
+which this apparently ungenial soil produces. Of a certainty, if
+Colorado is not the paradise of wild-flowers, it is incomparably richer
+in them than any State east of the Mississippi River and north of "Mason
+and Dixon's Line." To begin with, there is a marvelous variety. Since I
+have taken note of them, from about the 10th of June till nearly the
+same date in July, I have found in my daily walk of not more than a mile
+or two, each time from one to seven new kinds. A few days I have found
+seven, many times I have brought home four, and never has a day passed
+without at least one I had not seen before. That will average, at a low
+estimate, about a hundred varieties of flowers in a month, and all
+within a radius of four miles. What neighborhood can produce a record
+equal to this?
+
+Then, again, the blossoms themselves are so abundant. Hardly a root
+contents itself with a single flower. The moccasin-plant is the only one
+I have noticed as yet. One root will usually send up from one to a dozen
+stems, fairly loaded with buds--like the yucca--which open a few every
+day, and thus keep in bloom for weeks. Or if there is but one stem, it
+will be packed with buds from the ground to the tip, with new ones to
+come out for every blossom that falls.
+
+One in the vase on my stand at this moment is of this sort. It is a stem
+that sometimes attains a height of four or five feet. I think it
+lengthens as long as it is blossoming, and, to look at its preparations,
+that must be all summer. Every two or three inches of the stout stem is
+a whorl of leaves and buds and blossoms. Except the number of buds, it
+is all in fours. Opposite each other, making a cross, are four leaves,
+like a carnation leaf at first, but broadening and lengthening till it
+is two inches at the base and eight or ten long. Rising out of the axil
+of each leaf are buds, of graduated size and development up to the open
+blossom. That one stem, therefore, is prepared to open fresh flowers
+every day for a long time.
+
+The plant is exquisitely beautiful, for the whole thing, from the stem
+to the flower petals, is of a delicate, light pea-green. The blossom
+opens like a star, with four stamens and four petals. The description
+sounds mathematical, but the plant is graceful--a veritable symphony in
+green.
+
+A truly royal bouquet stands on my table--three spikes of yucca flowers
+in a tall vase, the middle one three feet high, bearing fifty blossoms
+and buds, of large size and a pink color; on its right, one a little
+less in size, with long creamy cups fully open; and on the left another,
+set with round greenish balls, not so open as cups. They are distinctly
+different, but each seems more exquisite than the other, and their
+fragrance fills the room. In fact it is so overpowering that when at
+night I close the door opening into the grove, I shut the vase and its
+contents outside.
+
+This grand flower is the glory of the mesa or table-land at the foot of
+this range of the Rocky Mountains--the Cheyenne Range. Where no
+grass--that we name grass--will grow, where trees die for want of water,
+these noble spikes of flowers dot the bare plains in profusion.
+
+It is the rich possessor of three names. To the flower-lover it is the
+yucca; to the cultivator, or whosoever meddles with its leaves, it is
+the Spanish-bayonet; to the utilitarian, who values a thing only as it
+is of use to him, it is the soap-weed--ignoble name, referring to
+certain qualities pertaining to its roots. When we remember that this
+flower is not the careful product of the garden, but of spontaneous
+growth in the most barren and hopeless-looking plains, we may well
+regard it as a type of Colorado's luxuriance in these loveliest of
+nature's gifts.
+
+Of a surly disposition is the blossom of a cactus--the "prickly-pear,"
+as we call it in Eastern gardens, where we cultivate it for its oddity,
+I suppose. When the sojourner in this land of flowers sees, opening on
+all sides of this inhospitable-looking plant, rich cream-colored cups,
+the size of a Jacqueminot bud, and of a rare, satiny sheen, she cannot
+resist the desire to fill a low dish with them for her table.
+
+Woe to her if she attempts to gather them "by hand"! Properly warned,
+she will take a knife, sever the flower from the pear (there is no stem
+to speak of), pick it up by the tip of a petal, carry it home in a paper
+or handkerchief, and dump it gently into water--happy if she does not
+feel a dozen intolerable prickles here and there, and have to extract,
+with help of magnifying-glass and tweezers, as many needle-like barbs
+rankling in her flesh. She may as well have spared herself the trouble.
+The flowers possess the uncompromising nature of the stock from which
+they sprung; they will speedily shut themselves up like buds again--I
+almost believe they close with a snap--and obstinately refuse to display
+their satin draperies to delight the eyes of their abductors. This
+unlovely spirit is not common among Colorado flowers; most of them go on
+blooming in the vase day after day.
+
+Remarkable are the places in which the flowers are found. Not only are
+they seen in crevices all the way up the straight side of rocks, where
+one would hardly think a seed could lodge, but beside the roads, between
+the horses' tracks, and on the edge of gutters in the streets of a city.
+One can walk down any street in Colorado Springs and gather a bouquet,
+lovely and fragrant, choice enough to adorn any one's table. I once
+counted twelve varieties in crossing one vacant corner lot on the
+principal street.
+
+One of the richest wild gardens I know is a bare, open spot in a
+cottonwood grove, part of it tunneled by ants, which run over it by
+millions, and the rest a jumble of bowlders and wild rosebushes,
+impossible to describe. In this spot, unshaded from the burning sun,
+flourish flowers innumerable. Rosebushes, towering far above one's head,
+loaded with bloom; shrubs of several kinds, equally burdened by delicate
+white or pink blossoms; the ground covered with foot-high pentstemons,
+blue and lavender, in which the buds fairly get in each other's way; and
+a curious plant--primrose, I believe--which opens every morning, a few
+inches from the ground, a large white blossom like the magnolia, turns
+it deep pink, and closes it before night; several kinds of yellow
+flowers; wild geraniums, with a look of home in their daintily penciled
+petals; above all, the wonderful golden columbine. I despair of
+picturing this grand flower to eyes accustomed to the insignificant
+columbine of the East. The blossom is three times the size of its
+Eastern namesake, growing in clumps sometimes three feet across, with
+thirty or forty stems of flowers standing two and a half feet high. In
+hue it is a delicate straw color, sometimes all one tint, sometimes with
+outside petals of snowy white, and rarely with those outsiders of
+lavender. It is a red-letter day when the flower-lover comes upon a
+clump of the lavender-leaved columbine. Far up in the mountains is found
+still another variety of this beautiful flower, with outside petals of a
+rich blue. This, I believe, is the State flower of Colorado.
+
+I am surprised at the small number of flowers here with which I am
+familiar. I think there are not more than half a dozen in all this
+extraordinary "procession of flowers" that I ever saw before. In
+consequence, every day promises discoveries, every walk is exciting as
+an excursion into unknown lands, each new find is a fresh treasure.
+
+
+
+
+VI.
+
+A CINDERELLA AMONG FLOWERS.
+
+ Like torches lit for carnival,
+ The fiery lilies straight and tall
+ Burn where the deepest shadow is;
+ Still dance the columbines cliff-hung,
+ And like a broidered veil outflung
+ The many-blossomed clematis.
+
+ SUSAN COOLIDGE.
+
+
+A rough, scraggy plant, with unattractive, dark-green foliage and a
+profusion of buds standing out at all angles, is, in July, almost the
+only growing thing to be seen on the barren-looking mesa around Colorado
+Springs. Anything more unpromising can hardly be imagined; the coarsest
+thistle is a beauty beside it; the common burdock has a grace of growth
+far beyond it; the meanest weed shows a color which puts it to shame.
+Yet if the curious traveler pass that way again, late in the afternoon,
+he shall find that "Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of
+these." He will see the bush transfigured; its angular form hidden under
+a mass of many pointed stars of snowy whiteness, with clusters of pale
+gold stamens. Then will stand revealed the "superb mentzelia," a true
+Cinderella, fit only for ignominious uses in the morning, but a suitable
+bride for the fairy prince in the evening.
+
+To look at the wide-stretching table-lands, where, during its season,
+this fairy-story transformation takes place daily, so burned by the sun,
+and swept by the wind, that no cultivated plant will flourish on it, one
+would never suspect that it is the scene of a brilliant "procession of
+flowers" from spring to fall. "There is always something going on
+outdoors worth seeing," says Charles Dudley Warner, and of no part of
+the world is this more true than of these apparently desolate plains at
+the foot of the Rocky Mountains. Rich is the reward of the daily
+stroller, not only in the inspiration of its pure, bracing air, the
+songs of its meadow-larks, and the glory of its grand mountain view, but
+in its charming flower show.
+
+This begins with the anemone, modest and shy like our own, but three
+times as big, and well protected from the sharp May breezes by a soft,
+fluffy silk wrap. Then some day in early June the walker shall note
+groups of long, sword-shaped leaves, rising in clusters here and there
+from the ground. He may not handle them with impunity, for they are
+strong and sharp-edged, and somewhat later the beauty they are set to
+guard is revealed. A stem or two, heavy and loaded with hard green
+balls, pushes itself up among them day by day, till some morning he
+stands spellbound before the full-blown bells of the yucca, cream-tinted
+or pink, and fragrant as the breath of summer.
+
+Before the Nature-lover is tired of feasting his eyes upon that stately
+flower, shall begin to unfold the crumpled draperies of the great
+Mexican poppy, dotting the hillsides and the mesa with white, as far as
+the eye can reach. Meanwhile, the earth itself shall suddenly turn to
+pink, and a close look disclose a tiny, low-growing blossom, sweet as
+the morning, with the glow of the sunrise in its face; a little bunch of
+crazy-looking stamens, and tiny snips of petals standing out at all
+angles, and of all shades on one stem, from white to deep red; the whole
+no bigger than a gauzy-winged fly, and shaped not unlike one, with a
+delicious odor that scents the air.
+
+Next day--or next week--wandering over the pathless barrens, the
+observer may come upon a group of cream-colored satin flowers, wide open
+to the sun, innocent looking and most tempting to gather. But the great
+fleshy leaves from which they spring give warning; they belong to the
+cactus family, and are well armed to protect their treasures from the
+vagrant hand. The walker--if he be wise--will content himself with
+looking, nor seek a nearer acquaintance.
+
+While these royal beauties are adorning the highlands, others, perhaps
+even more lovely, are blooming in the canyons, under the trees, and
+beside the noisy brooks. First, there is a "riot of roses"--the only
+expression that adequately suggests the profusion of these beautiful
+flowers. They grow in enormous bushes, far above one's head, in
+impenetrable thickets, extending for yards each way.
+
+         "Rose hedges
+ Abloom to the edges."
+
+Every country road is walled in by them; every brookside is glorified by
+their rich masses of color; and no rocky wall is so bare but here and
+there a tiny shoot finds root, and open its rosy bloom. All these
+bushes, from the low-growing sort that holds its mottled and shaded
+petals three inches above the ground, to that whose top one cannot
+reach, are simply loaded with blossoms of all shades, from nearly white
+to deepest rose-color, filling the air with perfume.
+
+The first time one comes upon this lavish display, he--or more probably
+she--picks a spray from the first bush; she cannot resist the next
+variety, and before she knows it her arms are full, with temptations as
+strong as ever before her. She may at last, like "H. H.," take home her
+roses by the carriage load, or, overwhelmed by their numbers, leave them
+all on their stems, and enjoy them in mass.
+
+Shyly hiding under the taller shrubs beside the running water, the
+experienced seeker will find the gilia, one of the gems of Colorado's
+bouquet. This plant consists of one slender stem two feet or more tall,
+swayed by every breeze, and set for several inches of its length with
+daintiest blossoms,--
+
+ "Like threaded rubies on its stem."
+
+They are like fairy trumpets, in many shades, from snow white to deep
+rose, and brilliant scarlet, with great variety of delicate marking
+visible only under a glass. The stem is so sticky that the flowers must
+be arranged as they are gathered; for they cling to each other more
+closely than the fabled "brother," and an attempt to separate them will
+result in torn flowers.
+
+Anything more exquisite than a vase of gilias alone is rarely seen. The
+buds are as lovely as the blossoms; new ones open every day, and even
+the faded ones are not unsightly; their petals are simply turned
+backward a little. One minute every morning spent in snipping off
+blossoms that are past their prime insures the happy possessor a
+bouquet that is a joy forever, even in memory; lovely and fresh, in
+ever-changing combinations of color and form.
+
+Some day shall be made memorable to the enthusiast by the discovery of a
+flower which should be named for "H. H.,"--the one which looked so
+charming from the moving train that her winning tongue brought the iron
+horse to a pause while it was gathered, "root and branch," for her
+delectation. Finding the gorgeous spike of golden blossoms without a
+common name, she called it--most happily--the golden prince's feather.
+It is to be presumed that it has an unwieldy scientific cognomen in the
+botanies; but I heard of no common one, except that given by the poet.
+
+While this royal flower is still in bloom, may be found the mariposa, or
+butterfly lily, small and low on the burning mesa, but more generous in
+size, and richer of hue, in the shaded canyons.
+
+ "Like a bubble borne in air
+   Floats the shy Mariposa's bell,"
+
+says Susan Coolidge in her beautiful tribute to her beloved friend and
+poet. The three petals of this exquisite flower form a graceful cup of
+differing degrees of violet hue, some being nearly white, with the color
+massed in a rich, deep-toned crescent, low down at the heart of each
+petal, while others are glowing in the most regal purple.
+
+All these weeks, too, have been blossoming dozens, yes, hundreds of
+others; every nook and corner is full; every walk brings surprises. Some
+of our most familiar friends are wanting. One is not surprised that the
+most common wayside flower of that golden region is the yellow daisy, or
+sunflower it is called; but she remembers fondly our fields of white
+daisies, and clumps of gay little buttercups, and she longs for
+cheery-faced dandelions beside her path. A few of the latter she may
+find, much larger and more showy than ours; but these--it is said in
+Colorado Springs--are all from seed imported by an exile for health's
+sake, who pined for the flowers of home.
+
+Several peculiarities of Colorado flowers are noteworthy. Some have
+gummy or sticky stems, like the gilia, already mentioned, and others
+again are "clinging," by means of a certain roughness of stem and leaf.
+The mentzelia is of this nature; half a dozen stalks can with difficulty
+be separated; and they seem even to attract any light substance, like
+fringe or lace, holding so closely to it that they must be torn apart.
+
+Many of the prettiest flowers are, like our milkweed, nourished by a
+milky juice, and when severed from the parent stem, not only weep thick
+white tears, which stain the hands and the garments, but utterly refuse
+to subsist on water, and begin at once to droop. Is it the vitality in
+the air which forces even the plants to eccentricities? Or can it be
+that they have not yet been subdued into uniformity like ours? Are they
+unconventional--nearer to wild Nature? So queries an unscientific lover
+of them all.
+
+This slight sketch of a few flowers gives hardly a hint of the richness
+of Colorado's flora. No words can paint the profusion and the beauty. I
+have not here even mentioned some of the most notable: the great golden
+columbine, the State flower, to which our modest blossom is an
+insignificant weed;
+
+ "The fairy lilies, straight and tall,
+ Like torches lit for carnival;"
+
+the primrose, opening at evening a disk three or four inches across,
+loaded with richest perfume, and changed to odorless pink before
+morning; exquisite vetches, with bloom like our sweet pea, and of more
+than fifty varieties; harebells in great clumps, and castilleias which
+dot the State with scarlet; rosy cyclamens "on long, lithe stems that
+soar;" and mertensias, whose delicate bells, blue as a baby's eyes, turn
+day by day to pink; the cleome, which covers Denver with a purple veil;
+the whole family of pentstemons, and hundreds of others.
+
+An artist in Colorado Springs, who has given her heart, almost her life,
+to fixing in imperishable color the floral wealth about her, has painted
+over three hundred varieties of Colorado wild-flowers, and her list is
+still incomplete.
+
+It is not pleasant to mar this record of beauty, but one thing must be
+mentioned. The luxuriance of the flowers is already greatly diminished
+by the unscrupulousness of the tourists who swarm in the flower season,
+especially, I am sorry to say, women. Not content with filling their
+hands with flowers, they fill their arms and even their carriage, if
+they have one. Moreover, the hold of the plant on the light, sandy soil
+is very slight; and the careless gatherer, not provided with knife or
+scissors, will almost invariably pull the root with the flower, thus
+totally annihilating that plant. When one witnesses such greediness, and
+remembers that these vandals are in general on the wing, and cannot stay
+to enjoy what they have rifled, but will leave it all to be thrown out
+by hotel servants the next morning, he cannot wonder at the indignation
+of the residents toward the traveler, nor that "No admittance" notices
+are put up, and big dogs kept, and that "tourist" is a name synonymous
+with "plunderer," and bitterly hated by the people.
+
+I have seen a party of ladies--to judge by their looks--with arms so
+full of the golden columbine that it seemed they could not hold another
+flower, whose traveling dress and equipments showed them to be mere
+transient passers through, who could not possibly make use of so many.
+Half a dozen blossoms would have given as much pleasure as half a
+hundred, and be much more easily cared for, besides leaving a few for
+their successors to enjoy. The result is, of course, plain to see: a few
+more years of plunder, and Colorado will be left bare, and lose half her
+charm.
+
+One beautiful place near Colorado Springs, Glen Eyrie, belonging to
+General Palmer, was generously left open for every one to enjoy by
+driving through; but, incredible as it seems, his hospitality was so
+abused, his lovely grounds rifled, not only of wild-flowers, but even of
+cultivated flowers and plants, that he was forced at last to put up
+notices that the public was allowed to "drive through _without
+dismounting_."
+
+
+
+
+VII.
+
+CLIFF-DWELLERS IN THE CANYON.
+
+                                   Glad
+ With light as with a garment it is clad
+ Each dawn, before the tardy plains have won
+ One ray; and often after day has long been done
+ For us, the light doth cling reluctant, sad to leave its brow.
+
+ H. H.
+
+
+The happiest day of my summer in the Rocky Mountains was passed in the
+heart of a mountain consecrated by the songs and the grave of its lover,
+"H. H.,"--beautiful Cheyenne, the grandest and the most graceful of its
+range.
+
+Camp Harding, my home for the season, in its charming situation, has
+already been described. The fortunate dwellers in this "happy valley"
+were blessed with two delectable walks, "down the road" and "up the
+road." Down the road presented an enchanting procession of flowers,
+which changed from day to day as the season advanced; to-day the scarlet
+castilleia, or painter's-brush, flaming out of the coarse grasses;
+to-morrow the sand lily, lifting its dainty face above the bare sand;
+next week the harebell, in great clumps, nodding across the field, and
+next month the mariposa or butterfly lily, just peeping from behind the
+brush,--with dozens of others to keep them company. As one went on, the
+fields grew broader, the walls of the mesa lowered and drew apart, till
+the canyon was lost in the wide, open country.
+
+This was the favorite evening walk, with all the camp dogs in
+attendance,--the nimble greyhound, the age-stiffened and sedate spaniel,
+the saucy, ill-bred bull-terrier, and the naive baby pug. The loitering
+walk usually ended at the red farmhouse a mile away, and the walkers
+returned to the camp in the gloaming, loaded with flowers, saturated
+with the delicious mountain air, and filled with a peace that passeth
+words.
+
+Up the road led into the mountain, under thick-crowding trees, between
+frowning rocks, ever growing higher and drawing nearer together, till
+the carriage road became a burro track, and then a footpath; now this
+side the boisterous brook, then crossing by a log or two to the other
+side, and ending in the heart of Cheyenne in a _cul-de-sac_, whose high
+perpendicular sides could be scaled only by flights of steps built
+against the rocks. From high up the mountain, into this immense rocky
+basin, came the brook Shining Water, in seven tremendous leaps, each
+more lovely than the last, and reached at bottom a deep stone bowl,
+which flung it out in a shower of spray forbidding near approach, and
+keeping the rocks forever wet.
+
+The morning walk was up the road, in the grateful shade of the trees,
+between the cool rocks, beside the impetuous brook. This last was an
+ever fresh source of interest and pleasure, for nothing differs more
+widely from an Eastern brook than its Western namesake. The terms we
+apply to our mountain rivulets do not at all describe a body of water on
+its way down a Rocky Mountain valley. It does not murmur,--it roars and
+brawls; it cannot ripple,--it rages and foams about the bowlders that
+lie in its path. The name of a Colorado mountain stream, the Roaring
+Fork, exactly characterizes it.
+
+One warm morning in June, a small party from the camp set out for a walk
+up the road. By easy stages, resting here and there on convenient rocks,
+beguiled at every step by something more beautiful just ahead, they
+penetrated to the end of the canyon. Of that party I was one, and it was
+my first visit. I was alternately in raptures over the richness of
+color, the glowing red sandstone against the violet-blue sky, and
+thrilled by the grandeur of places which looked as if the whole
+mountain had been violently rent asunder.
+
+But no emotion whatever, no beauty, no sublimity even, can make me
+insensible to a bird note. Just at the entrance to the Pillars of
+Hercules, two towering walls of perpendicular rock that approach each
+other almost threateningly, as if they would close up and crush between
+them the rash mortal who dared to penetrate farther,--in that impressive
+spot, while I lingered, half yielding to a mysterious hesitation about
+entering the strange portal, a bird song fell upon my ear. It was a
+plaintive warble, that sounded far away up the stern cliff above my
+head. It seemed impossible that a bird could find a foothold, or be in
+any way attracted by those bare walls, yet I turned my eyes, and later
+my glass that way.
+
+At first nothing was to be seen save, part way up the height, an
+exquisite bit of nature. In a niche that might have been scooped out by
+a mighty hand, where scarcely a ray of sunlight could penetrate, and no
+human touch could make or mar, were growing, and blooming luxuriantly, a
+golden columbine, Colorado's pride and glory, a rosy star-shaped blossom
+unknown to me, and a cluster of
+
+ "Proud cyclamens on long, lithe stems that soar."
+
+When I could withdraw my eyes from this dainty wind-sown garden, I
+sought the singer, who proved to be a small brown bird with a
+conspicuous white throat, flitting about on the face of the rock,
+apparently quite at home, and constantly repeating his few notes. His
+song was tender and bewitching in its effect, though it was really
+simple in construction, being merely nine notes, the first uttered
+twice, and the remaining eight in descending chromatic scale.
+
+Now and then the tiny songster disappeared in what looked like a slight
+crack in the wall, but instantly reappeared, and resumed his siren
+strains. Spellbound I stood, looking and listening; but alas! the hour
+was late, the way was long, and others were waiting; I needs must tear
+myself away. "To-morrow I will come again," I said, as I turned back.
+"To-morrow I shall be here alone, and spend the whole day with the canyon
+wren."
+
+Then we retraced our steps of the morning, lingering among the pleasant
+groves of cottonwood, oak, and aspen; pausing to admire the cactus
+display of gorgeous yellow, with petals widespread, yet so wedded to
+their wildness that they resented the touch of a human hand, resisting
+their ravisher with needle-like barbs, and then sullenly drawing
+together their satin petals and refusing to open them more; past great
+thickets of wild roses, higher than our heads and fragrant as the
+morning; beside close-growing bushes, where hid the
+
+ "Golden cradle of the moccasin flower,"
+
+and the too clever yellow-breasted chat had mocked and defied me; and so
+home to the camp.
+
+At an early hour the next morning, the carriage of my hostess set me
+down at the entrance of Cheyenne Canyon proper, with the impedimenta
+necessary for a day's isolation from civilization. I passed through the
+gate,--for even this grand work of nature is claimed as private
+property; but, happily, through good sense or indifference,
+"improvements" have not been attempted, and one forgets the gate and the
+gate-keeper as soon as they are passed.
+
+Entering at that unnatural hour, and alone, leaving the last human being
+behind,--staring in astonishment, by the way, at my unprecedented
+proceeding,--I began to realize, as I walked up the narrow path, that
+the whole grand canyon, winding perhaps a mile into the heart of this
+most beautiful of the Rocky Mountains, was mine alone for three hours.
+Indeed, when the time arrived for tourists to appear, so little did I
+concern myself with them that they might have been a procession of
+spectres passing by; so, in effect, the canyon was my solitary possession
+for nine blissful hours.
+
+The delights of that perfect day cannot be put into words. Strolling up
+the path, filled with an inexpressible sense of ownership and seclusion
+from all the world, I first paused in the neighborhood of the small
+cliff-dweller whose music had charmed me, and suggested the enchanting
+idea of spending a day with him in his retreat. I seated myself opposite
+the forbidding wall where the bird had hovered, apparently so much at
+home. All was silent; no singer to be heard, no wren to be seen. The
+sun, which turned the tops of the Pillars to gold as I entered, crept
+down inch by inch till it beat upon my head and clothed the rock in a
+red glory. Still no bird appeared. High above the top of the rocks, in
+the clear thin air of the mountain, a flock of swallows wheeled and
+sported, uttering an unfamiliar two-note call; butterflies fluttered
+irresolute, looking frivolous enough in the presence of the eternal
+hills; gauzy-winged dragonflies zigzagged to and fro, their intense blue
+gleaming in the sun. The hour for visitors drew near, and my precious
+solitude was fast slipping away.
+
+Slowly then I walked up the canyon, looking for my singer. Humming-birds
+were hovering before the bare rock as before a flower, perhaps sipping
+the water-drops that here and there trickled down, and large hawks, like
+mere specks against the blue, were soaring, but no wren could I see. At
+last I reached the end, with its waterfall fountain. Close within this
+ceaseless sprinkle, on a narrow ledge that was never dry, was placed--I
+had almost said grew--a bird's nest; whose, it were needless to ask. One
+American bird, and one only, chooses perpetual dampness for his
+environment,--the American dipper, or water ouzel.
+
+Here I paused to muse over the spray-soaked cradle on the rock. In this
+strange place had lived a bird so eccentric that he prefers not only to
+nest under a continuous shower, through which he must constantly pass,
+but to spend most of his life in, not on the water. Shall we call him a
+fool or a philosopher? Is the water a protection, and from what? Has
+"damp, moist unpleasantness" no terrors for his fine feathers? Where now
+were the nestlings whose lullaby had been the music of the falling
+waters? Down that sheer rock, perhaps into the water at its foot, had
+been the first flight of the ouzel baby. Why had I come too late to see
+him?
+
+But the hours were passing, while I had not seen, and, what was worse,
+had not heard my first charmer, the canyon wren. Leaving these perplexing
+conundrums unsolved, I turned slowly back down the walk, to resume my
+search. Perhaps fifty feet from the ouzel nest, as I lingered to admire
+the picturesque rapids in the brook, a slight movement drew my attention
+to a little projection on a stone, not six feet from me, where a small
+chipmunk sat pertly up, holding in his two hands, and eagerly
+nibbling--was it, could it be a strawberry in this rocky place?
+
+Of course I stopped instantly to look at this pretty sight. I judged him
+to be a youngster, partly because of his evident fearlessness of his
+hereditary enemy, a human being; more on account of the saucy way in
+which he returned my stare; and most, perhaps, from the appearance of
+absorbing delight, in which there was a suggestion of the unexpected,
+with which he discussed that sweet morsel. Closely I watched him as he
+turned the treasure round and round in his deft little paws, and at last
+dropped the rifled hull. Would he go for another, and where? In an
+instant, with a parting glance at me, to make sure that I had not moved,
+he scrambled down his rocky throne, and bounded in great leaps over the
+path to a crumpled paper, which I saw at once was one of the bags with
+which tourists sow the earth. But its presence there did not rouse in my
+furry friend the indignation it excited in me. To him it was a
+treasure-trove, for into it he disappeared without a moment's
+hesitation; and almost before I had jumped to the conclusion that it
+contained the remains of somebody's luncheon, he reappeared, holding in
+his mouth another strawberry, bounded over the ground to his former
+seat, and proceeded to dispose of that one, also. The scene was so
+charming and his pleasure so genuine that I forgave the careless
+traveler on the spot, and only wished I had a kodak to secure a
+permanent picture of this unique strawberry festival.
+
+As I loitered along, gazing idly at the brook, ever listening and
+longing for the wren song, I was suddenly struck motionless by a loud,
+shrill, and peculiar cry. It was plainly a bird voice, and it seemed to
+come almost from the stream itself. It ceased in a moment, and then
+followed a burst of song, liquid as the singing of the brook, and
+enchantingly sweet, though very low. I was astounded. Who could sing
+like that up in this narrow mountain gorge, where I supposed the canyon
+wren was king?
+
+At the point where I stood, a straggling shrub, the only one for rods,
+hung over the brink. I silently sank to a seat behind it, lest I disturb
+the singer, and remained without movement. The baffling carol went on
+for some seconds, and for the only time in my life I wished I could put
+a spell upon brook-babble, that I might the better hear.
+
+Cautiously I raised my glass to my eyes, and examined the rocks across
+the water, probably eight feet from me. Then arose again that strange
+cry, and at the same instant my eye fell upon a tiny ledge, level with
+the water, and perhaps six inches long, on which stood a small
+fellow-creature in great excitement. He was engaged in what I should
+call "curtsying"; that is, bending his leg joint, and dropping his plump
+little body for a second, then bobbing up to his fullest height,
+repeating the performance constantly,--looking eagerly out over the
+water the while, evidently expecting somebody. This was undoubtedly the
+bird's manner of begging for food,--a very pretty and well-bred way,
+too, vastly superior to the impetuous calls and demands of some young
+birds. The movement was "dipping," of course, and he was the dipper, or
+ouzel baby, that had been cradled in that fountain-dashed nest by the
+fall. He was not long out of it, either; for though fully dressed in his
+modest slate-color, with white feet, and white edgings to many of his
+feathers, he had hardly a vestige of a tail. He was a winsome baby, for
+all that.
+
+While I studied the points of the stranger, breathless lest he should
+disappear before my eyes, he suddenly burst out with the strange call I
+had heard. It was clearly a cry of joy, of welcome, for out of the
+water, up on to the ledge beside him, scrambled at that moment a
+grown-up ouzel. He gave one poke into the wide-open mouth of the infant,
+then slipped back into the water, dropped down a foot or more, climbed
+out upon another little shelf in the rock, and in a moment the song
+arose. I watched the singer closely. The notes were so low and so
+mingled with the roar of the brook that even then I should not have been
+certain he was uttering them if I had not seen his throat and mouth
+distinctly. The song was really exquisite, and as much in harmony with
+the melody of the stream as the voice of the English sparrow is with the
+city sounds among which he dwells, and the plaintive refrain of the
+meadow-lark with the low-lying, silent fields where he spends his days.
+
+But little cared baby ouzel for music, however ravishing. What to his
+mind was far more important was food,--in short, worms. His pretty
+begging continued, and the daring notion of attempting a perilous
+journey over the foot of water that separated him from his papa plainly
+entered his head. He hurried back and forth on the brink with growing
+agitation, and was seemingly about to plunge in, when the singer again
+entered the water, brought up another morsel, and then stood on the
+ledge beside the eager youngling, "dipping" occasionally himself, and
+showing every time he winked--as did the little one, also--snowy-white
+eyelids, in strange contrast to the dark slate-colored plumage.
+
+This aesthetic manner of discharging family duties, alternating food for
+the body with rapture of the soul, continued for some time, probably
+until the young bird had as much as was good for him; and then supplies
+were cut off by the peremptory disappearance of the purveyor, who
+plunged with the brook over the edge of a rock, and was seen no more.
+
+A little later a grown bird appeared, that I supposed at first was the
+returning papa, but a few moments' observation convinced me that it was
+the mother; partly because no song accompanied the work, but more
+because of the entirely different manners of the new-comer. Filling the
+crop of that importunate offspring of hers was, with this Quaker-dressed
+dame, a serious business that left no time for rest or recreation. Two
+charmed hours I sat absorbed, watching the most wonderful evolutions one
+could believe possible to a creature in feathers.
+
+At the point where this little drama was enacted, the brook rushed over
+a line of pebbles stretching from bank to bank, lying at all angles and
+of all sizes, from six to ten inches in diameter. Then it ran five or
+six feet quietly, around smooth rocks here and there above the water,
+and ended by plunging over a mass of bowlders to a lower level. The bird
+began by mounting one of those slippery rounded stones, and thrusting
+her head under water up to her shoulders. Holding it there a few
+seconds, apparently looking for something, she then jumped in where the
+turmoil was maddest, picked an object from the bottom, and, returning to
+the ledge, gave it to baby.
+
+The next moment, before I had recovered from my astonishment at this
+feat of the ouzel, she ran directly up the falls (which, though not
+high, were exceedingly lively), being half the time entirely under
+water, and exactly as much at her ease as if no water were there; though
+how she could stand in the rapid current, not to speak of walking
+straight up against it, I could not understand.
+
+Often she threw herself into the stream, and let it carry her down, like
+a duck, a foot or two, while she looked intently on the bottom, then
+simply walked up out of it on to a stone. I could see that her plumage
+was not in the least wet; a drop or two often rested on her back when
+she came out, but it rolled off in a moment. She never even shook
+herself. The food she brought to that eager youngling every few minutes
+looked like minute worms, doubtless some insect larvae.
+
+Several times this hard-working mother plunged into the brook where it
+was shallow, ran or walked down it, half under water, and stopped on the
+very brink of the lower fall, where one would think she could not even
+stand, much less turn back and run up stream, which she did freely. This
+looked to me almost as difficult as for a man to stand on the brink of
+Niagara, with the water roaring and tumbling around him. Now and then
+the bird ran or flew up, against the current, and entirely under water,
+so that I could see her only as a dark-colored moving object, and then
+came out all fresh and dry beside the baby, with a mouthful of food. I
+should hardly dare to tell this, for fear of raising doubts of my
+accuracy, if the same thing had not been seen and reported by others
+before me. Her crowning action was to stand with one foot on each of two
+stones in the middle and most uproarious part of the little fall, lean
+far over, and deliberately pick something from a third stone.
+
+All this was no show performance, even no frolic, on the part of the
+ouzel,--it was simply her every-day manner of providing for the needs of
+that infant; and when she considered the duty discharged for the time,
+she took her departure, very probably going at once to the care of a
+second youngster who awaited her coming in some other niche in the
+rocks.
+
+Finding himself alone again, and no more dainties coming his way, the
+young dipper turned for entertainment to the swift-running streamlet. He
+went down to the edge, stepping easily, never hopping; but when the
+shallow edge of the water ran over his pretty white toes, he hastily
+scampered back, as if afraid to venture farther. The clever little rogue
+was only coquetting, however, for when he did at last plunge in he
+showed himself very much at home. He easily crossed a turbulent bit of
+the brook, and when he was carried down a little he scrambled without
+trouble up on a stone. All the time, too, he was peering about after
+food; and in fact it was plain that his begging was a mere pretense,--he
+was perfectly well able to look out for himself. Through the whole of
+these scenes not one of the birds, old or young, had paid the slightest
+attention to me, though I was not ten feet from them.
+
+During the time I had been so absorbed in my delightful study of
+domestic life in the ouzel family, the other interesting resident of the
+canyon--the elusive canyon wren--had been forgotten. Now, as I noticed
+that the day was waning, I thought of him again, and, tearing myself
+away from the enticing picture, leaving the pretty baby to his own
+amusements, I returned to the famous Pillars, and planted myself before
+my rock, resolved to stay there till the bird appeared.
+
+No note came to encourage me, but, gazing steadily upward, after a time
+I noticed something that looked like a fly running along the wall.
+Bringing my glass to my eyes, I found that it was a bird, and one of the
+white-throated family I so longed to see. She--for her silence and her
+ways proclaimed her sex--was running about where appeared to be nothing
+but perpendicular rock, flirting her tail after the manner of her race,
+as happy and as unconcerned as if several thousand feet of sheer cliff
+did not stretch between her and the brook at its foot. Her movements
+were jerky and wren-like, and every few minutes she flitted into a tiny
+crevice that seemed, from my point of view, hardly large enough to admit
+even her minute form. She was dressed like the sweet singer of
+yesterday, and the door she entered so familiarly was the same I had
+seen him interested in. I guessed that she was his mate.
+
+The bird seemed to be gathering from the rock something which she
+constantly carried into the hole. Possibly there were nestlings in that
+snug and inaccessible home. To discover if my conjectures were true, I
+redoubled my vigilance, though it was neck-breaking work, for so narrow
+was the canyon at that point that I could not get far enough away for a
+more level view.
+
+Sometimes the bustling little wren flew to the top of the wall, about
+twenty feet above her front door, as it looked to me (it may have been
+ten times that). Over the edge she instantly disappeared, but in a few
+minutes returned to her occupation on the rock. Upon the earth beneath
+her sky parlor she seemed never to turn her eyes, and I began to fear
+that I should get no nearer view of the shy cliff-dweller.
+
+Finally, however, the caprice seized the tantalizing creature of
+descending to the level of mortals, and the brook. Suddenly, while I
+looked, she flung herself off her perch, and fell--down--down--down--
+disappearing at last behind a clump of weeds at the bottom. Was she
+killed? Had she been shot by some noiseless air-gun? What had become
+of the tiny wren? I sprang to my feet, and hurried as near as the
+intervening stream would allow, when lo! there she was, lively and fussy
+as ever, running about at the foot of the cliff, searching, searching
+all the time, ever and anon jumping up and pulling from the rock
+something that clung to it.
+
+When the industrious bird had filled her beak with material that stuck
+out on both sides, which I concluded to be some kind of rock moss, she
+started back. Not up the face of that blank wall, loaded as she was,
+but by a strange path that she knew well, up which I watched her wending
+her way to her proper level. This was a cleft between two solid bodies
+of rock, where, it would seem, the two walls, in settling together for
+their lifelong union, had broken and crumbled, and formed between them a
+sort of crack, filled with unattached bowlders, with crevices and
+passages, sometimes perpendicular, sometimes horizontal. Around and
+through these was a zigzag road to the top, evidently as familiar to
+that atom of a bird as Broadway is to some of her fellow-creatures, and
+more easily traversed, for she had it all to herself.
+
+The wren flew about three feet to the first step of her upward passage,
+then ran and clambered nearly all the rest of the way, darting behind
+jutting rocks and coming out the other side, occasionally flying a foot
+or two; now pausing as if for an observation, jerking her tail upright
+and letting it drop back, wren-fashion, then starting afresh, and so
+going on till she reached the level of her nest, when she flew across
+the (apparent) forty or fifty feet, directly into the crevice. In a
+minute she came out, and without an instant's pause flung herself down
+again.
+
+I watched this curious process very closely. The wren seemed to close
+her wings; certainly she did not use them, nor were they in the least
+spread that I could detect. She came to the ground as if she were a
+stone, as quickly and as directly as a stone would have fallen; but just
+before touching the ground she spread her wings, and alighted lightly on
+her feet. Then she fell to her labor of collecting what I suppose was
+nesting material, and in a few minutes started up again by the
+roundabout road to the top. Two hours or more, with gradually stiffening
+neck, I spent with the wren, while she worked constantly and silently,
+and not once during all that time did the singer appear.
+
+What the scattering parties of tourists, who from time to time passed
+me, thought of a silent personage sitting in the canyon alone, staring
+intently up at a blank wall of rock, I did not inquire. Perhaps that she
+was a verse-writer seeking inspiration; more likely, however, a harmless
+lunatic musing over her own fancies.
+
+I know well what I thought of them, from the glimpses that came to me as
+I sat there; some climbing over the sharp-edged rocks, in tight boots,
+delicate kid gloves, and immaculate traveling costumes, and panting for
+breath in the seven thousand feet altitude; others uncomfortably seated
+on the backs of the scraggy little burros, one of whom was so interested
+in my proceedings that he walked directly up and thrust his long,
+inquiring ears into my very face, spite of the resistance of his rider,
+forcing me to rise and decline closer acquaintance. One of the
+melancholy procession was loaded with a heavy camera, another equipped
+with a butterfly net; this one bent under the weight of a big basket of
+luncheon, and that one was burdened with satchels and wraps and
+umbrellas. All were laboriously trying to enjoy themselves, but not one
+lingered to look at the wonder and the beauty of the surroundings. I
+pitied them, one and all, feeling obliged, as no doubt they did, to "see
+the sights;" tramping the lovely canyon to-day, glancing neither to right
+nor left; whirling through the Garden of the Gods to-morrow; painfully
+climbing the next day the burro track to the Grave, the sacred point
+where
+
+ "Upon the wind-blown mountain spot
+ Chosen and loved as best by her,
+ Watched over by near sun and star,
+ Encompassed by wide skies, she sleeps."
+
+Alas that one cannot quote with truth the remaining lines!
+
+ "And not one jarring murmur creeps
+ Up from the plain her rest to mar."
+
+For now, at the end of the toilsome passage, that place which should be
+sacred to loving memories and tender thoughts, is desecrated by placards
+and picnickers, defaced by advertisements, strewn with the
+wrapping-paper, tin cans, and bottles with which the modern
+globe-trotter marks his path through the beautiful and sacred scenes in
+nature.[1]
+
+In this uncomfortable way the majority of summer tourists spend day
+after day, and week after week; going home tired out, with no new idea
+gained, but happy to be able to say they have been here and there,
+beheld this canyon, dined on that mountain, drank champagne in such a
+pass, and struggled for breath on top of "the Peak." Their eyes may
+indeed have passed over these scenes, but they have not _seen_ one
+thing.
+
+Far wiser is he (and more especially she) who seeks out a corner obscure
+enough to escape the eyes of the "procession," settles himself in it,
+and spends fruitful and delightful days alone with nature; never hasting
+nor rushing; seeing and studying the wonders at hand, but avoiding
+"parties" and "excursions;" valuing more a thorough knowledge of one
+canyon than a glimpse of fifty; caring more to appreciate the beauties of
+one mountain than to scramble over a whole range; getting into such
+perfect harmony with nature that it is as if he had come into possession
+of a new life; and from such an experience returning to his home
+refreshed and invigorated in mind and body.
+
+Such were my reflections as the sun went down, and I felt, as I passed
+out through the gate, that I ought to double my entrance fee, so much
+had my life been enriched by that perfect day alone in Cheyenne Canyon.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 1: Since the above was written, I am glad to learn that,
+because of this vandalism, the remains of "H. H." have been removed to
+the cemetery at Colorado Springs.]
+
+
+
+
+IN THE MIDDLE COUNTRY.
+
+
+
+
+ For all the woods are shrill with stress of song,
+   Where soft wings flutter down to new-built nests,
+ And turbulent sweet sounds are heard day long,
+   As of innumerable marriage feasts.
+
+ CHARLES LOTIN HILDRETH.
+
+
+
+
+VIII.
+
+AT FOUR O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING.
+
+
+Four o'clock in the morning is the magical hour of the day. I do not
+offer this sentiment as original, nor have I the slightest hope of
+converting any one to my opinion; I merely state the fact.
+
+For years I had known it perfectly well; and fortified by my knowledge,
+and bristling with good resolutions, I went out every June determined to
+rise at that unnatural hour. Nothing is easier than to get up at four
+o'clock--the night before; but when morning comes, the point of view is
+changed, and all the arguments that arise in the mind are on the other
+side; sleep is the one thing desirable. The case appeared hopeless.
+Appeals from Philip drunk (with sleep) to Philip sober did not seem to
+avail; for whatever the latter decreed, the former would surely disobey.
+
+But last June I found my spur; last summer I learned to get up with
+eagerness, and stay up with delight. This was effected by means of an
+alarm, set by the evening's wakefulness, that had no mercy on the
+morning's sleepiness. The secret is--a present interest. What may be
+going on somewhere out of sight and hearing in the world is a matter of
+perfect indifference; what is heard and seen at the moment is an
+argument that no one can resist.
+
+I got my hint by the accident of some shelled corn being left on the
+ground before my window, and so attracting a four o'clock party,
+consisting of blackbirds, blue jays, and doves. I noticed the corn, but
+did not think of the pleasure it would give me, until the next morning,
+when I was awakened about four o'clock by loud and excited talk in
+blackbird tones, and hurried to the window, to find that I had half the
+birds of the neighborhood before me.
+
+Most in number, and most noisy, were the common blackbirds, who just at
+that time were feeding their young in a grove of evergreens back of the
+house, where they had set up their nurseries in a crowd, as is their
+custom. It is impossible to take this bird seriously, he is so
+irresistibly ludicrous. His manners always suggest to me the peculiar
+drollery of the negro; one of the old-fashioned sort, as we read of him,
+and I promised myself some amusement from the study of him at short
+range; I was not disappointed.
+
+My greeting as I took my seat at the open window, unfortunately without
+blinds to screen me, was most comical. A big pompous fellow turned his
+wicked-looking white eye upon me, drew himself into a queer humped-up
+position, with all his feathers on end, and apparently by a strong
+effort _squeezed_ out a husky and squeaky, yet loud cry of two notes,
+which sounded exactly like "Squee-gee!"
+
+I was so astounded that I laughed in his face; at which he repeated it
+with added emphasis, then turned his back on me, as unworthy of notice
+away up in my window, and gave his undivided attention to a specially
+large grain of corn which had been unearthed by a meek-looking neighbor,
+and appropriated by him, in the most lordly manner. His bearing at the
+moment was superb and stately in a degree of which only a bird who walks
+is capable; one cannot be dignified who is obliged to hop.
+
+I thought his greeting was a personal one to show contempt--which it did
+emphatically--to the human race in general, and to me in particular, but
+I found later that it was the ordinary blackbird way of being offensive;
+it was equivalent to "Get out!" or "Shut up!" or some other of the curt
+and rude expressions in use by bigger folk than blackbirds.
+
+If a bird alighted too near one of these arrogant fellows on the ground,
+he was met with the same expletive, and if he was about the same size
+he "talked back." The number and variety of utterances at their command
+was astonishing; I was always being surprised with a new one. Now a
+blackbird would fly across the lawn, making a noise exactly like a boy's
+tin trumpet, and repeating it as long as he was within hearing,
+regarding it, seemingly, as an exceptionally great feat. Again one would
+seize a kernel of corn, burst out with a convulsive cry, as if he were
+choking to death, and fly off with his prize, in imminent danger of his
+life, as I could not but feel.
+
+The second morning a youngster came with his papa to the feast, and he
+was droller, if possible, than his elders. He followed his parent
+around, with head lowered and mouth wide open, fairly bawling in a loud
+yet husky tone.
+
+The young blackbird does not appear in the glossy suit of his parents.
+His coat is rusty in hue, and his eye is dark, as is proper in youth. He
+is not at all backward in speaking his mind, and his sole desire at this
+period of his life being food, he demands it with an energy and
+persistence that usually insures success.
+
+In making close acquaintance with them, one cannot help longing to
+prescribe to the whole blackbird family something to clear their
+bronchial tubes; every tone is husky, and the student involuntarily
+clears his own throat as he listens.
+
+I was surprised to find the blackbirds so beautiful. When the sun was
+near setting, and struck across the grass its level rays, they were
+really exquisite; their heads a brilliant metallic blue, and all back of
+that rich bronze or purple, all over as glossy as satin. The little
+dames are somewhat smaller, and a shade less finely dressed than their
+bumptious mates; but that does not make them meek--far from it! and they
+are not behind their partners in eccentric freaks. Sometimes one would
+apparently attempt a joke by starting to fly, and passing so near the
+head of one of the dignitaries on the ground that he would involuntarily
+start and "duck" ingloriously. On one occasion a pair were working
+peaceably together at the corn, when she flirted a bit of dirt so that
+it flew toward him. He dashed furiously at her. She gave one hop which
+took her about a foot away, and then it appeared that she coveted a
+kernel of corn that was near him when the offense was given, for she
+instantly jumped back and pounced upon it as if she expected to be
+annihilated. He ran after her and drove her off, but she kept her prize.
+
+Eating one of those hard grains was no joke to anybody without teeth,
+and it was a serious affair to one of the blackbirds. He took it into
+his beak, dropped both head and tail, and gave his mind to the cracking
+of the sweet morsel. At this time he particularly disliked to be
+disturbed, and the only time I saw one rude to a youngster was when
+struggling with this difficulty. While feeding the nestlings, they broke
+the kernels into bits, picked up all the pieces, filling the beak the
+whole length, and then flew off with them.
+
+But they were not always allowed to keep the whole kernel. They were
+generally attended while on the ground by a little party of thieves,
+ready and waiting to snatch any morsel that was dropped. These were, of
+course, the English sparrows. They could not break corn, but they liked
+it for all that, so they used their wits to secure it, and of sharpness
+these street birds have no lack. The moment a blackbird alighted on the
+grass, a sparrow or two came down beside him, and lingered around,
+watching eagerly. Whenever a crumb dropped, one rushed in and snatched
+it, and instantly flew from the wrath to come.
+
+The sparrows had not been at this long before some of the wise
+blackbirds saw through it, and resented it with proper spirit. One of
+them would turn savagely after the sparrow who followed him, and the
+knowing rascal always took his departure. It was amusing to see a
+blackbird working seriously on a grain, all his faculties absorbed in
+the solemn question whether he should succeed in cracking his nut, while
+two or three feathered pilferers stood as near as they dared, anxiously
+waiting till the great work should be accomplished, the hard shell
+should yield, and some bits should fall.
+
+About five days after the feast was spread, the young came out in force,
+often two of them following one adult about on the grass, running after
+him so closely that he could hardly get a chance to break up the kernel;
+indeed, he often had to fly to a tree to prepare the mouthfuls for them.
+The young blackbird has not the slightest repose of manner; nor, for
+that matter, has the old one either. The grown-ups treated the young
+well, almost always; they never "squee-gee'd" at them, never touched
+them in any way, notwithstanding they were so insistent in begging that
+they would chase an adult bird across the grass, calling madly all the
+time, and fairly force him to fly away to get rid of them.
+
+Once two young ones got possession of the only spot where corn was left,
+and so tormented their elders who came that they had to dash in and
+snatch a kernel when they wanted one. One of the old ones danced around
+these two babies in a little circle a foot in diameter, the infants
+turning as he moved, and ever presenting open beaks to him. It was one
+of the funniest exhibitions I ever saw. After going around half a dozen
+times, the baffled blackbird flew away without a taste.
+
+When the two had driven every one else off the ground by their
+importunities, one of them plucked up spirit to try managing the corn
+for himself. Like a little man he stopped bawling, and began exercising
+his strength on the sweet grain. Upon this his neighbor, instead of
+following his example, began to beg of him! fluttering his wings,
+putting up his beak, and almost pulling the corn out of the mouth of the
+poor little fellow struggling with his first kernel!
+
+Sometimes a young one drove his parent all over a tree with his
+supplications. Higher and higher would go the persecuted, with his
+tormentor scrambling, and half flying after, till the elder absolutely
+flew away, much put out.
+
+Long before this time the corn had been used up. But I could not bear to
+lose my morning entertainment, for all these things took place between
+four and six A. M.--so I made a trip to the village, and bought
+a bag of the much desired dainty, some handfuls of which I scattered
+every night after birds were abed, ready for the sunrise show.
+Blackbirds were not the only guests at the feast; there were the
+doves,--mourning, or wood-doves,--who dropped to the grass, serene as a
+summer morning, walking around in their small red boots, with mincing
+steps and fussy little bows. Blue jays, too, came in plenty, selected
+each his grain and flew away with it. Robins, seeing all the excitement,
+came over from their regular hunting-ground, but never finding anything
+so attractive as worms, they soon left.
+
+The corn feast wound up with a droll excitement. One day a child from
+the house took her doll out in the grass to play, set it up against a
+tree trunk, and left it there. It had long light hair which stood out
+around the head, and it did look rather uncanny, but it was amusing to
+see the consternation it caused. Blue jays came to trees near by, and
+talked in low tones to each other; then one after another swooped down
+toward it; then they all squawked at it, and finding this of no avail,
+they left in a body.
+
+The robins approached cautiously, two of them, calling constantly, "he!
+he! he!" One was determined not to be afraid, and came nearer and
+nearer, till within about a foot of the strange object and behind it,
+when suddenly he started as though shot, jumped back, and both flew in a
+panic.
+
+Soon after this a red-headed woodpecker alighted on the trunk of the
+elm, preparatory to helping himself to a grain of corn. The moment his
+eyes fell upon madam of the fluffy hair, he burst out with a loud, rapid
+woodpecker "chitter," gradually growing higher in key and louder in
+tone. The blue jay flew down from the nest across the yard, and another
+came from behind the house; both perched near and stared at him, and
+then began to talk in low tones. A robin came hastily over and gazed at
+the usually silent red-head, and apparently it was to all as strange a
+performance as it was to me, or possibly they recognized that it was a
+cry of warning against danger.
+
+After he had us all aroused, the bird suddenly fell to silence, and
+resumed his ordinary manner, but he did not go after corn. I suppose the
+harangue was addressed to the doll.
+
+That was the last scene in the first act of the corn feast, for the
+blackbirds had become so numerous and so noisy that they made morning
+hideous to the whole household, and I stopped the supplies for several
+days, till these birds ceased to expect anything, and so came no more,
+and then I spread a fresh breakfast-table for more interesting guests,
+whose manners and customs I studied for weeks.
+
+I was invariably startled wide awake on these mornings by a bird note,
+and sprang up, to see at one glance that
+
+ "Day had awakened all things that be,
+ The lark and the thrush, and the swallow free,"
+
+and that my party was already assembled; one or two cardinals--or
+redbirds, as they are often called--on the grass, with the usual
+attendance of English sparrows, and the red-headed woodpecker in the
+elm, surveying the lawn, and considering which of the trespassers he
+should fall upon. It was the work of one minute to get into my wraps and
+seat myself, with opera glass, at the wide-open window.
+
+My first discovery made, however, during the blackbird reign, was that
+four o'clock is the most lovely part of the day. All the dust of human
+affairs having settled during the hours of sleep, the air is fresh and
+sweet, as if just made; and generally, just before sunrise, the foliage
+is at perfect rest,--the repose of night still lingering, the world of
+nature as well as of men still sleeping.
+
+The first thing one naturally looks for, as birds begin to waken, is a
+morning chorus of song. True bird-lovers, indeed, long for it with a
+longing that cannot be told. But alas, every year the chorus is
+withdrawing more and more to the woods, every year it is harder to find
+a place where English sparrows are not in possession; and it is one of
+the most grievous sins of that bird that he spoils the song, even when
+he does not succeed in driving out the singer. A running accompaniment
+of harsh and interminable squawks overpowers the music of meadow-lark
+and robin, and the glorious song of the thrush is fairly murdered by it.
+One could almost forgive the sparrow his other crimes, if he would only
+lie abed in the morning; if he would occasionally listen, and not
+forever break the peace of the opening day with his vulgar brawling. But
+the subject of English sparrows is maddening to a lover of native birds;
+let us not defile the magic hour by considering it.
+
+The most obvious resident of the neighborhood, at four o'clock in the
+morning, was always the golden-winged woodpecker, or flicker. Though he
+scorned the breakfast I offered, having no vegetarian proclivities, he
+did not refuse me his presence. I found him a character, and an amusing
+study, and I never saw his tribe so numerous and so much at home.
+
+Though largest in size of my four o'clock birds, and most fully
+represented (always excepting the English sparrows), the golden-wing was
+not in command. The autocrat of the hour, the reigning power, was quite
+a different personage, although belonging to the woodpecker family. It
+was a red-headed woodpecker who assumed to own the lawn and be master of
+the feast. This individual was marked by a defect in plumage, and had
+been a regular caller since the morning of my arrival. During the
+blackbird supremacy over the corn supply he had been hardly more than a
+spectator, coming to the trunk of the elm and surveying the assembly of
+blue jays, doves, blackbirds, and sparrows with interest, as one looks
+down upon a herd with whom he has nothing in common. But when those
+birds departed, and the visitors were of a different character, mostly
+cardinals, with an occasional blue jay, he at once took the place he
+felt belonged to him--that of dictator.
+
+The Virginia cardinal, a genuine F. F. V., and a regular attendant at my
+corn breakfast, was a subject of special study with me; indeed, it was
+largely on his account that I had set up my tent in that part of the
+world. I had all my life known him as a tenant of cages, and it struck
+me at first as very odd to see him flying about freely, like other wild
+birds. No one, it seemed to me, ever looked so out of place as this
+fellow of elegant manners, aristocratic crest, and brilliant dress,
+hopping about on the ground with his exaggerated little hops, tail held
+stiffly up out of harm's way, and uttering sharp "tsips." One could not
+help the feeling that he was altogether too fine for this common
+work-a-day existence; that he was intended for show; and that a gilded
+cage was his proper abiding-place, with a retinue of human servants to
+minister to his comfort. Yet he was modest and unassuming, and appeared
+really to enjoy his life of hard work; varying his struggles with a
+kernel of hard corn on the ground, where his color shone out like a
+flower against the green, with a rest on a spruce-tree, where
+
+ "Like a living jewel he sits and sings;"
+
+and when he had finished his frugal meal, departing, if nothing hurried
+him, with a graceful, loitering flight, in which each wing-beat seemed
+to carry him but a few inches forward, and leave his body poised, an
+infinitesimal second for another beat. With much noise of fluttering
+wings he would start for some point, but appear not to care much whether
+he got there. He was never in haste unless there was something to hurry
+him, in which he differed greatly from some of the fidgety, restless
+personages I have known among the feathered folk.
+
+The woodpecker's way of making himself disagreeable to this
+distinguished guest, was to keep watch from his tree (an elm overlooking
+the supply of corn) till he came to eat, and then fly down, aiming for
+exactly the spot occupied by the bird on the ground. No one, however
+brave, could help "getting out from under," when he saw this tricolored
+whirlwind descending upon him. The cardinal always jumped aside, then
+drew himself up, crest erect, tail held at an angle of forty-five
+degrees, and faced the woodpecker, calm, but prepared to stand up for
+his right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of his breakfast. Sometimes
+they had a little set-to, with beaks not more than three inches apart,
+the woodpecker making feints of rushing upon his _vis-a-vis_, and the
+cardinal jumping up ready to clinch, if a fight became necessary. It
+never went quite so far as that, though they glared at each other, and
+the cardinal uttered a little whispered "ha!" every time he sprang up.
+
+The Virginian's deliberate manner of eating made peace important to him.
+He took a grain of hard corn in his mouth, lengthwise; then working his
+sharp-edged beak, he soon succeeded in cutting the shell of the kernel
+through its whole length. From this he went on turning it with his
+tongue, and still cutting with his beak, till the whole shell rolled out
+of the side of his mouth in one long piece, completely cleared from its
+savory contents.
+
+The red-head, on the contrary, took his grain of corn to a branch, or
+sometimes to the trunk of a tree, where he sought a suitable crevice in
+the bark or in a crotch, placed his kernel, hammered it well in till
+firm and safe, and then proceeded to pick off pieces and eat them
+daintily, one by one. Sometimes he left a kernel there, and I saw how
+firmly it was wedged in, when the English sparrow discovered his store,
+fell upon it, and dug it out. It was a good deal of work for a
+strong-billed, persistent sparrow to dislodge a grain thus placed. But
+of course he never gave up till he could carry it off, probably because
+he saw that some one valued it; for since he was unable to crack a grain
+that was whole, it must have been useless to him. Sometimes the
+woodpecker wedged the kernel into a crevice in the bark of the trunk,
+then broke it up, and packed the pieces away in other niches; and I have
+seen an English sparrow go carefully over the trunk, picking out and
+eating these tidbits. That, or something else, has taught sparrows to
+climb tree trunks, which they do, in the neighborhood I speak of, with
+as much ease as a woodpecker. I have repeatedly seen them go the whole
+length of a tall elm trunk; proceeding by little hops, aided by the
+wings, and using the tail for support almost as handily as a woodpecker
+himself.
+
+The red-head's assumption of being monarch of all he surveyed did not
+end with the breakfast-table; he seemed to consider himself guardian and
+protector of the whole place. One evening I was drawn far down on the
+lawn by a peculiar cry of his. It began with a singular performance
+which I have already described, a loud, rapid "chit-it-it-it-it,"
+increasing in volume and rising in pitch, as though he were working
+himself up to some deed of desperation. In a few minutes, however, he
+appeared to get his feelings under control, and dropped to a single-note
+cry, often repeated. It differed widely from his loud call, "wok! wok!
+wok!" still more from the husky tones of his conversation with others of
+his kind; neither was it like the war-cries with which he intimated to
+another bird that he was not invited to breakfast. I thought there must
+be trouble brewing, especially as mingled with it was an occasional
+excited "pe-auk!" of a flicker. When I reached the spot, I found a
+curious party, consisting of two doves and three flickers, assembled on
+one small tree, with the woodpecker on an upper branch, as though
+addressing his remarks to them.
+
+As I drew near the scene of the excitement, the doves flew, and then the
+golden-wings; but the red-head held his ground, though he stopped his
+cries when he saw help coming. In vain I looked about for the cause of
+the row; everything was serene. It was a beautiful quiet evening, and
+not a child, nor a dog, nor anything in sight to make trouble. The tree
+stood quite by itself, in the midst of grass that knew not the clatter
+of the lawn-mower.
+
+I stood still and waited; and I had my reward, for after a few minutes'
+silence I saw a pair of ears, and then a head, cautiously lifted above
+the grass, about fifteen feet from the tree. The mystery was solved; it
+was a cat, whom all birds know as a creature who will bear watching when
+prowling around the haunts of bird families. I am fond of pussy, but I
+deprecate her taste for game, as I do that of some other hunters, wiser
+if not better than she. I invited her to leave this place, where she
+plainly was unwelcome, by an emphatic "scat!" and a stick tossed her
+way. She instantly dropped into the grass and was lost to view; and as
+the woodpecker, whose eyes were sharper and his position better than
+mine, said no more, I concluded she had taken the hint and departed.
+
+
+
+
+IX.
+
+THE LITTLE REDBIRDS.
+
+
+When the little redbirds began to visit the lawn there were exciting
+times. At first they ventured only to the trees overlooking it; and the
+gayly dressed father who had them in charge reminded me of nothing so
+much as a fussy young mother. He was alert to the tips of his toes, and
+excited, as if the whole world was thirsting for the life of those
+frowzy-headed youngsters in the maple. His manner intimated that nobody
+ever had birdlings before; indeed, that there never had been, or could
+be, just such a production as that young family behind the leaves. While
+they were there, he flirted his tail, jerked himself around, crest
+standing sharply up, and in every way showed his sense of importance and
+responsibility.
+
+As for the young ones, after they had been hopping about the branches a
+week or so, and papa had grown less madly anxious if one looked at them,
+they appeared bright and spirited, dressed in the subdued and tasteful
+hues of their mother, with pert little crests and dark beaks. They were
+not allowed on the grass, and they waited patiently on the tree while
+their provider shelled a kernel and took it up to them. The cardinal
+baby I found to be a self-respecting individual, who generally waits in
+patience his parents' pleasure, though he is not too often fed. He is
+not bumptious nor self-assertive, like many others; he rarely teases,
+and is altogether a well-mannered and proper young person. After a
+while, as the youngsters learned strength and speed on the wing, they
+came to the table with the grown-ups, and then I saw there were three
+spruce young redbirds, all under the care of their gorgeous papa.
+
+No sooner did they appear on the ground than trouble began with the
+English-sparrow tribe. The grievance of these birds was that they could
+not manage the tough kernels. They were just as hungry as anybody, and
+just as well-disposed toward corn, but they had not sufficient strength
+of beak to break it. They did not, however, go without corn, for all
+that. Their game was the not uncommon one of availing themselves of the
+labor of others; they invited themselves to everybody's breakfast-table,
+though, to be sure, they had to watch their chances in order to secure a
+morsel, and escape the wrath of the owner thereof.
+
+The cardinal was at first a specially easy victim to this plot. He took
+the whole matter most solemnly, and was so absorbed in the work, that if
+a bit dropped, in the process of separating it from the shell, as often
+happened, he did not concern himself about it till he had finished what
+he had in his mouth, and then he turned one great eye on the ground, for
+the fragments which had long before been snatched by sparrows and gone
+down sparrow throats. The surprise and the solemn stare with which he
+"could hardly believe his eyes" were exceedingly droll. After a while he
+saw through their little game, and took to watching, and when a sparrow
+appeared too much interested in his operations, he made a feint of going
+for him, which warned the gamin that he would better look out for
+himself.
+
+It did not take these sharp fellows long to discover that the young
+redbird was the easier prey, and soon every youngster on the ground was
+attended by a sparrow or two, ready to seize upon any fragment that
+fell. The parent's way of feeding was to shell a kernel and then give it
+to one of the little ones, who broke it up and ate it. From waiting for
+fallen bits, the sparrows, never being repulsed, grew bolder, and
+finally went so far as actually to snatch the corn out of the young
+cardinals' beaks. Again and again did I see this performance: a sparrow
+grab and run (or fly), leaving the baby astonished and dazed, looking
+as if he did not know exactly what had happened, but sure he was in some
+way bereaved.
+
+One day, while the cardinal family were eating on the grass, the mother
+of the brood came to a tree near by. At once her gallant spouse flew up
+there and offered her the mouthful he had just prepared, then returned
+to his duties. She was rarely seen on the lawn, and I judged that she
+was sitting again.
+
+Sometimes, when the youngsters were alone on the ground, I heard a
+little snatch of song, two or three notes, a musical word or two of very
+sweet quality. The woodpecker, autocrat though he assumed to be, did not
+at first interfere with the young birds; but as they became more and
+more independent and grown up, he began to consider them fair game, and
+to come down on them with a rush that scattered them; not far, however;
+they were brave little fellows.
+
+At last, after four weeks of close attention, the cardinal made up his
+mind that his young folk were babies no longer, and that they were able
+to feed themselves. I was interested to see his manner of intimating to
+his young hopefuls that they had reached their majority. When one begged
+of him, in his gentle way, the parent turned suddenly and gave him a
+slight push. The urchin understood, and moved a little farther off; but
+perhaps the next time he asked he would be fed. They learned the lesson,
+however, and in less than two days from the first hint they became
+almost entirely independent.
+
+One morning the whole family happened to meet at table. The mother came
+first, and then the three young ones, all of whom were trying their best
+to feed themselves. At last came their "natural provider;" and one of
+the juveniles, who found the grains almost unmanageable, could not help
+begging of him. He gently but firmly drove the pleader away, as if he
+said, "My son, you are big enough to feed yourself." The little one
+turned, but did not go; he stood with his back toward his parent, and
+wings still fluttering. Then papa flew to a low branch of the
+spruce-tree, and instantly the infant followed him, still begging with
+quivering wings. Suddenly the elder turned, and I expected to see him
+annihilate that beggar, but, to my surprise, he fed him! He could not
+hold out against him! He had been playing the stern parent, but could
+not keep it up. It was a very pretty and very human-looking performance.
+
+A day or two after the family had learned to take care of themselves,
+the original pair, the parents of the pretty brood, came and went
+together to the field, while the younglings appeared sometimes in a
+little flock, and sometimes one alone; and from that time they were to
+be rated as grown-up and educated cardinals. A brighter or prettier trio
+I have not seen. I am almost positive there was but one family of
+cardinals on the place; and if I am right, those youngsters had been
+four weeks out of the nest before they took charge of their own food
+supply. From what I have seen in the case of other young birds, I have
+no doubt that is the fact.
+
+
+
+
+X.
+
+THE CARDINAL'S NEST.
+
+
+While I had been studying four o'clock manners, grave and gay, other
+things had happened. Most delightful, perhaps, was my acquaintance with
+a cardinal family at home. From the first I had looked for a nest, and
+had suffered two or three disappointments. One pair flaunted their
+intentions by appearing on a tree before my window, "tsipping" with all
+their might; she with her beak full of hay from the lawn below; he,
+eager and devoted, assisting by his presence. The important and
+consequential manner of a bird with building material in mouth is
+amusing. She has no doubt that what she is about to do is the very most
+momentous fact in the "Sublime Now" (as some college youth has it). Of
+course I dropped everything and tried to follow the pair, at a distance
+great enough not to disturb them, yet to keep in sight at least the
+direction they took, for they are shy birds, and do not like to be spied
+upon. But I could not have gauged my distance properly; for, though I
+thought I knew the exact cedar-tree she had chosen, I found, to my
+dismay and regret afterward, that no sign of a nest was there, or
+thereabout.
+
+Another pair went farther, and held out even more delusive hopes; they
+actually built a nest in a neighbor's yard, the family in the house
+maintaining an appearance of the utmost indifference, so as not to alarm
+the birds till they were committed to that nest. For so little does
+madam regard the labor of building, and so fickle is she in her fancies,
+that she thinks nothing of preparing at least two nests before she
+settles on one. The nest was made on a big branch of cedar, perhaps
+seven feet from the ground,--a rough affair, as this bird always makes.
+In it she even placed an egg, and then, for some undiscovered reason, it
+was abandoned, and they took their domestic joys and sorrows elsewhere.
+
+But now, at last, word came to me of an occupied nest to be seen at a
+certain house, and I started at once for it. It was up a shady country
+lane, with a meadow-lark field on one side, and a bobolink meadow on the
+other. The lark mounted the fence, and delivered his strange sputtering
+cry,--the first I had ever heard from him (or her, for I believe this is
+the female's utterance). But the dear little bobolink soared around my
+head, and let fall his happy trills; then suddenly, as Lowell
+delightfully pictures him,--
+
+ "Remembering duty, in mid-quaver stops,
+   Just ere he sweeps o'er rapture's tremulous brink,
+ And 'twixt the winrows most demurely drops,
+   A decorous bird of business, who provides
+   For his brown mate and fledglings six besides,
+ And looks from right to left, a farmer mid his crops."
+
+Nothing less attractive than a cardinal family could draw me away from
+these rival allurements, but I went on.
+
+The cardinal's bower was the prettiest of the summer, built in a
+climbing rose which ran riot over a trellis beside a kitchen door. The
+vine was loaded with buds just beginning to unfold their green wraps to
+flood the place with beauty and fragrance, and the nest was so carefully
+tucked away behind the leaves that it could not be seen from the front.
+Whether from confidence in the two or three residents of the cottage, or
+because the house was alone so many hours of the day,--the occupants
+being students, and absent most of the time,--the birds had taken no
+account of a window which opened almost behind them. From that window
+one could look into, and touch, if he desired, the little family. But no
+one who lived there did desire (though I wish to record that one was a
+boy of twelve or fourteen, who had been taught respect for the lives
+even of birds), and these birds became so accustomed to their human
+observers that they paid no attention to them.
+
+The female cardinal is so dainty in looks and manner, so delicate in all
+her ways, that one naturally expects her to build at least a neat and
+comely nest, and I was surprised to see a rough-looking affair, similar
+to the one already mentioned. This might be, in her case, because it was
+the third nest she had built that summer. One had been used for the
+first brood. The second had been seized and appropriated to their own
+use by another pair of birds. (As this was told me, and I cannot vouch
+for it, I shall not name the alleged thief.) This, the third, was made
+of twigs and fibres of bark,--or what looked like that,--and was
+strongly stayed to the rose stems, the largest of which was not bigger
+than my little finger, and most of them much smaller.
+
+On my second visit I was invited into the kitchen to see the family in
+the rosebush. It appeared that this was "coming-off" day, and one little
+cardinal had already taken his fate in his hands when I arrived, soon
+after breakfast. He had progressed on the journey of life about one
+foot; and a mere dot of a fellow he looked beside his parents, with a
+downy fuzz on his head, which surrounded it like a halo, and no sign of
+a crest. The three nestlings still at home were very restless,
+crowding, and almost pushing each other out. They could well spare their
+elder brother, for before he left he had walked all over them at his
+pleasure; and how he could help it in those close quarters I do not see.
+
+While I looked on, papa came with provisions. At one time the food
+consisted of green worms about twice as large as a common knitting
+needle. Three or four of them he held crosswise of his beak, and gave
+one to each nestling. The next course was a big white grub, which he did
+not divide, but gave to one, who had considerable difficulty in
+swallowing it.
+
+I said the birds did not notice the family, but they very quickly
+recognized me as a stranger. They stood and glared at me in the cardinal
+way, and uttered some sharp remonstrance; but business was pressing, and
+I was unobtrusive, so they concluded to ignore me.
+
+The advent of the first redbird baby seemed to give much pleasure, for
+the head of the family sang a good deal in the intervals of feeding; and
+both of the pair appeared very happy over it, often alighting beside the
+wanderer, evidently to encourage him, for they did not always feed. The
+youngster, after an hour, perhaps, flew about ten feet to a peach-tree,
+where he struggled violently, and nearly fell before he secured a hold
+on a twig. Both parents flew to his assistance, but he did not fall, and
+soon after he flew to a grape trellis, and, with a little clambering, to
+a stem of the vine, where he seemed pleased to stay,--perhaps because
+this overlooked the garden whence came all his food.
+
+I stayed two or three hours with the little family, and then left them;
+and when I appeared the next morning all were gone from the nest. I
+heard the gentle cries of young redbirds all around, but did not try to
+look them up, both because I did not want to worry the parents, and
+because I had already made acquaintance with young cardinals in my four
+o'clock studies.
+
+The place this discerning pair of birds had selected in which to
+establish themselves was one of the most charming nooks in the vicinity.
+Kept free from English sparrows (by persistently destroying their
+nests), and having but a small and quiet family, it was the delight of
+cardinals and catbirds. Without taking pains to look for them, one might
+see the nests of two catbirds, two wood doves, a robin or two, and
+others; and there were beside, thickets, the delight of many birds, and
+a row of spruces so close that a whole flock might have nested there in
+security. In that spot "the quaintly discontinuous lays" of the catbird
+were in perfection; one song especially was the best I ever heard,
+being louder and more clear than catbirds usually sing.
+
+As I turned to leave the grounds, the relieved parent, who had not
+relished my interest in his little folk, mounted a branch, and,
+
+ "Like a pomegranate flower
+ In the dark foliage of the cedar-tree,
+ Shone out and sang for me."
+
+And thus I left him.
+
+
+
+
+XI.
+
+LITTLE BOY BLUE.
+
+ "The crested blue jay flitting swift."
+
+
+To know the little boy blue in his domestic life had been my desire for
+years. In vain did I search far and wide for a nest, till it began to
+look almost as if the bird intentionally avoided me. I went to New
+England, and blue jays disappeared as if by magic; I turned my steps to
+the Rocky Mountains, and the whole tribe betook itself to the
+inaccessible hills. In despair I abandoned the search, and set up my
+tent in the middle country, without a thought of the bonny blue bird.
+One June morning I seated myself by my window, which looked out upon a
+goodly stretch of lawn dotted with trees of many kinds, and behold the
+long-desired object right before my eyes!
+
+The blue jay himself pointed it out to me; unconsciously, however, for
+he did not notice me in my distant window. From the ground, where I was
+looking at him, he flew directly to a pine-tree about thirty feet high,
+and there, near the top, sat his mate on her nest. He leaned over her
+tenderly; she fluttered her wings and opened her mouth, and he dropped
+into it the tidbit he had brought. Then she stepped to a branch on one
+side, and he proceeded to attend to the wants of the young family, too
+small as yet to appear above the edge.
+
+The pine-tree, which from this moment became of absorbing interest, was
+so far from my window that the birds never thought of me as an observer,
+and yet so near that with my glass I could see them perfectly. It was
+also exactly before a thick-foliaged maple, that formed a background
+against which I could watch the life of the nest, wherever the sunlight
+fell, and whatever the condition of the sky; so happily was placed my
+blue jay household.
+
+I observed at once that the jay was very gallant and attentive to his
+spouse. The first mouthful was for her, even when babies grew clamorous,
+and she took her share of the work of feeding. Nor did he omit this
+little politeness when they went to the nest together, both presumably
+with food for the nestlings. She was a devoted mother, brooding her
+bantlings for hours every day, till they were so big that it was hard to
+crowd them back into the cradle; and he was an equally faithful father,
+working from four o'clock in the morning till after dusk, a good deal
+of the time feeding the whole family. I acquired a new respect for
+_Cyanocitta cristata_.
+
+I had not watched the blue jays long before I was struck with the
+peculiar character of the feathered world about me, the strange absence
+of small birds. The neighbors were blackbirds (purple grackles),
+Carolina doves, golden-winged and red-headed woodpeckers, robins and
+cardinal grosbeaks, and of course English sparrows,--all large birds,
+able to hold their own by force of arms, as it were, except the
+foreigner, who maintained his position by impudence and union, a mob
+being his weapon of offense and defense. Beside him no small bird lived
+in the vicinity. No vireo hung there her dainty cup, while her mate
+preached his interminable sermons from the trees about; no phoebe
+shouted his woes to an unsympathizing world; no sweet-voiced goldfinch
+poured out his joyous soul; not a song-sparrow tuned his little lay
+within our borders. Unseen of men, but no doubt sharply defined to
+clearer senses than ours, was a line barring them out.
+
+Who was responsible for this state of things? Could it be the one pair
+of jays in the pine, or the colony of blackbirds the other side of the
+house? Should we characterize it as a blue jay neighborhood or a
+blackbird neighborhood? The place was well policed, certainly; robins
+and blue jays united in that work, though their relations with each
+other bore the character of an armed neutrality, always ready for a few
+hot words and a little bluster, but never really coming to blows. We
+never had the pleasure of seeing a stranger among us. We might hear him
+approaching, nearer and nearer, till, just as the eager listener fancied
+he might alight in sight, there would burst upon the air the screech of
+a jay or the war-cry of a robin, accompanied by the precipitate flight
+of the whole clan, and away would go the stranger in a most sensational
+manner, followed by outcries and clamor enough to drive off an army of
+feathered brigands. This neighborhood, if the accounts of his character
+are to be credited, should be the congenial home of the
+kingbird,--tyrant flycatcher he is named; but as a matter of fact, not
+only were the smaller flycatchers conspicuous by their absence, but the
+king himself was never seen, and the flying tribes of the insect world,
+so far as dull-eyed mortals could see, grew and flourished.
+
+Close scrutiny of every movement of wings, however, revealed one thing,
+namely, that any small bird who appeared within our precincts was
+instantly, without hesitation, and equally without unusual noise or
+special publicity, driven out by the English sparrow; and I became
+convinced that he, and he alone, was responsible for the presence of
+none but large birds, who could defy him.
+
+One of the prettiest sights about the pine-tree homestead was the way
+the jay went up to it. He never imitated the easy style of his mate, who
+simply flew to a branch below the three that held her treasure, and
+hopped up the last step. Not he; not so would his knightly soul mount to
+the castle of his sweetheart and his babies. He alighted much lower,
+often at the foot of the tree, and passed jauntily up the winding way
+that led to them, hopping from branch to branch, pausing on each, and
+circling the trunk as he went; now showing his trim violet-blue coat,
+now his demure Quaker-drab vest and black necklace; and so he ascended
+his spiral stair.
+
+There is nothing demure about the blue jay, let me hasten to say, except
+his vest; there is no pretension about him. He does not go around with
+the meek manners of the dove, and then let his angry passions rise, in
+spite of his reputation, as does that "meek and gentle" fellow-creature
+on occasion. The blue jay takes his life with the utmost seriousness,
+however it may strike a looker-on. While his helpmeet is on the nest, it
+is, according to the blue jay code, his duty, as well as it is plainly
+his pleasure, to provide her with food, which consequently he does;
+later, it is his province not only to feed, but to protect the family,
+which also he accomplishes with much noise and bluster. Before the young
+are out comes his hardest task, keeping the secret of the nest, which
+obliges him to control his naturally boisterous tendencies; but even in
+this he is successful, as I saw in the case of a bird whose mate was
+sitting in an apple-tree close beside a house. There, he was the soul of
+discretion, and so subdued in manner that one might be in the vicinity
+all day and never suspect the presence of either. All the comings and
+goings took place in silence, over the top of the tree, and I have
+watched the nest an hour at a time without being able to see a sign of
+its occupancy, except the one thing a sitting bird cannot hide, the
+tail. And, by the way, how providential--from the bird student's point
+of view--that birds have tails! They can, it is true, be narrowed to the
+width of one feather and laid against a convenient twig, but they cannot
+be wholly suppressed, nor drawn down out of sight into the nest with the
+rest of the body.
+
+When the young blue jays begin to speak for themselves, and their
+vigilant protector feels that the precious secret can no longer be kept,
+then he arouses the neighborhood with the announcement that here is a
+nest he is bound to protect with his life; that he is engaged in
+performing his most solemn duty, and will not be disturbed. His air is
+that so familiar in bigger folk, of daring the whole world to "knock a
+chip off his shoulder," and he goes about with an appearance of
+important business on hand very droll to see.
+
+The bearing of the mother of the pine-tree brood was somewhat different
+from that of her mate, and by their manners only could the pair be
+distinguished. Whatever may be Nature's reason for dressing the sexes
+unlike each other in the feathered world,--which I will leave for the
+wise heads to settle,--it is certainly an immense advantage to the
+looker-on in birddom. When a pair are facsimiles of each other, as are
+the jays, it requires the closest observation to tell them apart;
+indeed, unless there is some defect in plumage, which is not uncommon,
+it is necessary to penetrate their personal characteristics, to become
+familiar with their idiosyncrasies of habit and manner. In the pine-tree
+family, the mother had neither the presence of mind nor the bluster of
+the partner of her joys. When I came too near the nest tree, she greeted
+me with a plaintive cry, a sort of "craw! craw!" at the same time
+"jouncing" herself violently, thus protesting against my intrusion;
+while he saluted me with squawks that made the welkin ring. Neither of
+them paid any attention to me, so long as I remained upon a stationary
+bench not far from their tree; they were used to seeing people in that
+place, and did not mind them. It was the unexpected that they resented.
+Having established our habits, birds in general insist that we shall
+govern ourselves by them, and not depart from our accustomed orbit.
+
+On near acquaintance, I found the jay possessed of a vocabulary more
+copious than that of any other bird I know, though the flicker does not
+lack variety of expression. When some aspiring scientist is ready to
+study the language of birds, I advise him to experiment with the blue
+jay. He is exceedingly voluble, always ready to talk, and not in the
+least backward in exhibiting his accomplishments. The low-toned,
+plaintive sounding conversation of the jays with each other, not only
+beside the nest, but when flying together or apart, or in brief
+interviews in the lilac bush, pleased me especially, because it was
+exactly the same prattle that a pet blue jay was accustomed to address
+to me; and it confirmed what I had always believed from his manner, that
+it was his most loving and intimate expression, the tone in which he
+addresses his best beloved.
+
+Beside the well-known squawk, which Thoreau aptly calls "the brazen
+trump of the impatient jay," the shouts and calls and war-cries of the
+bird can hardly be numbered, and I have no doubt each has its definite
+meaning. More rarely may be heard a clear and musical two-note cry,
+sounding like "ke-lo! ke-lo!" This seems to be something special in the
+jay language, for not only is it peculiar and quite unlike every other
+utterance, but I never saw the bird when he delivered it, and I was long
+in tracing it home to him. Aside from the cries of war and victory, jays
+have a great variety of notes of distress; they can put more anguish and
+despair into their tones than any other living creature of my
+acquaintance. Some, indeed, are so moving that the sympathetic hearer is
+sure that, at the very least, the mother's offspring are being murdered
+before her eyes; and on rushing out, prepared to risk his life in their
+defense, he finds, perhaps, that a child has strayed near the tree, or
+something equally dreadful has occurred. Jays have no idea of relative
+values; they could not make more ado over a heart-breaking calamity than
+they do over a slight annoyance. Some of their cries, notably that of
+the jay baby, sound like the wail of a human infant. As to one curious
+utterance in the jay _repertoire_, I could not quite make up my mind
+whether it was a real call to arms, or intended as a joke on the
+neighborhood. When a bird, without visible provocation, suddenly burst
+out with this loud two-note call, instantly every feathered individual
+was on the alert,--sprang to arms, as it were. Blue jays joined in,
+robins hurried to the tops of the tallest trees and added their excited
+notes, with jerking wings and tail, and at the second or third
+repetition the whole party precipitated itself as one bird--upon what?
+Nothing that I could discover.
+
+
+
+
+XII.
+
+STORY OF THE NESTLINGS.
+
+
+While I was studying the manners and customs of the bird in blue, babies
+were growing up in the pine-tree nest. Five days after I began to
+observe, I saw little heads above the edge. On the sixth day they began,
+as mothers say, to "take notice," stirring about in a lively way,
+clambering up into sight, and fluttering their draperies over the edge.
+Now came busy and hungry times in the jay family; the mother added her
+forces, and both parents worked industriously from morning till night.
+
+On the seventh day I was up early, as usual, and, also as usual, my
+first act was to admire the view from my window. I fancied it was the
+most beautiful in the early morning, when the sun, behind the rampart of
+locust and other trees, threw the yard into deep shade, painting a
+thousand shadow pictures on the grass; but at still noon, when every
+perfect tree stood on its own shadow, openings looked dark and
+mysterious, and a bird was lost in the depths, then I was sure it was
+never so lovely; again at night, when wrapped in darkness, and all
+silent except the subdued whisper of the pine, with its
+
+     "Sound of the Sea,
+     O mournful tree,
+ In thy boughs forever clinging,"
+
+I knew it could not be surpassed. I was up early, as I said, when the
+dove was cooing to his mate in the distance, and before human noises had
+begun, and then I heard the baby cry from the pine-tree,--a whispered
+jay squawk, constantly repeated.
+
+On this day the first nestling mounted the edge of his high nursery, and
+fluttered his wings when food approached. Every night after that it grew
+more and more difficult to settle the household in bed, for everybody
+wanted to be on top; and no sooner would one arrange himself to his mind
+than some "under one," not relishing his crushed position, would
+struggle out, step over his brothers and sisters, and take his place on
+top, and then the whole thing would have to be done over. I think that
+mamma had often to put a peremptory end to these difficulties by sitting
+down on them, for frequently it was a very turbulent-looking nest when
+she calmly placed herself upon it.
+
+Often, in those days, I wished I could put myself on a level with that
+little castle in the air, and look into it, filled to the brim with
+beauty as I knew it was. But I had not long to wait, for speedily it
+became too full, and ran over into the outside world. On the eighth day
+one ambitious youngster stepped upon the branch beside the nest and
+shook himself out, and on the ninth came the plunge into the wide, wide
+world. While I was at breakfast he made his first effort, and on my
+return I saw him on a branch about a foot below the nest, the last step
+on papa's winding stair. Here he beat his wings and plumed himself
+vigorously, rejoicing, no doubt, in his freedom and in plenty of room.
+Again and again he nearly lost his balance, in his violent attempts to
+dress his beautiful plumage, and remove the last remnant of nest
+mussiness. But he did not fall, and at last he began to look about him.
+One cannot but wonder what he thought when he
+
+ "First opened wondering eyes and found
+ A world of green leaves all around,"
+
+looking down upon us from his high perch, complete to the little black
+necklace, and lacking only length of tail of being as big as his
+parents.
+
+After half an hour of restless putting to rights, the little jay sat
+down patiently to wait for whatever might come to him. The wind got up
+and shook him well, but he rocked safely on his airy seat. Then some one
+approached. He leaned over with mouth open, and across the yard I heard
+his coaxing voice. But alas! though he was on the very threshold, the
+food-bearer omitted that step, and passed him by. Then the little one
+looked up wistfully, apparently conscious of being at a disadvantage.
+Did he regret the nest privileges he had abandoned? Should he retrace
+his steps and be a nestling? That the thought passed through his head
+was indicated by his movements. He raised himself on his legs, turned
+his face to his old home, and started up, even stepped one small twig
+nearer. But perish the thought! he would not go back! He settled himself
+again on his seat.
+
+All things come in time to him who can wait, and the next provision
+stopped at the little wanderer. His father alighted beside him and fed
+him two mouthfuls. Thus fortified, his ambition was roused, and his
+desire to see more, to do more. He began to jump about on his perch,
+facing first this way, then that; he crept to the outer end of the
+branch he was on, and was lost to view behind a thick clump of pine
+needles. In a few minutes he returned, considered other branches near,
+and, after some study, did really go to the nearest one. Then, step by
+step, very deliberately, he mounted the winding stair of his father,
+using, however, every little twig that the elder had vaulted over at a
+bound. Finally he reached the branch opposite his birthplace, only the
+tree-trunk between. The trunk was small, home was invitingly near, he
+was tired; the temptation was too great, and in a minute he was cuddled
+down with his brothers, having been on a journey of an hour. In the
+nest, all this time, there had been a hurry and skurry of dressing, as
+though the house were to be vacated, and no one wished to be late. After
+a rest and probably a nap, the ambitious young jay took a longer trip:
+he flew to the next tree, and, I believe, returned no more.
+
+The next day was spent by all the nestlings in hopping about the three
+branches on which their home was built, making beautiful pictures of
+themselves every moment; but whenever the bringer of supplies drew near,
+each little one hastened to scramble back to the nest, to be ready for
+his share. The last day in the old home had now arrived. One by one the
+birdlings flew to the maple, and turned their backs on their native tree
+forever; and that night the "mournful tree" was entirely deserted.
+
+The exit was not accomplished without its excitement. After tea, as I
+was congratulating myself that they were all safely out in the world,
+without accident, suddenly there arose a terrible outcry, robin and blue
+jay voices in chorus. I looked over to the scene of the fray, and saw a
+young jay on the ground, and the parents frantic with anxiety.
+Naturally, my first impulse was to go to their aid, and I started; but I
+was saluted with a volley of squawks that warned me not to interfere. I
+retired meekly, leaving the birds to deal with the difficulty as they
+best could, while from afar I watched the little fellow as he scrambled
+around in the grass. He tried to fly, but could not rise more than two
+feet. Both the elders were with him, but seemed unable to help him, and
+night was coming on. I resolved, finally, to "take my life in my hands,"
+brave those unreasoning parents, and place the infant out of the way of
+cats and boys.
+
+As I reached the doorstep I saw that the youngster had begun to climb
+the trunk of a locust-tree. I stood in amazement and saw that baby climb
+six feet straight up the trunk. He did it by flying a few inches,
+clinging to the bark and resting, then flying a few inches more. I
+watched, breathless, till he got nearly to the lowest branch, when alas!
+his strength or his courage gave out, and he fell back to the ground.
+But he pulled himself together, and after a few minutes more of
+struggling through the grass he came to the trunk of the maple next his
+native pine. Up this he went in the same way, till he reached a branch,
+where I saw him sitting with all the dignity of a young jay (old jays
+have no dignity). While he was wrestling with fate and his life was in
+the balance, the parents had kept near him and perfectly silent, unless
+some one came near, when they filled the air with squawks, and appeared
+so savage that I honestly believe they would have attacked any one who
+had tried to lend a hand.
+
+But still the little blue-coat had not learned sufficient modesty of
+endeavor, for the next morning he found himself again in the grass. He
+tried climbing, but unfortunately selected a tree with branches higher
+than he could hold out to reach; so he fell back to the ground. Then
+came the inexorable demands of breakfast, with which no one who has been
+up since four o'clock will decline to comply. On my return, the
+straggler was mounted on a post that held a tennis net, three or four
+feet from the ground. One of the old birds was on the rope close by him,
+and there I left them. Once more I saw him fall, but I concluded that
+since he had learned to climb, and the parents would not accept my
+assistance any way, he must take care of himself. I suppose he was the
+youngest of the brood, who could not help imitating his elders, but was
+not strong enough to do as they did. On the following day he was able to
+keep his place, and he came to the ground no more.
+
+From that day I saw, and, what was more evident, heard the jay babies
+constantly, though they wandered far from the place of their birth.
+Their voices waxed stronger day by day; from morning to night they
+called vigorously; and very lovely they looked as they sat on the
+branches in their brand-new fluffy suits, with their tails a little
+spread, and showing the snowy borderings beautifully. Twenty-two days
+after they bade farewell to the old home before my window they were
+still crying for food, still following their hard-working parents, and,
+though flying with great ease, never coming to the ground (that I could
+see), and apparently having not the smallest notion of looking out for
+themselves.
+
+
+
+
+XIII.
+
+BLUE JAY MANNERS.
+
+
+Early in my acquaintance with the jay family, wishing to induce the
+birds of the vicinity to show themselves, I procured a quantity of
+shelled corn, and scattered a few handfuls under my window every night.
+This gave me opportunity to note, among other things, the jay's way of
+conducting himself on the ground, and his table manners. To eat a kernel
+of dry corn, he flew with it to a small branch, placed it between his
+feet (the latter of course being close together), and, holding it thus,
+drew back his head and delivered a blow with that pickaxe beak of his
+that would have broken a toe if he had missed by the shadow of an inch
+the grain for which it was intended. I was always nervous when I saw him
+do it, for I expected an accident, but none ever happened that I know
+of. When the babies grew clamorous all over the place, the jay used to
+fill his beak with the whole kernels. Eight were his limit, and those
+kept the mouth open, with one sticking out at the tip. Thus loaded he
+flew off, but was back in two minutes for another supply. The
+red-headed woodpecker, who claimed to own the corn-field, seemed to
+think this a little grasping, and protested against such a wholesale
+performance; but the overworked jay simply jumped to one side when he
+came at him, and went right on picking up corn. When he had time to
+spare from his arduous duties, he sometimes indulged his passion for
+burying things by carrying a grain off on the lawn with an air of most
+important business, and driving it into the ground, hammering it well
+down out of sight.
+
+The blue jay's manner of getting over the ground was peculiar, and
+especially his way of leaving it. He proceeded by high hops, bounding up
+from each like a rubber ball; and when ready to fly he hopped farther
+and bounded higher each time, till it seemed as if he were too high to
+return, and so took to his wings. That is exactly the way it looked to
+an observer; for there is a lightness, an airiness of bearing about this
+apparently heavy bird impossible to describe, but familiar to those who
+have watched him.
+
+Some time after the blue jay family had taken to roaming about the
+grounds, I had a pleasing little interview with one of them in the
+raspberry patch. This was a favorite resort of the neighboring birds,
+where I often betook myself to see who came to the feast. This morning
+I was sitting quietly under a spruce-tree, when three blue jays came
+flying toward me with noise and outcries, evidently in excitement over
+something. The one leading the party had in his beak a white object,
+like a piece of bread, and was uttering low, complaining cries as he
+flew; he passed on, and the second followed him; but the third seemed
+struck by my appearance, and probably felt it his duty to inquire into
+my business, for he alighted on a tree before me, not ten feet from
+where I sat. He began in the regular way, by greeting me with a squawk;
+for, like some of his bigger (and wiser?) fellow-creatures, he assumed
+that a stranger must be a suspicious personage, and an unusual position
+must mean mischief. I was very comfortable, and I thought I would see if
+I could not fool him into thinking me a scarecrow, companion to those
+adorning the "patch" at that moment. I sat motionless, not using my
+glass, but looking him squarely in the eyes. This seemed to impress him;
+he ceased squawking, and hopped a twig nearer, stopped, turned one
+calmly observant eye on me, then quickly changed to the other, as if to
+see if the first had not deceived him. Still I did not move, and he was
+plainly puzzled to make me out. He came nearer and nearer, and I moved
+only my eyes to keep them on his. All this time he did not utter a
+sound, but studied me as closely, and to all appearances as carefully,
+as ever I had studied him. Obviously he was in doubt what manner of
+creature it was, so like the human race, yet so unaccountably quiet. He
+tried to be unconcerned, while still not releasing me from strict
+surveillance; he dressed his feathers a little, uttering a soft whisper
+to himself, as if he said, "Well, I never!" then looked me over again
+more carefully than before. This pantomime went on for half an hour or
+more; and no one who had looked for that length of time into the eyes of
+a blue jay could doubt his intelligence, or that he had his thoughts and
+his well-defined opinions, that he had studied his observer very much as
+she had studied him, and that she had not fooled him in the least.
+
+The little boy blue is one of the birds suffering under a bad name whom
+I have wished to know better, to see if perchance something might be
+done to clear up his reputation a bit. I am not able to say that he
+never steals the eggs of other birds, though during nearly a month of
+hard work, when, if ever, a few eggs would have been a welcome addition
+to his resources, and sparrows were sitting in scores on the place, I
+did not see or hear anything of the sort. I have heard of his destroying
+the nest, and presumably eating the eggs or young of the English
+sparrow, but the hundred or two who raised their broods and squawked
+from morning to night in the immediate vicinity of the pine-tree
+household never intimated that they were disturbed, and never showed
+hostility to their neighbors in blue. Moreover, there is undoubtedly
+something to be said on the jay's side. Even if he does indulge in these
+little eccentricities, what is he but a "collector"? And though he does
+not claim to be working "in the interest of science," which bigger
+collectors invariably do, he is working in the interest of life, and
+life is more than science. Even a blue jay's life is to him as precious
+as ours to us, and who shall say that it is not as useful as many of
+ours in the great plan?
+
+The only indications of hostilities that I observed in four weeks' close
+study, at the most aggressive time of bird life, nesting-time, I shall
+relate exactly as I saw them, and the record will be found a very modest
+one. In this case, certainly, the jay was no more offensive than the
+meekest bird that has a nest to defend, and far less belligerent than
+robins and many others. On one occasion a strange blue jay flew up to
+the nest in the pine. I could not discover that he had any evil
+intention, except just to see what was going on, but one of the pair
+flew at him with loud cries, which I heard for some time after the two
+had disappeared in the distance, and when our bird returned, he perched
+on an evergreen, bowing and "jouncing" violently, his manner plainly
+defying the enemy to "try it again." At another time I observed a savage
+fight, or what looked like it, between two jays. I happened not to see
+the beginning, for I was particularly struck that morning with the
+behavior of a bouquet of nasturtiums which stood in a vase on my table.
+I never was fond of these flowers, and I noticed then for the first time
+how very self-willed and obstinate they were. No matter how nicely they
+were arranged, it would not be an hour before the whole bunch was in
+disorder, every blossom turning the way it preferred, and no two looking
+in the same direction. I thought, when I first observed this, that I
+must be mistaken, and I took them out and rearranged them as I
+considered best; but the result was always the same, and I began to feel
+that they knew altogether too much for their station in the vegetable
+world. I was trying to see if I could discover any method in their
+movements, when I was startled by a flashing vision of blue down under
+the locusts, and, on looking closely, saw two jays flying up like
+quarrelsome cocks,--only not together, but alternately, so that one was
+in the air all the time. They flew three feet high, at least, all their
+feathers on end, and looking more like shapeless masses of blue feathers
+than like birds. They did not pause or rest till one seemed to get the
+other down. I could not see from my window well enough to be positive,
+but both were in the grass together, and only one in sight, who stood
+perfectly quiet. He appeared to be holding the other down, for
+occasionally there would be a stir below, and renewed vigilance on the
+part of the one I could see. Several minutes passed. I became very
+uneasy. Was he killing him? I could stand it no longer, so I ran down.
+But my coming was a diversion, and both flew. When I reached the place,
+one had disappeared, and the other was hopping around the tree in great
+excitement, holding in his beak a fluffy white feather about the size of
+a jay's breast feather. I did not see the act, and I cannot absolutely
+declare it, but I have no doubt that he pulled that feather from the
+breast of his foe as he held him down; how many more with it I could not
+tell, for I did not think of looking until it was too late.
+
+Again one day, somewhat later, when blue jay and catbird babies were
+rather numerous, I saw a blue jay dive into a lilac bush much frequented
+by catbirds, young and old together. Instantly there arose a great cry
+of distress, as though some one were hurt, and a rustling of leaves,
+proclaiming that a chase, if not a fight, was in progress. I hurried
+downstairs, and as I appeared the jay flew, with two catbirds after him,
+still crying in a way I had never heard before. I expected nothing less
+than to find a young catbird injured, but I found nothing. Whether the
+blue jay really had touched one, or it was a mere false alarm on the
+part of the very excitable catbirds, I could not tell. This is the only
+thing I have seen in the jay that might have been an interference with
+another bird's rights; and the catbirds made such a row when I came near
+their babies that I strongly suspect the only guilt of the jay was
+alighting in the lilac they had made their headquarters.
+
+The little boy blue in the apple-tree, already spoken of, did not get
+his family off with so little adventure as his pine-tree neighbor. The
+youngling of this nest came to the ground and stayed there. The people
+of the house returned him to the tree several times, but every time he
+fell again. Three or four days he wandered about the neighborhood, the
+parents rousing the country with their uproar, and terrorizing the
+household cat to such a point of meekness that no sooner did a jay begin
+to squawk than he ran to the door and begged to come in. At last, out of
+mercy, the family took the little fellow into the house, when they saw
+that he was not quite right in some way. One side seemed to be nearly
+useless; one foot did not hold on; one wing was weak; and his breathing
+seemed to be one-sided. The family, seeing that he could not take care
+of himself, decided to adopt him. He took kindly to human care and human
+food, and before the end of a week had made himself very much at home.
+He knew his food provider, and the moment she entered the room he rose
+on his weak little legs, fluttered his wings violently, and presented a
+gaping mouth with the jay baby cry issuing therefrom. Nothing was ever
+more droll than this sight. He was an intelligent youngster, knew what
+he wanted, and when he had had enough. He would eat bread up to a
+certain point, but after that he demanded cake or a berry, and his
+favorite food was an egg. He was exceedingly curious about all his
+surroundings, examined everything with great care, and delighted to look
+out of the window. He selected his own sleeping-place,--the upper one of
+a set of bookshelves,--and refused to change; and he watched the
+movements of a wounded woodcock as he ran around the floor with as much
+interest as did the people. Under human care he grew rapidly stronger,
+learned to fly more readily and to use his weak side; and every day he
+was allowed to fly about in the trees for hours. Once or twice, when
+left out, he returned to the house for food and care; but at last came a
+day when he returned no more. No doubt he was taken in charge again by
+his parents, who, it was probable, had not left the neighborhood.
+
+After July came in, and baby blue jays could hardly be distinguished
+from their parents, my studies took me away from the place nearly all
+day, and I lost sight of the family whose acquaintance had made my June
+so delightful.
+
+
+
+
+XIV.
+
+THE GREAT CAROLINIAN.
+
+
+All through June of that summer I studied the birds in the spacious
+inclosure around my "Inn of Rest." But as that month drew near its end,
+
+ "The happy birds that change their sky
+ To build and brood, that live their lives
+ From land to land,"
+
+almost disappeared. Blue jay babies wandered far off, where I could hear
+them it is true, but where--owing to the despair into which my
+appearance threw the whole jay family--I rarely saw them; orchard and
+Baltimore orioles had learned to fly, and carried their ceaseless cries
+far beyond my hearing; catbirds and cardinals, doves and golden-wings,
+all had raised their broods and betaken themselves wherever their fancy
+or food drew them, certainly without the bounds of my daily walks. It
+was evident that I must seek fresh fields, or remove my quarters to a
+more northerly region, where the sun is less ardent and the birds less
+in haste with their nesting.
+
+Accordingly I sought a companion who should also be a guide, and turned
+my steps to the only promising place in the vicinity, a deep ravine,
+through which ran a little stream that was called a river, and dignified
+with a river's name, yet rippled and babbled, and conducted itself
+precisely like a brook.
+
+The Glen, as it was called, was a unique possession for a common
+work-a-day village in the midst of a good farming country. Long ago
+would its stately trees have been destroyed, its streamlet set to
+turning wheels, and Nature forced to express herself on those many
+acres, in corn and potatoes, instead of her own graceful and varied
+selection of greenery; or, mayhap, its underbrush cut out, its slopes
+sodded, its springs buried in pipes and put to use, and the whole
+"improved" into dull insipidity,--all this, but for the will of one man
+who held the title to the grounds, and rated it so highly, that, though
+willing to sell, no one could come up to his terms. Happy delusion! that
+blessed the whole neighborhood with an enchanting bit of nature
+untouched by art. Long may he live to keep the deeds in his possession,
+and the grounds in their own wild beauty.
+
+The place was surrounded by bristling barbed fences, and trespassers
+were pointedly warned off, so when one had paid for the privilege, and
+entered the grounds, he was supposed to be safe from intrusion, except
+of others who had also bought the right. The part easily accessible to
+hotel and railroad station was the scene of constant picnics, for which
+the State is famous, but that portion which lay near my place of study
+was usually left to the lonely kingfisher--and the cows. There the shy
+wood dwellers set up their households, and many familiar upland birds
+came with their fledglings; that was the land of promise for
+bird-lovers, and there one of them decided to study.
+
+We began with the most virtuous resolves. We would come at five o'clock
+in the morning; we would catch the birds at their breakfast. We did; it
+was a lovely morning after a heavy rain, on which we set out to explore
+the ravine for birds. The storm in passing had taken the breeze with it,
+and not a twig had stirred since. Every leaf and grass blade was loaded
+with rain-drops. Walking in the grass was like wading in a stream; to
+touch a bush was to evoke a shower. But though our shoes were wet
+through, and our garments well sprinkled, before we reached the barbed
+fence, over or under or through or around which we must pass to our
+goal, we would not be discouraged; we went on.
+
+As to the fence, let me, in passing, give my fellow drapery-bearers a
+hint. Carry a light shawl, or even a yard of muslin, to lay across the
+wire you can step over (thus covering the mischievous barbs), while a
+good friend holds up with strong hand the next wire, and you slip
+through. Thus you may pass this cruel device of man without accident.
+
+Having circumvented the fence, the next task was to descend the steep
+sides of the ravine. The difficulty was, not to get down, for that could
+be done almost anywhere, but to go right side up; to land on the feet
+and not on the head was the test of sure-footedness and climbing
+ability. We conquered that obstacle, cautiously creeping down rocky
+steps, and over slippery soil, steadying ourselves by bushes, clasping
+small tree-trunks, scrambling over big ones that lay prone upon the
+ground, and thus we safely reached the level of the stream. Then we
+passed along more easily, stooping under low trees, crossing the beds of
+tiny brooks, encircling clumps of shrubbery (and catching the night's
+cobwebs on our faces), till we reached a fallen tree-trunk that seemed
+made for resting. There we seated ourselves, to breathe, and to see who
+lived in the place.
+
+One of the residents proclaimed himself at once,
+
+                     "To left and right
+ The cuckoo told his name to all the hills,"--
+
+and in a moment we saw him, busy with his breakfast. His manner of
+hunting was interesting; he stood perfectly still on a branch, his beak
+pointed upward, but his head so turned that one eye looked downward.
+When something attracted him, he almost fell off his perch, seized the
+morsel as he passed, alighted on a lower branch, and at once began
+looking around again. There was no frivolity, no flitting about like a
+little bird; his conduct was grave and dignified, and he was absolutely
+silent, except when at rare intervals he mounted a branch and uttered
+his call, or song, if one might so call it. He managed his long tail
+with grace and expression, holding it a little spread as he moved about,
+thus showing the white tips and "corners."
+
+While we were absorbed in cuckoo affairs the sun peeped over the trees,
+and the place was transfigured. Everything, as I said, was charged with
+water, and looking against the sun, some drops hanging from the tip of a
+leaf glowed red as rubies, others shone out blue as sapphires, while
+here and there one scintillated with many colors like a diamond, now
+flashing red, and now yellow or blue.
+
+               "The humblest weed
+ Wore its own coronal, and gayly bold
+ Waved jeweled sceptre."
+
+In that spot we sat an hour, and saw many birds, with whom it was
+evidently a favorite hunting-ground. But no one seemed to live there;
+every one appeared to be passing through; and realizing as we did, that
+it was late in the season, our search for nests in use was rather
+half-hearted anyway. As our breakfast-time drew near we decided to go
+home, having found nothing we cared to study. Just as we were taking
+leave of the spot I heard, nearly at my back, a gentle scolding cry, and
+glancing around, my eyes fell upon two small birds running down the
+trunk of a walnut sapling. A few inches above the ground one of the pair
+disappeared, and the other, still scolding, flew away. I hastened to the
+spot--and there I found my great Carolinian.
+
+The nest was made in a natural cavity in the side of a stump six or
+eight inches in diameter and a foot high. It seemed to be of moss,
+completely roofed over, and stooping nearer its level I saw the bird,
+looking flattened as if she had been crushed, but returning my gaze,
+bravely resolved to live or die with her brood. I noted her color, and
+the peculiar irregular line over her eye, and then I left her, though I
+did not know who she was. Nothing would have been easier than to put my
+hand over her door and catch her, but nothing would have induced me to
+do so--if I never knew her name. Time enough for formal introductions
+later in our acquaintance, I thought, and if it happened that we never
+met again, what did I care how she was named in the books?
+
+I did not at first even suspect her identity, for who would expect to
+find the great Carolina wren a personage of less than six inches! even
+though he were somewhat familiar with the vagaries of name-givers, who
+call one bird after the cat, whom he in no way resembles, and another
+after the bull, to whom the likeness is, if possible, still less. What
+was certain was that the nest belonged to wrens, and was admirably
+placed for study; and what I instantly resolved was to improve my
+acquaintance with the owners thereof.
+
+The little opening in the woods, which became the Wren's Court, when
+their rank was discovered, was a most attractive place, shaded enough to
+be pleasant, while yet leaving a goodly stretch of blue sky in sight,
+bounded on one side by immense forest trees--walnut, butternut, oak, and
+others--which looked as if they had stood there for generations; on the
+other side, the babbling stream, up and down which the kingfisher flew
+and clattered all day. One way out led to the thicket where a
+wood-thrush was sitting in a low tree, and the other, by the Path
+Difficult, up to the world above. The seat, across the court from the
+nest, had plainly been arranged by some kind fate on purpose for us. It
+was the trunk of a tree, which in falling failed to quite reach the
+ground, and so had bleached and dried, and it was shaded and screened
+from observation by vigorous saplings which had sprung up about it. The
+whole was indeed an ideal nook, well worthy to be named after its
+distinguished residents.
+
+Thoreau was right in his assertion that one may see all the birds of a
+neighborhood by simply waiting patiently in one place, and into that
+charming spot came "sooner or later" every bird I had seen in my
+wanderings up and down the ravine. There sang the scarlet tanager every
+morning through July, gleaming among the leaves of the tallest trees,
+his olive-clad spouse nowhere to be seen, presumably occupied with
+domestic affairs. There the Acadian flycatcher pursued his calling,
+fluttering his wings and uttering a sweet little murmur when he
+alighted. Into that retired corner came the cries of flicker and blue
+jay from the high ground beyond. On the edge sang the indigo-bird and
+the wood-pewee, and cardinal and wood-thrush song formed the chorus to
+all the varied notes that we heard.
+
+Upon our entrance the next morning, my first glance at the nest was one
+of dismay--the material seemed to be pulled out a little. Had it been
+robbed! had some vagabond squirrel thrust lawless paws into the little
+home! I looked closely; no, there sat, or rather there lay the little
+mother. But she did not relish this second call. She flew, fluttering
+and trailing on the ground, as if hurt, hoping, of course, to attract us
+away from her nest. Seeing that of no avail, however, which she quickly
+did, she retreated to a low branch, threw back her head, and uttered a
+soft "chur-r-r," again and again repeated, doubtless to her mate. But
+that personage did not make his appearance, and we examined the nest.
+There were five eggs, white, very thickly and evenly specked with fine
+dots of dark color. An end of one that stuck up was plain white, perhaps
+the others were the same; we did not inquire too closely, for what did
+we care for eggs, except as the cradles of the future birds?
+
+Very soon we retired to our seat across the court and became quiet, to
+wait for what might come. Suddenly, with almost startling effect,
+
+ "A bird broke forth and sung
+ And trilled and quavered and shook his throat."
+
+It was a new voice to us, loud and clear, and the song, consisting of
+three clauses, sounded like "Whit-e-ar! Whit-e-ar! Whit-e-ar!" then a
+pause, and the same repeated, and so on indefinitely. It came nearer and
+still nearer, and in a moment we saw the bird, a tiny creature,
+red-brown on the back, light below--the image of the little sitter in
+the stump, as we remarked with delight; we hoped he was her mate. He did
+not seem inclined to go to the nest, but stayed on a twig of a dead
+branch which hung from a large tree near by.
+
+While the stranger was pouring out his rhapsody, head thrown back, tail
+hanging straight down, and wings slightly drooped, I noticed a movement
+by the nest, and fixed my eyes upon that. The little dame had stolen out
+of her place, and now began the ascent of the sapling which started out
+one side of her small stump. Up the trunk she went with perfect ease,
+running a few steps, and then pausing a moment before she took the next
+half-dozen. She did not go bobbing up like a woodpecker, nor did she
+steady herself with her tail, like that frequenter of tree-trunks; she
+simply ran up that almost perpendicular stick as a fly runs up the wall.
+Meanwhile her mate, if that he were, kept up his ringing song, till she
+reached the top of the sapling, perhaps seven or eight feet high, and
+flew over near him. In an instant the song ceased, and the next moment
+two small birds flew over our heads, and we heard chatting and
+churring, and then silence.
+
+Without this hint from the wren we should rarely have seen her leave the
+nest; we should naturally have watched for wings, and none might come or
+go, while she was using her feet instead. She returned in the same way;
+flying to the top, or part way up her sapling, she ran down to her nest
+as glibly as she had run up. The walnut-trunk was the ladder which led
+to the outside world. This pretty little scene was many times repeated,
+in the days that we spent before the castle of our Carolinians; the male
+announcing himself afar with songs, and approaching gradually, while his
+mate listened to the notes that had wooed her, and now again coaxed her
+away from her sitting, for a short outing with him. Sometimes, though
+rarely, she came out without this inducement, but during her sitting
+days she usually went only upon his invitation.
+
+Before many days we had fully identified the pair. The song had puzzled
+me at first, for though extraordinary in volume for a bird of his size,
+and possessing that indefinable wren quality, that abandon and
+unexpectedness, as if it were that instant inspired, it had yet few
+notes, and I missed the exquisite tremolo that makes the song of the
+winter-wren so bewitching. But I "studied him up," and learned that his
+finest and most characteristic song is uttered in the spring only. After
+nesting has begun, he gives merely these musical calls, which, though
+delightful, do not compare--say the books--with his ante-nuptial
+performance. I was too late for that, but I was glad and thankful for
+these.
+
+Moreover, the wren varied his songs as the days went on. There were from
+two to five notes in a clause, never more, and commonly but three. This
+clause he repeated again and again during the whole of one visit; but
+the next time he came he had a new one, which likewise he kept to while
+he stayed. Again, when, some days later, he took part in feeding, he
+frequently changed the song as he left the nest. Struck by the variety
+he gave to his few notes, after some days I began to take them down in
+syllables as they expressed themselves to my ear, for they were sharp
+and distinct. Of course, these syllables resemble his sound about as a
+dried flower resembles the living blossom, but they serve the same
+purpose, to reproduce them in memory. In that way I recorded in three
+days eighteen different arrangements of his notes. Doubtless there were
+many more; indeed, he seemed to delight in inventing new combinations,
+and his taste evidently agreed with mine, for when he succeeded in
+evolving a particularly charming one, he did not easily change it. One
+that specially pleased me I put down as "Shame-ber-ee!" and this was his
+favorite, too, for after the day he began it, he sang it oftener than
+any other. It had a peculiarly joyous ring, the second note being a
+third below the first, and the third fully an octave higher than the
+second. I believe he had just then struck upon it, his enjoyment of it
+was so plain to see.
+
+The Wren's Court was a distracting spot to study one pair of small
+birds. So many others came about, and always, it seemed, in some crisis
+in wren affairs, when I dared not take my eyes from my glass, lest I
+lose the sequence of events. There appeared sometimes to be a thousand
+whispering, squealing, and smacking titmice in the trees over my head,
+and a whole regiment of great-crested flycatchers and others on one
+side. I was glad I was familiar with all the flicker noises, or I should
+have been driven wild at these moments, so many, so various, and so
+peculiar were their utterances; likewise thankful that I knew the row
+made by the jay on the bank above was not a sign of dire distress, but
+simply the tragic manner of the family.
+
+Again, when the wind blew, it was impossible to see the little folk
+that chattered and whispered and "dee-dee'd" overhead, and though we
+were absolutely certain a party of tufted tits and chickadees and black
+and white creepers, who always seemed to travel in company, were
+frolicking about, we could not distinguish them from the dancing and
+fluttering leaves.
+
+When the day was favorable, and the wren had gone his way, foraging in
+silence over the low ground at our back, and an old stump that stood
+there, and the sitter had settled herself in her nest for another half
+hour, we could look about at whoever happened to be there. Thus I made
+further acquaintance with the great-crested flycatcher. Hitherto I had
+known these birds only as they travel through a neighborhood not their
+own, appearing on the tops of trees, and crying out in martial tones for
+the inhabitants to bring on their fighters, a challenge to all whom it
+may concern. It was a revelation, then, to see them quietly at home like
+other birds, setting up claims to a tree, driving strangers away from
+it, and spending their time about its foot, seeking food near the
+ground, and indulging in frolics or fights, whichever they might be,
+with squealing cries and a rushing flight around their tree. In the
+latter part of our study, the great-crest babies were out, noisy little
+fellows, who insisted on being fed as peremptorily as their elders
+demand their rights and privileges.
+
+To make the place still more maddening for study, the birds seemed to
+sweep through the woods in waves. For a long time not a peep would be
+heard, not a feather would stir; then all at once
+
+ "The air would throb with wings,"
+
+and birds would pour in from all sides, half a dozen at a time, making
+us want to look six ways at once, and rendering it impossible to confine
+ourselves to one. Then, after half an hour of this superabundance, one
+by one would slip out, and by the time we began to realize it, we were
+alone again.
+
+We had watched the wren for nine days when there came an interruption.
+It happened thus: A little farther up the glen we had another study, a
+wood-thrush nest in a low tree, and every day, either coming or going,
+we were accustomed to spend an hour watching that. Our place of
+observation was a hidden nook in a pile of rocks, where we were entirely
+concealed by thick trees, through which, by a judicious thinning out of
+twigs and leaves, we had made peepholes, for the thrush mamma would not
+tolerate us in her sight. To reach our seats and not alarm the
+suspicious little dame, we always entered from the back, slowly and
+cautiously climbed the rocks by a rude path which already existed, and
+slipped in under cover of our leafy screen.
+
+On the morning of the tenth day we entered the ravine from the upper
+end, and made our first call upon the thrush. We had been seated in
+silence for ten or fifteen minutes, and I was beginning to get uneasy
+because no bird came to the nest, when a diversion occurred that drove
+thrush affairs out of our minds. We heard footsteps! It must be
+remembered that we were alone in this solitary place, far from a house,
+and naturally we listened eagerly. The steps drew nearer, and then we
+heard loud breathing. We exchanged glances of relief--it was a cow! But
+while we were congratulating ourselves began a crashing of branches, a
+fiercer breathing, a rush, and a low bellow!
+
+This was no meek cow! we turned pale,--at any rate we felt pale,--but we
+tried to encourage each other by suggesting in hurried whispers that he
+surely would not see us. Alas! the next instant he broke through the
+bushes, and to our horror started at once up our path to the rocks; in a
+moment he would be upon us! We rose hastily, prepared to sell our lives
+dearly, when, as suddenly as he had come, he turned and rushed back.
+Whether the sight of us was too much for his philosophy, or whether he
+had gone for reinforcements, we did not inquire. We instantly lost our
+interest in birds and birds' nests; we gathered up our belongings and
+fled, not stopping to breathe till we had put the barbiest of barbed
+wire fences between us and the foe.
+
+Once outside, however, we paused to consider: To give up our study was
+not to be thought of; to go every day in fear and dread was equally
+intolerable. I wrote to the authorities of whom I had purchased the
+right to enter the place. They promptly denied the existence of any such
+animal on the premises. I replied to the effect that "seeing is
+believing," but they reaffirmed their former statement, assuring me that
+there were none but harmless cows in the glen. I did not want to waste
+time in an unprofitable correspondence, and I did want to see the wrens,
+and at last a bright thought came,--I would hire an escort, a country
+boy used to cattle, and warranted not afraid of them. I inquired into
+the question of day's wages, I looked about among the college students
+who were working their way to an education, and I found an ideal
+protector,--an intelligent and very agreeable young man, brought up on a
+farm, and just graduated, who was studying up mathematics preparatory to
+school-teaching in the fall. The bargain was soon made, and the next
+morning we started again for the glen, our guardian armed with his
+geometry and a big club. Three days, however, had been occupied in
+perfecting this arrangement, and I approached the spot with anxiety;
+indeed, I am always concerned till I see the whole family I am watching,
+after only a night's interval, and know they have survived the many
+perils which constantly threaten bird-life, both night and day.
+
+
+
+
+XV.
+
+THE WRENLINGS APPEAR.
+
+
+The moment we entered the court I saw there was news. My eyes being
+attracted by a little commotion on a dogwood-tree, I saw a saucy tufted
+titmouse chasing with cries one of the wrens who had food in its beak.
+With most birds this proclaims the arrival of the young family as
+plainly as if a banner had been hung on the castle walls. Whether the
+tit was after the food, or trying to drive the wren off his own ground,
+we could not tell, nor did we much care; the important fact was that
+babies were out in the walnut-tree cottage. The food bearer went to the
+nest, and in a moment came up the ladder, so joyous and full of song
+that he could not wait to get off his own tree, but burst into a
+triumphant ringing "Whit-e-ar!" that must have told his news to all the
+world--who had ears to hear.
+
+The mother did not at once give up her brooding, nor did I wonder when I
+peeped into the nest while she was off with her spouse, and saw what
+appeared to be five big mouths with a small bag of skin attached to
+each. Nothing else could be seen. She sat an hour at a time, and then
+her mate would come and call her off for a rest and a change, while he
+skipped down the ladder and fed the bairns. His way in this matter, as
+in everything else, was characteristic. He never went to the nest till
+he had called her off by his song. It was not till several days later,
+when she had given up brooding, that I ever saw the pair meet at the
+nest, and then it seemed to be accidental, and one of them always left
+immediately.
+
+During the first few days the young parents came and went as of old, by
+way of the ladder, and I learned to know them apart by their way of
+mounting that airy flight of steps. He was more pert in manner, held his
+head and tail more jauntily, though he rarely pointed his tail to the
+sky, as do some of the wren family. He went lightly up in a dancing
+style which she entirely lacked, sometimes jumping to a small shoot that
+grew up quite near the walnut, and running up that as easily as he did
+the tree. Her ascent was of a business character; she was on duty, head
+and tail level with her body, no airs whatever. He was so full of
+happiness in these early days that frequently he could not take time to
+go to the top, but, having reached a height of two or three feet, he
+flew, and at once burst into rapturous song, even sang while flying
+over to the next tree. From this time they almost abandoned the ladder
+they had been so fond of, and flew directly to the nest from the ground,
+where they got all their food. This change was not because they were
+hard worked; I never saw birds who took family cares more easily. At the
+expiration of three days the mother brooded no more, and indeed it would
+have troubled her to find a place for herself, the nest was so full.
+
+Every morning on entering the court I called at the nest, and always
+found five yellow beaks turned to the front. On the third day the heads
+were covered with slate-colored down; on the fourth, wing-feathers began
+to show among the heads, but the body was still perfectly bare; on the
+fifth, the eyes opened on the green world about them,--they were then
+certainly five days old, and may have been seven; owing to our
+unfortunate absence at the critical time I cannot be sure. On the
+seventh day the red-brown of the back began to show, and the white of
+the breast made itself visible, while the heads began to look feathery
+instead of fuzzy. Even then, however, they took no notice when I put my
+finger on them.
+
+Long before this time the manner of the parents had changed. In the
+first place, they were more busy; foraging industriously on the ground,
+coming within ten or fifteen feet of us, without appearing to see us at
+all. In fact they had, after the first day, paid no attention to us, for
+we never had disturbed them, never went to the nest till sure that both
+were away, and kept still and quiet in our somewhat distant seat.
+
+About this time they began to show more anxiety in their manner. The
+first exhibition was on the fourth day since we knew the young were
+hatched (and let me say that I _believe_ they were just out of the shell
+the morning that we found the father feeding). On this fourth day the
+singer perched near the nest-tree, three or four feet from the ground,
+and began a very loud wren "dear-r-r-r! dear-r-r-r! dear-r-r-r!"
+constantly repeated. He jerked himself about with great apparent
+excitement, looking always on the ground as if he saw an enemy there. We
+thought it might be a cat we had seen prowling about, but on examination
+no cat was there. Gradually his tone grew lower and lower, and he calmed
+down so far as a wren can calm, though he did not cease his cries. I did
+not know he could be still so long, but I learned more about wren
+possibilities in that line somewhat later.
+
+During this performance his mate came with food in her beak, and
+evidently saw nothing alarming, for she went to the nest with it. Still
+he stood gazing on the ground. Sometimes he flew down and returned at
+once, then began moving off, a little at a time, still crying, exactly
+as though he were following some one who went slowly. The call, when
+low, was very sweet and tender; very mournful too, and we got much
+wrought up over it, wishing--as bird students so often do--that we could
+do something to help. He was roused at last by the intrusion of a bird
+into his domain, and his discomfiture of this foe seemed to dispel his
+unhappy state of mind, for he at once broke out in joyous song, to our
+great relief. That was not the last exhibition of the wren's
+idiosyncrasy; he repeated it day after day, and finally he went so far
+as to interpolate low "dear-r-r's" into his sweetest songs. Perhaps that
+was his conception of his duty as protector to the family; if so, he was
+certainly faithful in doing it. It was ludicrously like the attitude of
+some people under similar circumstances.
+
+While the young father was manifesting his anxiety in this way, the
+mother showed hers in another; she took to watching, hardly leaving the
+place at all. When she had her babies well fed for the moment, she went
+up the trunk a little, in a loitering way that I had never seen her
+indulge in before,--and a loitering wren is a curiosity. It was plain
+that she simply wished to pass away the time. She stepped from the
+trunk upon a twig on one side, stayed a little while, then passed to one
+on the other side, lingered a few moments, and so she went on. When she
+arrived at the height of two feet she perched on a small dead twig, and
+remained a long time--certainly twenty minutes--absolutely motionless.
+It was hard to see her, and if I had not watched her progress from the
+first, I should not have suspected her presence. A leaf would hide her,
+even the crossing of two twigs was ample screen, and when she was still
+it was hopeless to look for her. The only way we were able to keep track
+of either of the pair was by their incessant motions.
+
+The Great Carolinian had a peculiar custom which showed that his coming
+with song was a ceremony he would not dispense with. He would often
+start off singing, gradually withdraw till fifty or seventy-five feet
+away, singing at every pause, and then, if one watched him closely, he
+might see him stop, drop to the ground, and hunt about in silence. When
+he was ready to come again, he would fly quietly a little way off, and
+then begin his singing and approaching, as if he had been a mile away.
+He never sang when on the ground after food, but so soon as he finished
+eating, he flew to a perch at least two feet high, generally between six
+and ten, and sometimes as high as twenty feet, and sang.
+
+After a day or two of the wren's singular uneasiness, we discovered at
+least one object of his concern. It was a chipmunk, whom we had often
+noticed perched on the highest point of the little ledge of rocks near
+the nest. He seemed to be attending strictly to his own affairs, but
+after a good deal of "dear-r-r"-ing, the wren flew furiously at him,
+almost, if not quite, hitting him, and doing it again and again. The
+little beast did not relish this treatment and ran off, the bird
+following and repeating the assault. This was undoubtedly the foe that
+he had been troubled about all the time.
+
+On the tenth or eleventh day of their lives (as I believe) I examined
+the babies in the nest a little more closely than before. I even touched
+them with my finger on head and beak. They looked sleepily at me, but
+did not resent it. If the mother were somewhat bigger, I should suspect
+her of giving them "soothing syrup," for they had exactly the appearance
+of being drugged. They were not overfed; I never saw youngsters so much
+let alone. The parents had nothing like the work of the robin, oriole,
+or blue jay. They came two or three times, and then left for half an
+hour or more, yet the younglings were never impatient for food.
+
+The morning that the young wrens had reached the age of twelve days
+(that we knew of) was the 22d of July, and the weather was intensely
+warm. On the 21st we had watched all day to see them go, sure that they
+were perfectly well able. Obviously it is the policy of this family to
+prepare for a life of extraordinary activity by an infancy of unusual
+stillness. Never were youngsters so perfectly indifferent to all the
+world. In storm or sunshine, in daylight or darkness, they lay there
+motionless, caring only for food, and even that showed itself only by
+the fact that all mouths were toward the front. The under one of the
+pile seemed entirely contented to be at the bottom, and the top ones not
+to exult in their position; in fact, so far as any show of interest in
+life was concerned, they might have been a nestful of wooden babies.
+
+On this morning, as we dragged ourselves wearily over the hot road to
+the ravine, we resolved that no handful of wrenlings should force us
+over that road again. Go off this day they should, if--as my comrade
+remarked--"we had to raise them by hand." My first call was at the nest,
+indifferent whether parents were there or not, for I had become
+desperate. There they lay, lazily blinking at me, and filling the nest
+overfull. The singer came rushing down a branch, bristled up,
+blustering, and calling "Dear-r-r-r!" at me, and I hoped he would be
+induced to hurry up his very leisurely brood.
+
+We took our usual seats and waited. Both parents remained near the
+homestead, and little singing was indulged in; this morning there was
+serious business on hand, as any one could see. We were desirous of
+seeing the first sign of movement, so we resolved to cut away the last
+few leaves that hid the entrance to the nest. We had not done it before,
+partly not to annoy the birds, and partly not to have them too easily
+discovered by prowlers.
+
+Miss R---- went to the stump, and cut away half a dozen leaves and twigs
+directly before their door. The young ones looked at her, but did not
+move. Then, as I had asked her to do, she pointed a parasol directly at
+the spot, so that I, in my distant seat, might locate the nest exactly.
+This seemed to be the last straw that the birdlings could endure; two of
+them flew off. One went five or six feet away, the other to the ground
+close by. Then she came away, and we waited again. In a moment two more
+ventured out and alighted on twigs near the nest. Then the mother came
+home, and acted as surprised as though she had never expected to have
+them depart. She went from a twig beside the tree to the nest, and back,
+about a dozen times, as if she really could not believe her eyes.
+
+Anxious to see everything that went on, we moved our seats nearer, but
+this so disconcerted the pair that we did not stay long. It was long
+enough to hear the wren baby-cry, a low insect-like noise, and to see
+something that surprised and no less disgusted me, namely, every one of
+those babies hurry back to the tree, climb the trunk, and scramble back
+into the nest!--the whole exit to be begun again! It could not be their
+dislike of the "cold, cold world," for a cold world would be a luxury
+that morning.
+
+Of any one who would go back into that crowded nest, with the
+thermometer on the rampage as it was then, I had my opinion, and I began
+to think I didn't care much about wrens anyway; we stayed, however, as a
+matter of habit, and I suppose they all had a nap after their tremendous
+exertion. But they manifestly got an idea into their heads at last, a
+taste of life. After a proper amount of consideration, one of the
+nestlings took courage to move again, and went so far as a twig that
+grew beside the door, looked around on the world from that post for a
+while, then hopped to another, and so on till he encircled the home
+stump. But when he came again in sight of that delectable nest, he could
+not resist it, and again he added himself to the pile of birds within.
+This youth was apparently as well feathered as his parents, and, except
+in length of tail, looked exactly like them; many a bird baby starts
+bravely out in life not half so well prepared for it as this little
+wren.
+
+After nearly three hours of waiting, we made up our minds that these
+young folk must be out some time during the day, unless they had decided
+to take up permanent quarters in that hole in the stump, and what was
+more to the point, that the weather was too warm to await their very
+deliberate movements. So we left them, to get off the best way they
+could without us, or to stay there all their lives, if they so desired.
+
+The nest, which at first was exceedingly picturesque--and I had resolved
+to bring it away, with the stump that held it--was now so demolished
+that I no longer coveted it. The last and sweetest song of the wren,
+"Shame-ber-ee!" rang out joyously as we turned our faces to the north,
+and bade a long farewell to the Great Carolinians.
+
+
+
+
+XVI.
+
+THE APPLE-TREE NEST.
+
+ All day long in the elm, on their swaying perches swinging,
+   New-fledged orioles utter their restless, querulous notes.
+
+ HARRIET PRESCOTT SPOFFORD.
+
+
+The little folk let out the secret, as little folk often do, and after
+they had called attention to it, I was surprised that I had not myself
+seen the pretty hammock swinging high up in the apple boughs.
+
+It was, however, in a part of the grounds I did not often visit, partly
+because the trees close by, which formed a belt across the back of the
+place, grew so near together that not a breath of air could penetrate,
+and it was intolerable in the hot June days, and partly because my
+appearance there always created a panic. So seldom did a human being
+visit that neglected spot, that the birds did not look for guests, and a
+general stampede followed the approach of one.
+
+On the eventful day of my happy discovery I was returning from my daily
+call upon a blue jay who had set up her home in an apple-tree in a
+neighbor's yard. The moment I entered the grounds I noticed a great
+outcry. It was loud; it was incessant; and it was of many voices.
+Following the sound, I started across the unmown field,
+
+ "Through the bending grasses,
+   Tall and lushy green,
+ All alive with tiny things,
+ Stirring feet and whirring wings
+   Just an instant seen,"
+
+and soon came in sight of the nest near the topmost twig of an old
+apple-tree.
+
+It was about noon of a bright, sunny day, and I could see only that the
+nest was straw-color, apparently run over with little ones, and both the
+parents were industriously feeding. The cries suggested the persistence
+of young orioles, but it was not a Baltimore's swinging cradle, and the
+old birds were so shy, coming from behind the leaves, every one of which
+turned itself into a reflector for the sunlight, that I could not
+identify them.
+
+Later in the day I paid them another visit, and finding a better post of
+observation under the shade of a sweet-briar bush, I saw at once they
+were orchard orioles, and that the young ones were climbing to the edge
+of the nest; I had nearly been too late!
+
+Four o'clock was the unearthly hour at which I rose next morning to
+pursue my acquaintance with the little family in the apple-tree, fearful
+lest they should get the start of me. The youngsters were calling
+vociferously, and both parents were very busy attending to their wants
+and trying to stop their mouths, when I planted my seat before their
+castle in the air, and proceeded to inquire into their manners and
+customs. My call was, as usual, not received with favor. The mother,
+after administering the mouthful she had brought, alighted on a twig
+beside the nest and gave me a "piece of her mind." I admitted my bad
+manners, but I could not tear myself away. The anxious papa, very
+gorgeous in his chestnut and black suit, scenting danger to the little
+brood in the presence of the bird-student with her glass, at once
+abandoned the business of feeding, and devoted himself to the protection
+of his family,--which indeed was his plain duty. His way of doing this
+was to take his position on the tallest tree in the vicinity, and fill
+the serene morning air with his cry of distress, a two-note utterance,
+with a pathetic inflection which could not fail to arouse the sympathy
+of all who heard it. It was not excited or angry, but it proclaimed that
+here was distress and danger, and it had the effect of making me ashamed
+of annoying him. But I hardened my heart, as I often have to do in my
+study, and kept my seat. Occasionally he returned to the lower part of
+his own tree, to see if the monster had been scared or shamed away, but
+finding me stationary, he returned to his post and resumed his mournful
+cry.
+
+At length the happy thought came to me that I might select a position a
+little less conspicuous, yet still within sight, so I moved my seat
+farther off, away back under a low-branched apple-tree, where a redbird
+came around with sharp "tsip's" to ascertain my business, and a catbird
+behind the briar-bush entertained me with delicious song. The oriole
+accepted my retirement as a compromise, and returned to his domestic
+duties, coming, as was natural and easiest, on my side of the tree. His
+habit was to cling to the side of the nest, showing his black and
+red-gold against it, while his mate alighted on the edge, and was seen a
+little above it. After feeding, both perched on neighboring twigs and
+looked about for a moment before the next food-hunting trip. I thought
+the father of the family exhibited an air of resignation, as if he
+concluded that, since the babies made so much noise, there was no use in
+trying longer to preserve the secret.
+
+As a matter of fact, both our orioles need a good stock of patience as
+well as of resignation, for the infants of both are unceasing in their
+cries, and fertile in inventing variations in manner and inflection,
+that would deceive those most familiar with them. Two or three times in
+the weeks that followed, I rushed out of the house to find some very
+distressed bird, who, I was sure, from the cries, must be impaled alive
+on a butcher-bird's meat-hook, or undergoing torture at the hands--or
+beak of somebody. It was rather dangerous going out at that time (just
+at dusk), for it was the chosen hour for young men and maidens, of whom
+there were several, to wander about under the trees. Often, before I
+gave up going out at that hour, my glass, turned to follow a flitting
+wing, would bring before my startled gaze a pair of sentimental young
+persons, who doubtless thought I was spying upon them. My only safety
+was in directing my glass into the trees, where nothing but wings could
+be sentimental, and if a bird flitted below the level of branches, to
+consider him lost. On following up the cry, I always found a young
+oriole and a hard-worked father feeding him. The voice did not even
+suggest an oriole to me, until I had been deceived two or three times
+and understood it.
+
+The young ones of the orchard oriole's nest lived up to the traditions
+of the family by being inveterate cry-babies, and making so much noise
+they could be heard far around. Sometimes their mother addressed them
+in a similar tone to their own, but the father resigned himself to the
+inevitable, and fed with dogged perseverance.
+
+The apple-tree nest looked in the morning sun of a bright flax color,
+and two of the young were mounted on the edge, dressing their yellow
+satin breasts, and gleaming in the sunshine like gold.
+
+A Baltimore oriole, passing over, seemed to be attracted by a familiar
+quality of sound, for he came down, alighted about a foot from the nest,
+and looked with interest upon the charming family scene. The protector
+of the pretty brood was near, but he kept his seat, and made no
+objections to the friendly call. Indeed, he flew away while the guest
+was still there, and having satisfied his curiosity, the Baltimore also
+departed upon his own business.
+
+When the sun appeared over the tree-tops, he came armed with all his
+terrors. The breeze dwindled and died; the very leaves hung lifeless on
+the trees, and though, knowing that
+
+ "Somewhere the wind is blowing,
+   Though here where I gasp and sigh
+ Not a breath of air is stirring,
+   Not a cloud in the burning sky,"
+
+the memory might comfort me, it did not in the slightest degree make me
+comfortable--I wilted, and retired before it. How the birds could
+endure it and carry on their work, I could not understand.
+
+At noon I ventured out over the burning grass. The first youngster had
+left the nest, and was shouting from a tree perhaps twenty feet beyond
+the native apple. The others were fluttering on the edge, crying as
+usual. As is the customary domestic arrangement with many birds, the
+moment the first one flew, the father stopped coming to the nest, and
+devoted himself to the straggler, which was a little hard on the mother
+that hot day, for she had four to feed.
+
+While I looked on, the second infant mustered up courage to start on the
+journey of life. A tall twig led from the nest straight up into the air,
+and this was the ladder he mounted. Step by step he climbed one
+leaf-stem after another, with several pauses to cry and to eat, and at
+last reached the topmost point, where he turned his face to the west,
+and took his first survey of the kingdoms of the earth. A brother
+nestling was close behind him, and the pretty pair, seeing no more steps
+above them, rested a while from their labors. In the mean time the first
+young oriole had gone farther into the trees, and papa with him.
+
+The little dame worked without ceasing, though it must have been an
+anxious time, with nestlings all stirring abroad. I noticed that she
+fed oftenest the birdlings who were out, whether to strengthen them for
+further effort, or to offer an inducement to those in the nest to come
+up higher where food was to be had, she did not tell. I observed, also,
+that when she came home she did not, as before, alight on the level of
+the little ones, but above them. Perhaps this was to coax them upward;
+at any rate, it had that effect: they stretched up and mounted the next
+stem above, and so they kept on ascending. About three o'clock I was
+again obliged to surrender to the power of the sun, and retire for a
+season to a place he could not enter, the house.
+
+Some hours passed before I made my next call, and I found that oriole
+matters had not rested, if I had; the two nestlings had taken flight to
+the tree the first one had chosen, and three were on the top twig above
+the nest, which latter swung empty and deserted. Mamma was feeding the
+three in her own tree, while papa attended as usual to the outsiders,
+and found leisure to drop in a song now and then.
+
+While I watched, number three took his life in his hands (as it were)
+and launched out upon the air. He reached a tree not so far away as his
+brothers had chosen, and his mother sought him out and fed him there.
+But he did not seem to be satisfied with his achievement, or possibly
+he found the position rather lonely; at any rate, the next use of his
+wings was to return to his native apple, to the lower part. During this
+visit, the mother of the little brood, seeing, I suppose, her labors
+growing lighter, indulged herself and delighted me with a scrap of song,
+very sweet, as the song of the female oriole always is.
+
+It was with forebodings that I approached the tree the next morning,
+foreboding speedily confirmed--the whole family was gone! Either I had
+not stayed late enough or I had not got up early enough to see the
+flitting; that song, then, meant something--it was my good-by.
+
+Indeed it turned out to be my farewell, as I thought, for the whole
+tribe seemed to have vanished. Usually it is not difficult to hunt up a
+little bird family in its wanderings, during the month following its
+leaving the nest, but this one I could neither see nor hear, and I was
+very sure those oriole babies had not so soon outgrown their crying;
+they must have been struck dumb or left the place.
+
+Nearly three weeks later I was wandering about in what was called the
+glen, half a mile or more from where the apple-tree babies had first
+seen the light. It was a wild spot, a ravine, through which ran a
+stream, where many wood-birds sang and nested. On approaching a
+linden-tree loaded with blossoms, and humming with swarms of bees, I was
+saluted with a burst of loud song, interspersed with scolding. No one
+but an orchard oriole could so mix things, and sure enough! there he
+was, scrambling over the flowers. Something he found to his taste,
+whether the blossoms or the insects, I could not decide. On waiting a
+little, I heard the young oriole cry, much subdued since nesting days,
+and the tender "ye-ep" of the parent. The whole family was evidently
+there together, and I was very glad to see them once more.
+
+The nest, which I had brought down, was a beautiful structure, made, I
+think, of very fine excelsior of a bright straw-color. It was suspended
+in an upright fork of four twigs, and lashed securely to three of them,
+while a few lines were passed around the fourth. Though it was in a
+fork, it did not rest on it, but was suspended three inches above it, a
+genuine hanging nest. It was three inches deep and wide, but drawn in
+about the top to a width of not more than two inches, with a bit of
+cotton and two small feathers for bedding. How five babies could grow up
+in that little cup is a problem. The material was woven closely
+together, and in addition stitched through and through, up and down, to
+make a firm structure. Around and against it hung still six apples,
+defrauded of their manifest destiny, and remaining the size of
+hickory-nuts. Three twigs that ran up were cut off, but the fourth was
+left, the tallest, the one sustaining the burden of the nest, and upon
+which the young birds, one after another, had mounted to take their
+first flight.
+
+This pretty hammock, in its setting of leaves and apples, still swinging
+from the apple boughs, I brought home as a souvenir of a charming bird
+study.
+
+
+
+
+XVII.
+
+CEDAR-TREE LITTLE FOLK.
+
+ 'T is there that the wild dove has her nest,
+   And whenever the branches stir,
+ She presses closer the eggs to her breast,
+   And her mate looks down on her.
+
+ CLARE BEATRICE COFFEY.
+
+
+One of the voices that helped to make my June musical, and one more
+constantly heard than any other, was that of the
+
+ "Mourning dove who grieves and grieves,
+ And lost! lost! lost! still seems to say,"
+
+as the poet has it.
+
+Now, while I dearly love the poets, and always long to enrich my plain
+prose with gems from their verse, it is sometimes a little embarrassing,
+because one is obliged to disagree with them. If they would only look a
+little into the ways of birds, and not assert, in language so musical
+that one can hardly resist it, that
+
+ "The birds come back to last year's nests,"
+
+when rarely was a self-respecting bird known to shirk the labor of
+building anew for every family; or sing, with Sill,
+
+ "He has lost his last year's love, I know,"
+
+when he did not know any such thing; and add,
+
+ "A thrush forgets in a year,"
+
+which I call a libel on one of our most intelligent birds; or cry, with
+another singer,
+
+ "O voiceless swallow,"
+
+when not one of the whole tribe is defrauded of a voice, and at least
+one is an exquisite singer; or accuse the nightingale of the superfluous
+idiocy of holding his (though they always say her) breast to a thorn as
+he sings, as if he were so foolish as to imitate some forms of human
+self-torture,--if they would only be a little more sure of their facts,
+what a comfort it would be to those who love both poets and birds!
+
+No bird in our country is more persistently misrepresented by our sweet
+singers than the Carolina or wood dove--mourning dove, as he is
+popularly called; and in this case they are not to be blamed, for prose
+writers, even natural history writers, are quite as bad.
+
+"His song consists," says one, "of four notes: the first seems to be
+uttered with an inspiration of the breath, as if the afflicted creature
+were just recovering its voice from the last convulsive sob of distress,
+and followed by three long, deep, and mournful moanings, that no person
+of sensibility can listen to without sympathy." "The solemn voice of
+sorrow," another writer calls it. All this is mere sentimentality, pure
+imagination; and if the writers could sit, as I have, under the tree
+when the bird was singing, they would change their opinion, though they
+would thereby lose a pretty and attractive sentiment for their verse. I
+believe there is
+
+ "No beast or bird in earth or sky,
+ Whose voice doth not with gladness thrill,"
+
+though it may not so express itself to our senses. Certainly the coo of
+the dove is anything but sad when heard very near. It has a rich,
+far-off sound, expressing deep serenity, and a happiness beyond words.
+
+First in the morning, and last at night, all through June, came to me
+the song of the dove. As early as four o'clock his notes began, and
+then, if I got up to look out on the lawn, where I had spread breakfast
+for him and other feathered friends, I would see him walking about with
+dainty steps on his pretty red toes, looking the pink of propriety in
+his Quaker garb, his satin vest smooth as if it had been ironed down,
+and quite worthy his reputed character for meekness and gentleness.
+
+But I wanted to see the dove far from the "madding crowd" of blackbirds,
+blue jays, and red-heads, who, as well as himself, took corn for
+breakfast, and I set out to look him up. At first the whole family
+seemed to consist of the young, just flying about, sometimes accompanied
+by their mother. Apparently the fathers of the race were all off in the
+cooing business.
+
+So early as the second of June I came upon my first pair of young doves,
+two charming little creatures, sitting placidly side by side. Grave,
+indeed, and very much grown-up looked these drab-coated little folk,
+silent and motionless, returning my gaze with an innocent openness that,
+it seemed to me, must disarm their most bitter enemy. When I came upon
+such a pair, as I frequently did, on the low branch of an apple-tree or
+a limb of their native cedar, I stopped instantly to look at them. Not
+an eyelid of the youngsters would move; if a head were turned as they
+heard me coming, it would remain at precisely that angle as long as I
+had patience to stay. They were invariably sitting down with the
+appearance of being prepared to stay all day, and almost always side by
+side, though looking in different directions, and one was always larger
+than the other. A lovely and picturesque group they never failed to
+make, and as for any show of hunger or impatience, one could hardly
+imagine they ever felt either. In every way they were a violent
+contrast to all their neighbors, the boisterous blue jays, lively
+catbirds, blustering robins, and vulgar-mannered blackbirds.
+
+Sometimes I chanced upon a mother sitting by her youngling, and although
+when I found her alone she always flew, beside her little charge she was
+dignified and calm in bearing, and looked at me with fearless eyes,
+relying, as it appeared, upon absolute stillness, and the resemblance of
+her color to the branches, to escape observation; a ruse which must
+generally be successful.
+
+The nest, the remains of which I often saw on the tree where I found an
+infant, was the merest apology, hardly more than a platform, just enough
+to hold the pair of eggs which they are said always to contain. Indeed,
+no baby but a serene dove, with the repose of thirty generations behind
+it, could stay in it till his wings grew. As it is, he must be forced to
+perch, whether ready or not, for the structure cannot hold together
+long. The wonder is that the eggs do not roll out before they are
+hatched.
+
+Several things made the bird an interesting subject for study; his
+reputation for meekness, his alleged silence,--except at wooing
+time,--and the halo of melancholy with which the poets have invested
+him. I resolved to make acquaintance with my gentle neighbor, and I
+sought and found a favorite retreat of the silent family. This was a
+grove away down in the southeast corner of the grounds, little visited
+by people, and beloved by birds of several kinds. Till June was half
+over, the high grass, that I could not bear to trample, prevented
+exploration in that direction, but as soon as it was cut I made a trip
+to the little grove, and found it a sort of doves' headquarters, and
+there, in many hours of daily study, I learned to know him a little, and
+respect him a good deal.
+
+It was a delightful spot the doves had chosen to live in, and so
+frequented by birds that whichever way I turned my face, in two minutes
+I wished I had turned it the other, or that I had eyes in the back of my
+head. With reason, too, for the residents skipped around behind me, and
+all the interesting things went on at my back. I could hear the flit of
+wings, low, mysterious sounds, whispering, gentle complaints and
+hushings, but if I turned--lo! the scene shifted, and the drama of life
+was still enacted out of my sight. Yet I managed, in spite of this
+difficulty, to learn several things I did not know before.
+
+No one attends to his own business more strictly than the dove. On the
+ground, where he came for corn, he seemed to see no other bird, and paid
+not the slightest heed to me in my window, but went about his own
+affairs in the most matter-of-fact way. Yet I cannot agree with the
+common opinion, which has made his name a synonym for all that is meek
+and gentle. He has a will of his own, and a "mild but firm" way of
+securing it. Sometimes, when all were busy at the corn, one of my
+Quaker-clad guests would take a notion, for what reason I could not
+discover, that some other dove must not stay, and he would drive him (or
+her) off. He was not rude or blustering, like the robin, nor did he make
+offensive remarks, after the manner of a blackbird; he simply signified
+his intention of having his neighbor go, and go he did, _nolens volens_.
+
+It was droll to see how this "meek and gentle" fellow met blackbird
+impudence. If one of the sable gentry came down too near a dove, the
+latter gave a little hop and rustled his feathers, but did not move one
+step away. For some occult reason the blackbird seemed to respect this
+mild protest, and did not interfere again.
+
+Would one suspect so solemn a personage of joking? yet what else could
+this little scene mean? A blackbird was on the ground eating, when a
+dove flew down and hovered over him as though about to alight upon him.
+It evidently impressed the blackbird exactly as it did me, for he
+scrambled out from under, very hastily. But the dove had no intention
+of the sort; he came calmly down on one side.
+
+The first dove baby who accompanied its parent to the ground to be fed
+was the model of propriety one would expect from the demure infant
+already mentioned. He stood crouching to the ground in silence,
+fluttering his wings a little, but making no sound, either of begging,
+or when fed. A blackbird came to investigate this youngster, so
+different from his importunate offspring, upon which both doves flew.
+
+There is a unique quality claimed for the dove: that with the exception
+of the well-known coo in nesting time he is absolutely silent, and that
+the noise which accompanies his flight is the result of a peculiar
+formation of the wing that causes a whistle. Of this I had strong
+doubts. I could not believe that a bird who has so much to say for
+himself during wooing and nesting time could be utterly silent the rest
+of the year; nor, indeed, do I believe that any living creature, so
+highly organized as the feathered tribes, can be entirely without
+expression.
+
+I thought I would experiment a little, and one day, observing that a
+young dove spent most of his time alone on a certain cedar-tree, where a
+badly used-up nest showed that he had probably been hatched, or feeding
+on the ground near it, I resolved to see if I could draw him out. I
+passed him six times a day, going and coming from my meals, and I always
+stopped to look at him--a scrutiny which he bore unmoved, in dove
+fashion. So one morning, when I stood three feet from him, I began a
+very low whistle to him. He was at once interested, and after about
+three calls he answered me, very low, it is true, but still
+unmistakably. Though he replied, however, it appeared to make him
+uneasy, for while he had been in the habit of submitting to my staring
+without being in any way disconcerted, he now began to fidget about. He
+stood up, changed his place, flew to a higher branch, and in a few
+moments to the next tree; all the time, however, answering my calls.
+
+I was greatly interested in my new acquaintance, and the next day I
+renewed my advances. As before, he answered, looking bright and eager,
+as I had never seen one of his kind look, and after three or four
+replies he became uneasy, as on the previous day, and in a moment he
+flew. But I was surprised and startled by his starting straight for me.
+I thought he would certainly alight on me, and such, I firmly believe,
+was his inclination, but he apparently did not quite dare trust me, so
+he passed over by a very few inches, and perched on the tree I was
+under. Then--still replying to me--he flew to the ground not six feet
+from me, and step by step, slowly moved away perhaps fifteen feet, when
+he turned and flew back to his own tree beside me. I was pleased to
+notice that the voice of this talkative dovekin was of the same quality
+as the "whistling" said to be of the wings, when a dove flies.
+
+The last interview I had with the dear baby, I found him sitting with
+his back toward me, but the instant I whistled he turned around to face
+me, and seated himself again. He replied to me, and fluttered his wings
+slightly, yet he soon became restless, as usual. He did not fly,
+however, and he answered louder than he had done previously, but I found
+that my call must be just right to elicit a response. I might whistle
+all day and he would pay no attention, till I uttered a two-note call,
+the second note a third above the first and the two slurred together. I
+was delighted to find that even a dove, and a baby at that, could "talk
+back." He was unique in other ways; for example, in being content to
+pass his days in, and around, his own tree. I do not believe he had ever
+been farther than a small group of cedars, ten feet from his own. I
+always found him there, though he could fly perfectly well. This
+interview was, I regret to say, the last; the next morning my little
+friend was nowhere to be seen. Perhaps mamma thought he was getting too
+friendly with one of a race capable of eating a baby dove.
+
+After this episode in my dove acquaintance, I was more than ever
+interested in getting at the mode of expression in the family, and I
+listened on every occasion. One day two doves alighted over my head when
+I was sitting perfectly still, and I distinctly heard very low talk,
+like that of my lost baby; there was, in addition, a note or two like
+the coo, but exceedingly low. I could not have heard a sound ten feet
+from the tree, nor if I had been stirring myself. I observed also that a
+dove can fly in perfect silence; and, moreover, that the whistle of the
+wings sometimes continues after the bird has become still. I heard the
+regular coo--the whole four-note performance--both in a whisper and in
+the ordinary tone, and the latter, though right over my head, sounded a
+mile away. At the end of my month's study I was convinced that the dove
+is far from being a silent bird; on the contrary, he is quite a talker,
+with the "low, sweet voice" so much desired in other quarters. And
+further, that the whistling is not produced wholly (if at all) by the
+wings, and it is a gross injustice to assert that he is not capable of
+expressing himself at all times and seasons.
+
+
+
+
+BESIDE THE GREAT SALT LAKE.
+
+
+
+
+ Up!--If thou knew'st who calls
+ To twilight parks of beach and pine
+ High o'er the river intervals,
+ Above the plowman's highest line,
+ Over the owner's farthest walls!
+ Up! where the airy citadel
+ O'erlooks the surging landscape's swell!
+
+ EMERSON.
+
+
+
+
+XVIII.
+
+IN A PASTURE.
+
+
+The word "pasture," as used on the shore of the Great Salt Lake, conveys
+no true idea to one whose associations with that word have been formed
+in States east of the Rocky Mountains. Imagine an extensive inclosure on
+the side of a mountain, with its barren-looking soil strewn with rocks
+of all sizes, from a pebble to a bowlder, cut across by an irrigating
+ditch or a mountain brook, dotted here and there by sage bushes, and
+patches of oak-brush, and wild roses, and one has a picture of a Salt
+Lake pasture. Closely examined, it has other peculiarities. There is no
+half way in its growths, no shading off, so to speak, as elsewhere; not
+an isolated shrub, not a solitary tree, flourishes in the strange soil,
+but trees and shrubs crowd together as if for protection, and the clump,
+of whatever size or shape, ends abruptly, with the desert coming up to
+its very edge. Yet the soil, though it seems to be the driest and most
+unpromising of baked gray mud, needs nothing more than a little water,
+to clothe itself luxuriantly; the course of a brook or even an
+irrigating ditch, if permanent, is marked by a thick and varied border
+of greenery. What the poor creatures who wandered over those dreary
+wastes could find to eat was a problem to be solved only by close
+observation of their ways.
+
+"H. H." said some years ago that the magnificent yucca, the glory of the
+Colorado mesas, was being exterminated by wandering cows, who ate the
+buds as soon as they appeared. The cattle of Utah--or their owners--have
+a like crime to answer for; not only do they constantly feed upon
+rose-buds and leaves, notwithstanding the thorns, but they regale
+themselves upon nearly every flower-plant that shows its head; lupines
+were the chosen dainty of my friend's horse. The animals become expert
+at getting this unnatural food; it is curious to watch the deftness with
+which a cow will go through a currant or gooseberry bush, thrusting her
+head far down among the branches, and carefully picking off the tender
+leaves, while leaving the stems untouched, and the matter-of-course way
+in which she will bend over and pull down a tall sapling, to despoil it
+of its foliage.
+
+In a pasture such as I have described, on the western slope of one of
+the Rocky Mountains, desolate and forbidding though it looked, many
+hours of last summer's May and June "went their way," if not
+
+ "As softly as sweet dreams go down the night,"
+
+certainly with interest and pleasure to two bird-students whose ways I
+have sometimes chronicled.
+
+Most conspicuous, as we toiled upward toward our breezy pasture, was a
+bird whose chosen station was a fence--a wire fence at that. He was a
+tanager; not our brilliant beauty in scarlet and black, but one far more
+gorgeous and eccentric in costume, having, with the black wings and tail
+of our bird, a breast of shining yellow and a cap of crimson. His
+occupation on the sweet May mornings that he lingered with us, on his
+way up the mountains for the summer, was the familiar one of getting his
+living, and to that he gave his mind without reserve. Not once did he
+turn curious eyes upon us as we sauntered by or rested awhile to watch
+him. Eagerly his pretty head turned this way and that, but not for us;
+it was for the winged creatures of the air he looked, and when one that
+pleased his fancy fluttered by he dashed out and secured it, returning
+to a post or the fence just as absorbed and just as eager for the next
+one. Every time he alighted it was a few feet farther down the fence,
+and thus he worked his way out of our sight, without seeming aware of
+our existence.
+
+This was not stupidity on the part of the crimson-head, nor was it
+foolhardiness; it was simply trust in his guardian, for he had one,--one
+who watched every movement of ours with close attention, whose vigilance
+was never relaxed, and who appeared, when we saw her, to be above the
+need of food. A plain personage she was, clad in modest, dull
+yellow,--the female tanager. She was probably his mate; at any rate, she
+gradually followed him down the fence, keeping fifteen or twenty feet
+behind him, all the time with an eye on us, ready to give warning of the
+slightest aggressive movement on our part. It would be interesting to
+know how my lord behaves up in those sky-parlors where their summer
+homes are made. No doubt he is as tender and devoted as most of his race
+(all his race, I would say, if Mr. Torrey had not shaken our faith in
+the ruby-throat), and I have no doubt that the little red-heads in the
+nest will be well looked after and fed by their fly-catching papa.
+
+Far different from the cool unconcern of the crimson-headed tanager were
+the manners of another red-headed dweller on the mountain. The
+green-tailed towhee he is called in the books, though the red of his
+head is much more conspicuous than the green of his tail. In this bird
+the high-bred repose of his neighbor was replaced by the most fussy
+restlessness. When we surprised him on the lowest wire of the fence, he
+was terribly disconcerted, not to say thrown into a panic. He usually
+stood a moment, holding his long tail up in the air, flirted his wings,
+turned his body this way and that in great excitement, then hopped to
+the nearest bowlder, slipped down behind it, and ran off through the
+sage bushes like a mouse. More than this we were never able to see, and
+where he lived and how his spouse looked we do not know to this day.
+
+Most interesting of the birds that we saw on our daily way to the
+pasture were the gulls; great, beautiful, snowy creatures, who looked
+strangely out of place so far away from the seashore. Stranger, too,
+than their change of residence was their change of manners from the
+wild, unapproachable sea-birds, soaring and diving, and apparently
+spending their lives on wings such as the poet sings,--
+
+ "When I had wings, my brother,
+   Such wings were mine as thine;"
+
+and of whose lives he further says,--
+
+ "What place man may, we claim it,
+ But thine,--whose thought may name it?
+ Free birds live higher than freemen,
+ And gladlier ye than we."
+
+From this high place in our thoughts, from this realm of poetry and
+mystery, to come down almost to the tameness of the barnyard fowl is a
+marvelous transformation, and one is tempted to believe the solemn
+announcement of the Salt Lake prophet, that the Lord sent them to his
+chosen people.
+
+The occasion of this alleged special favor to the Latter Day Saints was
+the advent, about twenty years ago, of clouds of grasshoppers, before
+which the crops of the Western States and Territories were destroyed as
+by fire. It was then, in their hour of greatest need, when the food upon
+which depended a whole people was threatened, that these beautiful
+winged messengers appeared. In large flocks they came, from no one knows
+where, and settled, like so many sparrows, all over the land, devouring
+almost without ceasing the hosts of the foe. The crops were saved, and
+all Deseret rejoiced. Was it any wonder that a people trained to regard
+the head of their church as the direct representative of the Highest
+should believe these to be really birds of God, and should accordingly
+cherish them? Well would it be for themselves if other Christian peoples
+were equally believing, and protected and cherished other winged
+messengers, sent just as truly to protect their crops.
+
+The shrewd man who wielded the destinies of his people beside the Salt
+Lake secured the future usefulness of what they considered the
+miraculous visitation by fixing a penalty of five dollars upon the head
+of every gull in the Territory. And now, the birds having found
+congenial nesting-places on solitary islands in the lake, their
+descendants are so fearless and so tame that they habitually follow the
+plow like a flock of chickens, rising from almost under the feet of the
+indifferent horses and settling down at once in the furrow behind,
+seeking out and eating greedily all the worms and grubs and larvae and
+mice and moles that the plow has disturbed in its passage. The Mormon
+cultivator has sense enough to appreciate such service, and no man or
+boy dreams of lifting a finger against his best friend.
+
+Extraordinary indeed was this sight to eyes accustomed to seeing every
+bird who attempts to render like service shot and snared and swept from
+the face of the earth. Our hearts warmed toward the "Sons of Zion," and
+our respect for their intelligence increased, as we hurried down to the
+field to see this latter-day wonder.
+
+Whether the birds distinguished between "saints" and sinners, or whether
+their confidence extended only to plow-boys, they would not let us come
+near them. But our glasses brought them close, and we had a very good
+study of them, finding exceeding interest in their ways: their quaint
+faces as they flew toward us; their dignified walk; their expression of
+disapproval, lifting the wings high above the back till they met; their
+queer and constant cries in the tone of a child who whines; and, above
+all, their use of the wonderful wings,--"half wing, half wave," Mrs.
+Spofford calls them.
+
+To rise from the earth upon these beautiful great arms, seemed to be not
+so easy as it looks. Some of the graceful birds lifted them, and ran a
+little before leaving the ground, and all of them left both legs
+hanging, and both feet jerking awkwardly at every wing-beat, for a few
+moments on starting, before they carefully drew each flesh-colored foot
+up into its feather pillow,
+
+ "And gray and silver up the dome
+   Of gray and silver skies went sailing,"
+
+in ever-widening circles, without moving a feather that we could
+perceive. It was charming to see how nicely they folded down their
+splendid wings on alighting, stretching each one out, and apparently
+straightening every feather before laying it into its place.
+
+Several hours this interesting flock accompanied the horses and man
+around the field, taking possession of each furrow as it was laid open,
+and chattering and eating as fast as they could; and the question
+occurred to me, if a field that is thoroughly gleaned over every spring
+furnishes so great a supply of creatures hurtful to vegetation, what
+must be the state of grounds which are carefully protected from such
+gleaning, on which no bird is allowed to forage?
+
+As noon approached, the hour when "birds their wise siesta take,"
+although the plow did not cease its monotonous round, the birds retired
+in a body to the still untouched middle of the field, and settled
+themselves for their "nooning," dusting themselves--their snowy
+plumes!--like hens on an ash heap, sitting about in knots like parties
+of ducks, preening and shaking themselves out, or going at once to
+sleep, according to their several tastes. Half an hour's rest sufficed
+for the more active spirits, and then they treated us, their patient
+observers, to an aerial exhibition. A large number, perhaps three
+quarters of the flock, rose in a body and began a spiral flight. Higher
+and higher they went, in wider and wider circles, till, against the
+white clouds, they looked like a swarm of midges, and against the blue
+the eye could not distinguish them. Then from out of the sky dropped one
+after another, leaving the soaring flock looking wonderfully ethereal
+and gauzy in the clear air, with the sun above him, almost like a spirit
+bird gliding motionless through the ether till he alighted at last
+quietly beside his fellows on the ground. In another half hour they were
+all behind the plow again, hard at work.
+
+When we had looked our fill, we straightway sought out and questioned
+some of the wise men among the "peculiar people." This is what we
+learned: that when plowing is over the birds retire to their home, an
+island in the lake, where, being eminently social birds, their nests are
+built in a community. Their beneficent service to mankind does not end
+with the plowing season, for when that is over they turn their attention
+to the fish that are brought into the lake by the fresh-water streams,
+at once strangled by its excess of salt, and their bodies washed up on
+the shore. What would become of the human residents if that animal
+deposit were left for the fierce sun to dispose of, may perhaps be
+imagined. The gull should, indeed, be a sacred bird in Utah.
+
+What drew us first to the pasture--which we came to at last--was our
+search for a magpie's nest. The home of this knowing fellow is the Rocky
+Mountain region, and, naturally, he was the first bird we thought of
+looking for. There would be no difficulty in finding nests, we thought,
+for we came upon magpies everywhere in our walks. Now one alighted on a
+fence-post a few yards ahead of us, earnestly regarding our approach,
+tilting upward his long, expressive tail, the black of his plumage
+shining with brilliant blue reflections, and the white fairly dazzling
+the eyes. Again we caught glimpses of two or three of the beautiful
+birds walking about on the ground, holding their precious tails well up
+from the earth, and gleaning industriously the insect life of the horse
+pasture. At one moment we were saluted from the top of a tall tree, or
+shrieked at by one passing over our heads, looking like an immense
+dragonfly against the sky. Magpie voices were heard from morning till
+night; strange, loud calls of "mag! mag!" were ever in our ears. "Oh,
+yes," we had said, "we must surely go out some morning and find a nest."
+
+First we inquired. Everybody knew where they built, in oak-brush or in
+apple-trees, but not a boy in that village knew where there was a nest.
+Oh, no, not one! A man confessed to the guilty secret, and, directed by
+him, we took a long walk through the village with its queer little
+houses, many of them having the two front doors which tell the tale of
+Mormondom within; up the long sidewalk, with a beautiful bounding
+mountain brook running down the gutter, as if it were a tame irrigating
+ditch, to a big gate in a "combination fence." What this latter might be
+we had wondered, but relied upon knowing it when we saw it,--and we did:
+it was a fence of laths held together by wires woven between them, and
+we recognized the fitness of the name instantly. Then on through the
+big gate, down a long lane where we ran the gauntlet of the family cows;
+over or under bars, where awaited us a tribe of colts with their anxious
+mammas; and at last to the tree and the nest. There our guide met us and
+climbed up to explore. Alas! the nest robber had anticipated us.
+
+Slowly we took our way home, resolved to ask no more help, but to seek
+for ourselves, for the nest that is _known_ is the nest that is robbed.
+So the next morning, armed with camp-chairs and alpenstocks,
+drinking-cups and notebooks, we started up the mountain, where we could
+at least find solitude, and the fresh air of the hills. We climbed till
+we were tired, and then, as was our custom, sat down to rest and
+breathe, and see who lived in that part of the world. Without thought of
+the height we had reached, we turned our backs to the mountain, rising
+bare and steep before us, and behold! the outlook struck us dumb.
+
+There at our feet lay the village, smothered in orchards and
+shade-trees, the locusts, just then huge bouquets of graceful bloom and
+delicious odor, buzzing with hundreds of bees and humming-birds; beyond
+was a stretch of cultivated fields in various shades of green and brown;
+and then the lake,--beautiful and wonderful Salt Lake,--glowing with
+exquisite colors, now hyacinth blue, changing in places to tender green
+or golden brown, again sparkling like a vast bed of diamonds. In the
+foreground lay Antelope Island, in hues of purple and bronze, with its
+chain of hills and graceful sky-line; and resting on the horizon beyond
+were the peaks of the grand Oquirrhs, capped with snow. Well might we
+forget our quest while gazing on this impressive scene, trying to fix
+its various features in our memories, to be an eternal possession.
+
+We were recalled to the business in hand by the sudden appearance on the
+top of a tree below us of one of the birds we sought. The branch bent
+and swayed as the heavy fellow settled upon it, and in a moment a
+comrade came, calling vigorously, and alighted on a neighboring branch.
+A few minutes they remained, with flirting tails, conversing in
+garrulous tones, then together they rose on broad wings, and passed
+away--away over the fields, almost out of sight, before they dropped
+into a patch of oak-brush. After them appeared others, and we sat there
+a long time, hoping to see at least one that had its home within our
+reach. But every bird that passed over turned its face to the mountains;
+some seemed to head for the dim Oquirrhs across the lake, while others
+disappeared over the top of the Wasatch behind us; not one paused in
+our neighborhood, excepting long enough to look at us, and express its
+opinion in loud and not very polite tones.
+
+It was then and there that we noticed our pasture; the entrance was
+beside us. Shall we go in? was always the question before an inclosure.
+We looked over the wall. It was plainly the abode of horses, meek
+work-a-day beings, who certainly would not resent our intrusion.
+Oak-brush was there in plenty, and that is the chosen home of the
+magpie. We hesitated; we started for the gate. It was held in place by a
+rope elaborately and securely tied in many knots; but we had learned
+something about the gates of this "promised land,"--that between the
+posts and the stone wall may usually be found space enough to slip
+through without disturbing the fastenings.
+
+In that country no one goes through a gate who can possibly go around
+it, and well is it indeed for the stranger and the wayfarer in "Zion"
+that such is the custom, for the idiosyncrasies of gates were endless;
+they agreed only in never fitting their place and never opening
+properly. If the gate was in one piece, it sagged so that it must be
+lifted; or it had lost one hinge, and fell over on the rash individual
+who loosened the fastenings; or it was about falling to pieces, and must
+be handled like a piece of choice bric-a-brac. If it had a latch, it
+was rusty or did not fit; and if it had not, it was fastened, either by
+a board slipped in to act as a bar and never known to be of proper size,
+or in some occult way which would require the skill of "the lady from
+Philadelphia" to undo. If it was of the fashion that opens in the
+middle, each individual gate had its particular "kink," which must be
+learned by the uninitiated before he--or, what is worse, she--could
+pass. Many were held together by a hoop or link of iron, dropped over
+the two end posts; but whether the gate must be pulled out or pushed in,
+and at exactly what angle it would consent to receive the link, was to
+be found out only by experience.
+
+But not all gates were so simple even as this: the ingenuity with which
+a variety of fastenings,--all to avoid the natural and obvious one of a
+hook and staple,--had been evolved in the rural mind was fairly
+startling. The energy and thought that had been bestowed upon this
+little matter of avoiding a gate-hook would have built a bridge across
+Salt Lake, or tunneled the Uintas for an irrigating ditch.
+
+Happily, we too had learned to "slip through," and we passed the gate
+with its rope puzzle, and the six or eight horses who pointed inquiring
+ears toward their unwonted visitors, and hastened to get under cover
+before the birds, if any lived there, should come home.
+
+The oak-brush, which we then approached, is a curious and interesting
+form of vegetation. It is a mass of oak-trees, all of the same age,
+growing as close as they can stand, with branches down to the ground. It
+looks as if each patch had sprung from a great fall of acorns from one
+tree, or perhaps were shoots from the roots of a perished tree. The
+clumps are more or less irregularly round, set down in a barren piece of
+ground, or among the sage bushes. At a distance, on the side of a
+mountain, they resemble patches of moss of varying shape. When two or
+three feet high, one is a thick, solid mat; when it reaches an altitude
+of six to eight feet, it is an impenetrable thicket; except, that is,
+when it happens to be in a pasture. Horses and cattle find such scanty
+pickings in the fields, that they nibble every green thing, even oak
+leaves, and so they clear the brush as high as they can reach. When
+therefore it is fifteen feet high, there is a thick roof the animals are
+not able to reach, and one may look through a patch to the light beyond.
+The stems and lower branches, though kept bare of leaves, are so close
+together and so intertwined and tangled, that forcing one's way through
+it is an impossibility. But the horses have made and kept open paths in
+every direction, and this turns it into a delightful grove, a cool
+retreat, which others appreciate as well as the makers.
+
+Selecting a favorable-looking clump of oak-brush, we attempted to get in
+without using the open horse paths, where we should be in plain sight.
+Melancholy was the result; hats pulled off, hair disheveled, garments
+torn, feet tripped, and wounds and scratches innumerable. Several
+minutes of hard work and stubborn endurance enabled us to penetrate not
+more than half a dozen feet, when we managed, in some sort of fashion,
+to sit down, on opposite sides of the grove. Then, relying upon our
+"protective coloring" (not evolved, but carefully selected in the
+shops), we subsided into silence, hoping not to be observed when the
+birds came home, for there was the nest before us.
+
+A wise and canny builder is Madam Mag, for though her home must be large
+to accommodate her size, and conspicuous because of the shallowness of
+the foliage above her, it is, in a way, a fortress, to despoil which the
+marauder must encounter a weapon not to be despised,--a stout beak,
+animated and impelled by indignant motherhood. The structure was made of
+sticks, and enormous in size; a half-bushel measure would hardly hold
+it. It was covered, as if to protect her, and it had two openings under
+the cover, toward either of which she could turn her face. It looked
+like a big, coarsely woven basket resting in a crotch up under the
+leaves, with a nearly close cover supported by a small branch above.
+The sitting bird could draw herself down out of sight, or she could
+defend herself and her brood, at either entrance.
+
+In my retreat, I had noted all these points before any sign of life
+appeared in the brush. Then there came a low cry of "mag! mag!" and the
+bird entered near the ground. She alighted on a dead branch, which swung
+back and forth, while she kept her balance with her beautiful tail. She
+did not appear to look around; apparently she had no suspicions and did
+not notice us, sitting motionless and breathless in our respective
+places. Her head was turned to the nest, and by easy stages and with
+many pauses, she made her way to it. I could not see that she had a
+companion, for I dared not stir so much as a finger; but while she moved
+about near the nest there came to the eager listeners on the ground low
+and tender utterances in the sweetest of voices,--whether one or two I
+know not,--and at last a song, a true melody, of a yearning, thrilling
+quality that few song-birds, if any, can excel. I was astounded! Who
+would suspect the harsh-voiced, screaming magpie of such notes! I am
+certain that the bird or birds had no suspicion of listeners to the home
+talk and song, for after we were discovered, we heard nothing of the
+sort.
+
+This little episode ended, madam slipped into her nest, and all became
+silent, she in her place and I in mine. If this state of things could
+only remain; if she would only accept me as a tree-trunk or a misshapen
+bowlder, and pay no attention to me, what a beautiful study I should
+have! Half an hour, perhaps more, passed without a sound, and then the
+silence was broken by magpie calls from without. The sitting bird left
+the nest and flew out of the grove, quite near the ground; I heard much
+talk and chatter in low tones outside, and they flew. I slipped out as
+quickly as possible, wishing indeed that I had wings as she had, and
+went home, encouraged to think I should really be able to study the
+magpie.
+
+But I did not know my bird. The next day, before I knew she was about,
+she discovered me, though it was plain that she hoped I had not
+discovered her. Instantly she became silent and wary, coming to her nest
+over the top of the trees, so quietly that I should not have known it
+except for her shadow on the leaves. No talk or song now fell upon my
+ear; calls outside were few and subdued. Everything was different from
+the natural unconsciousness of the previous day; the birds were on
+guard, and henceforth I should be under surveillance.
+
+From this moment I lost my pleasure in the study, for I feel little
+interest in the actions of a bird under the constraint of an unwelcome
+presence, or in the shadow of constant fear and dread. What I care to
+see is the natural life, the free, unstudied ways of birds who do not
+notice or are not disturbed by spectators. Nor have I any pleasure in
+going about the country staring into every tree, and poking into every
+bush, thrusting irreverent hands into the mysteries of other lives, and
+rudely tearing away the veils that others have drawn around their
+private affairs. That they are only birds does not signify to me; for me
+they are fellow-creatures; they have rights, which I am bound to
+respect.
+
+I prefer to make myself so little obvious, or so apparently harmless to
+a bird, that she will herself show me her nest, or at least the leafy
+screen behind which it is hidden. Then, if I take advantage of her
+absence to spy upon her treasures, it is as a friend only,--a friend who
+respects her desire for seclusion, who never lays profane hands upon
+them, and who shares the secret only with one equally reverent and
+loving. Naturally I do not find so many nests as do the vandals to whom
+nothing is sacred, but I enjoy what I do find, in a way it hath not
+entered into their hearts to conceive.
+
+In spite of my disinclination, we made one more call upon the magpie
+family, and this time we had a reception. This bird is intelligent and
+by no means a slave to habit; because he has behaved in a certain way
+once, there is no law, avian or divine, that compels him to repeat that
+conduct on the next occasion. Nor is it safe to generalize about him, or
+any other bird for that matter. One cannot say, "The magpie does thus
+and so," because each individual magpie has his own way of doing, and
+circumstances alter cases, with birds as well as with people.
+
+On this occasion we placed ourselves boldly, though very quietly, in the
+paths that run through the oak-brush. We had abandoned all attempt at
+concealment; we could hope only for tolerance. The birds readily
+understood; they appreciated that they were seen and watched, and their
+manners changed accordingly. The first one of the black-and-white gentry
+who entered the grove discovered my comrade, and announced the presence
+of the enemy by a loud cry, in what somebody has aptly called a
+"frontier tone of voice." Instantly another appeared and added his
+remarks; then another, and still another, till within five minutes there
+were ten or twelve excited magpies, shouting at the top of their voices,
+and hopping and flying about her head, coming ever nearer and nearer, as
+if they meditated a personal attack. I did not really fear it, but I
+kept close watch, while remaining motionless, in the hope that they
+would not notice me. Vain hope! nothing could escape those sharp eyes
+when once the bird was aroused. After they had said what they chose to
+my friend, who received the taunts and abuse of the infuriated mob in
+meek silence, lifting not her voice to reply, they turned the stream of
+their eloquence upon me.
+
+I was equally passive, for indeed I felt that they had a grievance. We
+have no right to expect birds to tell one human being from another, so
+long as we, with all our boasted intelligence, cannot tell one crow or
+one magpie from another; and all the week they had suffered persecution
+at the hands of the village boys. Young magpies, nestlings, were in
+nearly every house, and the birds had endured pillage, and doubtless
+some of them death. I did not blame the grieved parents for the
+reception they gave us; from their point of view we belonged to the
+enemy.
+
+After the storm had swept by, and while we sat there waiting to see if
+the birds would return, one of the horses of the pasture made his
+appearance on the side where I sat, now eating the top of a rosebush,
+now snipping off a flower plant that had succeeded in getting two leaves
+above the ground, but at every step coming nearer me. It was plain that
+he contemplated retiring to this shady grove, and, not so observing as
+the magpies, did not see that it was already occupied. When he was not
+more than ten feet away, I snatched off my sun hat and waved it before
+him, not wishing to make a noise. He stopped instantly, stared wildly
+for a moment, as if he had never seen such an apparition, then wheeled
+with a snort, flung out his heels in disrespect, and galloped off down
+the field.
+
+The incident was insignificant, but the result was curious. So long as
+we stayed in that bit of brush, not a horse attempted to enter, though
+they all browsed around outside. They avoided it as if it were haunted,
+or, as my comrade said, "filled with beckoning forms." Nor was that all;
+I have reason to think they never again entered that particular patch of
+brush, for, some weeks after we had abandoned the study of magpies and
+the pasture altogether, we found the spot transformed, as if by the wand
+of enchantment. From the burned-up desert outside we stepped at once
+into a miniature paradise, to our surprise, almost our consternation.
+Excepting the footpaths through it, it bore no appearance of having ever
+been a thoroughfare. Around the foot of every tree had grown up clumps
+of ferns or brakes, a yard high, luxuriant, graceful, and exquisite in
+form and color; and peeping out from under them were flowers, dainty
+wildings we had not before seen there. A bit of the tropics or a gem out
+of fairyland it looked to our sun and sand weary eyes. Outside were the
+burning sun of June, a withering hot wind, and yellow and dead
+vegetation; within was cool greenness and a mere rustle of leaves
+whispering of the gale. It was the loveliest bit of greenery we saw on
+the shores of the Great Salt Lake. It was marvelous; it was almost
+uncanny.
+
+Our daily trips to the pasture had ceased, and other birds and other
+nests had occupied our thoughts for a week or two, when we resolved to
+pay a last visit to our old haunts, to see if we could learn anything of
+the magpies. We went through the pasture, led by the voices of the birds
+away over to the farther side, and there, across another fenced pasture,
+we heard them plainly, calling and chattering and making much noise, but
+in different tones from any we had heard before. Evidently a magpie
+nursery had been established over there. We fancied we could distinguish
+maternal reproof and loving baby talk, beside the weaker voices of the
+young, and we went home rejoicing to believe, that in spite of nest
+robbers, and the fright we had given them, some young magpies were
+growing up to enliven the world another summer.
+
+
+
+
+XIX.
+
+THE SECRET OF THE WILD ROSE PATH.
+
+     "Shall I call thee Bird,
+ Or but a wandering Voice?"
+
+
+Wordsworth's lines are addressed to the cuckoo of the Old World, a bird
+of unenviable reputation, notorious for imposing his most sacred duties
+upon others; naturally, therefore, one who would not court observation,
+and whose ways would be somewhat mysterious. But the American
+representative of the family is a bird of different manners. Unlike his
+namesake across the water, our cuckoo never--or so rarely as practically
+to be never--shirks the labor of nest-building and raising a family. He
+has no reason to skulk, and though always a shy bird, he is no more so
+than several others, and in no sense is he a mystery.
+
+There is, however, one American bird for whom Wordsworth's verse might
+have been written; one whose chief aim seems to be, reversing our
+grandmothers' rule for little people, to be heard, and not seen. To be
+seen is, with this peculiar fellow, a misfortune, an accident, which he
+avoids with great care, while his voice rings out loud and clear above
+all others in the shrubbery. I refer to the yellow-breasted chat
+(_Icteria virens_), whose summer home is the warmer temperate regions of
+our country, from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast, and whose
+unbirdlike utterances prepare one to believe the stories told of his
+eccentric actions; this, for example, by Dr. Abbott:--
+
+ "Aloft in the sunny air he springs;
+     To his timid mate he calls;
+ With dangling legs and fluttering wings
+     On the tangled smilax falls;
+       He mutters, he shrieks--
+         A hopeless cry;
+       You think that he seeks
+         In peace to die,
+ But pity him not; 't is the ghostly chat,
+ An imp if there is one, be sure of that."
+
+I first knew the chat--if one may be said to know a creature so shy--in
+a spot I have elsewhere described, a deserted park at the foot of
+Cheyenne Mountain. I became familiar with his various calls and cries
+(one can hardly call them songs); I secured one or two fleeting glimpses
+of his graceful form; I sought and discovered the nest, which thereupon
+my Lady Chat promptly abandoned, though I had not laid a finger upon it;
+and last of all, I had the sorrow and shame of knowing that my
+curiosity had driven the pair from the neighborhood. This was the
+Western form of _Icteria_, differing from the Eastern only in a greater
+length of tail, which several of our Rocky Mountain birds affect, for
+the purpose, apparently, of puzzling the ornithologist.
+
+Two years after my unsuccessful attempt to cultivate friendly relations
+with "the ghostly chat," the middle of May found me on the shore of the
+Great Salt Lake, where I settled myself at the foot of the Wasatch
+Mountains, at that point bare, gray, and unattractive, showing miles of
+loose bowlders and great patches of sage-bush. In the monotonous
+stretches of this shrub, each plant of which looks exactly like every
+other, dwelt many shy birds, as well hidden as bobolinks in the meadow
+grass, or meadow-larks in the alfalfa.
+
+But on this mountain side no friendly cover existed from which I could
+spy out bird secrets. Whatever my position, and wherever I placed
+myself, I was as conspicuous as a tower in the middle of a plain; again,
+no shadow of protection was there from the too-ardent sun of Utah, which
+drew the vitality from my frame as it did the color from my gown; worse
+than these, the everywhere present rocks were the chosen haunts of the
+one enemy of a peaceful bird lover, the rattlesnake, and I hesitated to
+pursue the bird, because I invariably forgot to watch and listen for the
+reptile. Bird study under these conditions was impossible, but the place
+presented a phase of nature unfamiliar to me, and for a time so
+fascinating that every morning my steps turned of themselves "up the
+stony pathway to the hills."
+
+The companion of my walks, a fellow bird-student, was more than
+fascinated; she was enraptured. The odorous bush had associations for
+her; she reveled in it; she inhaled its fragrance as a delicious
+perfume; she filled her pockets with it; she lay for hours at a time on
+the ground, where she could bask in the sunshine, and see nothing but
+the gray leaves around her and the blue sky above.
+
+I can hardly tell what was the fascination for me. It was certainly not
+the view of the mountains, though mountains are beyond words in my
+affections. The truth is, the Rocky Mountains, many of them, need a
+certain distance to make them either picturesque or dignified. The range
+then daily before our eyes, the Wasatch, was, to dwellers at its feet,
+bleak, monotonous, and hopelessly prosaic. The lowest foothills, being
+near, hid the taller peaks, as a penny before the eye will hide a whole
+landscape.
+
+Let me not, however, be unjust to the mountains I love. There is a
+range which satisfies my soul, and will rest in my memory forever, a
+beautiful picture, or rather a whole gallery of pictures. I can shut my
+eyes and see it at this moment, as I have seen it a thousand times. In
+the early morning, when the level sun shines on its face, it is like one
+continuous mountain reaching across the whole western horizon; it has a
+broken and beautiful sky line; Pike's Peak looms up toward the middle,
+and lovely Cheyenne ends it in graceful slope on the south; lights and
+shadows play over it; its colors change with the changing sky or
+atmosphere,--sometimes blue as the heavens, sometimes misty as a dream;
+it is wonderfully beautiful then. But wait till the sun gets higher;
+look again at noon, or a little later. Behold the whole range has sprung
+into life, separated into individuals; gorges are cut where none had
+appeared; chasms come to light; canyons and all sorts of divisions are
+seen; foothills move forward to their proper places, and taller peaks
+turn at angles to each other; shapes and colors that one never suspected
+come out in the picture: the transformation is marvelous. But the sun
+moves on, the magical moment passes, each mountain slips back into line,
+and behold, you see again the morning's picture.
+
+Indulge me one moment, while I try to show you the last picture
+impressed upon my memory as the train bore me, unwilling, away. It was
+cloudy, a storm was coming up, and the whole range was in deep shadow,
+when suddenly through some rift in the clouds a burst of sunshine fell
+upon the "beloved mountain" Cheyenne, and upon it alone. In a moment it
+was a smiling picture,
+
+                                   "Glad
+ With light as with a garment it was clad;"
+
+all its inequalities, its divisions, its irregularities emphasized, its
+greens turned greener, its reds made more glowing,--an unequaled gem for
+a parting gift.
+
+To come back to Utah. One morning, on our way up to the heights, as we
+were passing a clump of oak-brush, a bird cry rang out. The voice was
+loud and clear, and the notes were of a peculiar character: first a
+"chack" two or three times repeated, then subdued barks like those of a
+distressed puppy, followed by hoarse "mews" and other sounds suggesting
+almost any creature rather than one in feathers. But with delight I
+recognized the chat; my enthusiasm instantly revived. I unfolded my camp
+chair, placed myself against a stone wall on the opposite side of the
+road, and became silent and motionless as the wall itself.
+
+My comrade, on the contrary, as was her custom, proceeded with equal
+promptness to follow the bird up, to hunt him out. She slipped between
+the barbed wires which, quite unnecessarily, one would suppose, defended
+the bleak pasture from outside encroachment, and passed out of sight
+down an obscure path that led into the brush where the bird was hidden.
+Though our ways differ, or rather, perhaps, _because_ our ways differ,
+we are able to study in company. Certainly this circumstance proved
+available in circumventing the wily chat, and that happened which had
+happened before: in fleeing from one who made herself obvious to him, he
+presented himself, an unsuspecting victim, to another who sat like a
+statue against the wall. To avoid his pursuer, the bird slipped through
+the thick foliage of the low oaks, and took his place on the outside, in
+full view of me, but looking through the branches at the movements
+within so intently that he never turned his eyes toward me. This gave me
+an opportunity to study his manners that is rare indeed, for a chat off
+his guard is something inconceivable.
+
+He shouted out his whole _repertoire_ (or so it seemed) with great
+vehemence, now "peeping" like a bird in the nest, then "chacking" like a
+blackbird, mewing as neatly as pussy herself, and varying these calls by
+the rattling of castanets and other indescribable sounds. His perch was
+half way down the bush; his trim olive-drab back and shining golden
+breast were in their spring glory, and he stood nearly upright as he
+sang, every moment stretching up to look for the invader behind the
+leaves. The instant she appeared outside, he vanished within, and I
+folded my chair and passed on. His disturber had not caught a glimpse of
+him.
+
+My next interview with a chat took place a day or two later. Between the
+cottage which was our temporary home and the next one was a narrow
+garden bordered by thick hedges, raspberry bushes down each side, and a
+mass of flowering shrubs next the street. From my seat within the house,
+a little back from the open window, I was startled by the voice of a
+chat close at hand. Looking cautiously out, I saw him in the garden,
+foraging about under cover of the bushes, near the ground, and there for
+some time I watched him. He had not the slightest repose of manner; the
+most ill-bred tramp in the English sparrow family was in that respect
+his superior, and the most nervous and excitable of wrens could not
+outdo him in posturing, jerking himself up, flirting his tail, and
+hopping from twig to twig. When musically inclined, he perched on the
+inner side of the bushes against the front fence, a foot or two above
+the ground, and within three feet of any one who might pass, but
+perfectly hidden.
+
+The performance of the chat was exceedingly droll; first a whistle,
+clear as an oriole note, followed by chacks that would deceive a
+red-wing himself, and then, oddest of all, the laugh of a feeble old
+man, a weak sort of "yah! yah! yah!" If I had not seen him in the act, I
+could not have believed the sound came from a bird's throat. He
+concluded with a low, almost whispered "chur-r-r," a sort of private
+chuckle over his unique exhibition. After a few minutes' singing he
+returned to his foraging on the ground, or over the lowest twigs of the
+bushes, all the time bubbling over with low joyous notes, his graceful
+head thrown up, and his beautiful golden throat swelling with the happy
+song. The listener and looker behind the screen was charmed to absolute
+quiet, and the bird so utterly unsuspicious of observers that he was
+perfectly natural and at his ease, hopping quickly from place to place,
+and apparently snatching his repast between notes.
+
+The chat's secret of invisibility was thus plainly revealed. It is not
+in his protective coloring, for though his back is modest of hue, his
+breast is conspicuously showy; nor is it in his size, for he is almost
+as large as an oriole; it is in his manners. The bird I was watching
+never approached the top of a shrub, but invariably perched a foot or
+more below it, and his movements, though quick, were silence itself. No
+rustle of leaves proclaimed his presence; indeed, he seemed to avoid
+leaves, using the outside twigs near the main stalk or trunk, where they
+are usually quite bare, and no flit of wing or tail gave warning of his
+change of position. There was a seemingly natural wariness and
+cautiousness in every movement and attitude, that I never saw equaled in
+feathers.
+
+Then, too, the clever fellow was so constantly on his guard and so alert
+that the least stir attracted his attention. Though inside the house, as
+I said, not near the window, and further veiled by screens, I had to
+remain as nearly motionless as possible, and use my glass with utmost
+caution. The smallest movement sent him into the bushes like a shot,--or
+rather, like a shadow, for the passage was always noiseless. Suspicion
+once aroused, the bird simply disappeared. One could not say of him, as
+of others, that he flew, for whether he used his wings, or melted away,
+or sank into the earth, it would be hard to tell. All I can be positive
+about is, that whereas one moment he was there, the next he was gone.
+
+After this exhibition of the character of the chat, his constant
+watchfulness, his distrust, his love of mystery, it may appear strange
+that I should try again to study him at home, to find his nest and see
+his family. But there is something so bewitching in his individuality,
+that, though I may be always baffled, I shall never be discouraged.
+Somewhat later, when it was evident that his spouse had arrived and
+domestic life had begun, and I became accustomed to hearing a chat in a
+certain place every day as I passed, I resolved to make one more effort
+to win his confidence, or, if not that, at least his tolerance.
+
+The chat medley for which I was always listening came invariably from
+one spot on my pathway up the mountain. It was the lower end of a large
+horse pasture, and near the entrance stood a small brick house, in which
+no doubt dwelt the owner, or care-taker, of the animals. The wide gate,
+in a common fashion of that country, opened in the middle, and was
+fastened by a link of iron which dropped over the two centre posts. The
+rattle of the iron as I touched it, on the morning I resolved to go in,
+brought to the door a woman. She was rather young, with hair cut close
+to her head, and wore a dark cotton gown, which was short and scant of
+skirt, and covered with a "checked apron." She was evidently at work,
+and was probably the mistress, since few in that "working-bee" village
+kept maids.
+
+I made my request to go into the pasture to look at the birds.
+
+"Why, certainly," she said, with a courtesy that I have found everywhere
+in Utah, though with a slow surprise growing in her face. "Come right
+in."
+
+I closed and fastened the gate, and started on past her. Three feet
+beyond the doorsteps I was brought to a standstill: the ground as far as
+I could see was water-soaked; it was like a saturated sponge. Utah is
+dominated by Irrigation; she is a slave to her water supply. One going
+there from the land of rains has much to learn of the possibilities and
+the inconveniences of water. I was always stumbling upon it in new
+combinations and unaccustomed places, and I never could get used to its
+vagaries. Books written in the interest of the Territory indulge in
+rhapsodies over the fact that every man is his own rain-maker; and I
+admit that the arrangement has its advantages--to the cultivator. But
+judging from the standpoint of an outsider, I should say that man is not
+an improvement upon the original providence which distributes the staff
+of life to plants elsewhere, spreading the vital fluid over the whole
+land, so evenly that every grass blade gets its due share; and as all
+parts are wet at once, so all are dry at the same time, and the surplus,
+if there be any, runs in well-appointed ways, with delight to both eye
+and ear. All this is changed when the office of Jupiter Pluvius devolves
+upon man; different indeed are his methods. A man turns a stream loose
+in a field or pasture, and it wanders whither it will over the ground.
+The grass hides it, and the walker, bird-student or botanist, steps
+splash into it without the slightest warning. This is always unpleasant,
+and is sometimes disastrous, as when one attempts to cross the edge of a
+field of some close-growing crop, and instantly sinks to the top of the
+shoes in the soft mud.
+
+On the morning spoken of, I stopped before the barrier, considering how
+I should pass it, when the woman showed me a narrow passage between the
+house and the stone wall, through which I could reach the higher ground
+at the back. I took this path, and in a moment was in the grove of young
+oaks which made her out-of-doors kitchen and yard. A fire was burning
+merrily in the stove, which stood under a tree; frying-pans and
+baking-tins, dippers and dishcloths, hung on the outer wall of her
+little house, and the whole had a camping-out air that was captivating,
+and possible only in a rainless land. I longed to linger and study this
+open-air housekeeping; if that woman had only been a bird!
+
+But I passed on through the oak-grove back yard, following a path the
+horses had made, till I reached an open place where I could overlook
+the lower land, filled with clumps of willows with their feet in the
+water, and rosebushes
+
+ "O'erburdened with their weight of flowers,
+   And drooping 'neath their own sweet scent."
+
+A bird was singing as I took my seat, a grosbeak,--perhaps the one who
+had entertained me in the field below, while I had waited hour after
+hour, for his calm-eyed mate to point out her nest. He sang there from
+the top of a tall tree, and she busied herself in the low bushes, but up
+to that time they had kept their secret well. He was a beautiful bird,
+in black and orange-brown and gold,--the black-headed grosbeak; and his
+song, besides being very pleasing, was interesting because it seemed
+hard to get out. It was as if he had conceived a brilliant and beautiful
+strain, and found himself unable to execute it. But if he felt the
+incompleteness of his performance as I did, he did not let it put an end
+to his endeavor. I sat there listening, and he came nearer, even to a
+low tree over my head; and as I had a glimpse or two of his mate in a
+tangle of willow and roses far out in the wet land, I concluded he was
+singing to her, and not to me. Now that he was so near, I heard more
+than I had before, certain low, sweet notes, plainly not intended for
+the public ear. This undertone song ended always in "sweet! sweet!
+sweet!" usually followed by a trill, and was far more effective than
+his state performances. Sometimes, after the "sweet" repeated half a
+dozen times, each note lower than the preceding one, he ended with a
+sort of purr of contentment.
+
+I became so absorbed in listening that I had almost forgotten the object
+of my search, but I was suddenly recalled by a loud voice at one side,
+and the lively genius of the place was on hand in his usual role.
+Indeed, he rather surpassed himself in mocking and taunting cries that
+morning, either because he wished, as my host, to entertain me, or, what
+was more probable, to reproach me for disturbing the serenity of his
+life. Whatever might have been his motive, he delighted me, as always,
+by the spirit and vigor with which he poured out his chacks and whistles
+and rattles and calls. Then I tried to locate him by following up the
+sound, picking my way through the bushes, and among the straggling arms
+of the irrigating stream. After some experiments, I discovered that he
+was most concerned when I came near an impenetrable tangle that skirted
+the lower end of the lot. I say "near:" it was near "as the crow flies,"
+but for one without wings it may have been half a mile; for between me
+and that spot was a great gulf fixed, the rallying point of the most
+erratic of wandering streamlets, and so given over to its vagaries that
+no bird-gazer, however enthusiastic, and indifferent to wet feet and
+draggled garments, dared attempt to pass. There I was forced to pause,
+while the bird flung out his notes as if in defiance, wilder, louder,
+and more vehement than ever.
+
+In that thicket, I said to myself, as I took my way home, behind that
+tangle, if I can manage to reach it, I shall find the home of the chat.
+The situation was discouraging, but I was not to be discouraged; to
+reach that stronghold I was resolved, if I had to dam up the irrigator,
+build a bridge, or fill up the quagmire.
+
+No such heroic treatment of the difficulty was demanded; my problem was
+very simply solved. As I entered the gate the next morning, my eyes fell
+upon an obscure footpath leading away from the house and the watery way
+beyond it, down through overhanging wild roses, and under the great
+tangle in which the chat had hidden. It looked mysterious, not to say
+forbidding, and, from the low drooping of the foliage above, it was
+plainly a horse path, not a human way. But it was undoubtedly the key to
+the secrets of the tangle, and I turned into it without hesitation.
+Stooping under the branches hanging low with their fragrant burden, and
+stopping every moment to loosen the hold of some hindering thorn, I
+followed in the footsteps of my four-footed pioneers till I reached the
+lower end of the marsh that had kept me from entering on the upper side.
+On its edge I placed my chair and seated myself.
+
+It was an ideal retreat; within call if help were needed, yet a solitude
+it was plain no human being, in that land where (according to the
+Prophet) every man, woman, and child is a working bee, ever invaded;
+
+                               "A leafy nook
+ Where wind never entered, nor branch ever shook,"
+
+known only to my equine friends and to me. I exulted in it! No
+discoverer of a new land, no stumbler upon a gold mine, was ever more
+exhilarated over his find than I over my solitary wild rose path.
+
+The tangle was composed of a varied growth. There seemed to have been
+originally a straggling row of low trees, chokecherry, peach, and
+willow, which had been surrounded, overwhelmed, and almost buried by a
+rich growth of shoots from their own roots, bound and cemented together
+by the luxuriant wild rose of the West, which grows profusely everywhere
+it can get a foothold, stealing up around and between the branches, till
+it overtops and fairly smothers in blossoms a fair-sized oak or other
+tree. Besides these were great ferns, or brakes, three or four feet
+high, which filled up the edges of the thicket, making it absolutely
+impervious to the eye, as well as to the foot of any straggler. Except
+in the obscure passages the horses kept open, no person could penetrate
+my jungle.
+
+I had hardly placed myself, and I had not noted half of these details,
+when it became evident that my presence disturbed somebody. A chat cried
+out excitedly, "chack! chack! whe-e-w!" whereupon there followed an
+angry squawk, so loud and so near that it startled me. I turned quickly,
+and saw madam herself, all ruffled as if from the nest. She was plainly
+as much startled as I was, but she scorned to flee. She perked up her
+tail till she looked like an exaggerated wren; she humped her shoulders;
+she turned this way and that, showing in every movement her anger at my
+intrusion; above all, she repeated at short intervals that squawk, like
+an enraged hen. Hearing a rustle of wings on the other side, I turned my
+eyes an instant, and when I looked again she had gone! She would not run
+while I looked at her, but she had the true chat instinct of keeping out
+of sight.
+
+She did not desert her grove, however. The canopy over my head, the roof
+to my retreat, was of green leaves, translucent, almost transparent. The
+sun was the sun of Utah; it cast strong shadows, and not a bird could
+move without my seeing it. I could see that she remained on guard,
+hopping and flying silently from one point of view to another, no doubt
+keeping close watch of me all the time.
+
+Meanwhile the chat himself had not for a moment ceased calling. For some
+time his voice would sound quite near; then it would draw off, growing
+more and more distant, as if he were tired of watching one who did
+absolutely nothing. But he never got far away before madam recalled him,
+sometimes by the squawk alone, sometimes preceding it by a single clear
+whistle, exactly in his own tone. At once, as if this were a
+signal,--which doubtless it was,--his cries redoubled in energy, and
+seemed to come nearer again.
+
+Above the restless demonstrations of the chats I could hear the clear,
+sweet song of the Western meadow-lark in the next field. Well indeed
+might his song be serene; the minstrel of the meadow knew perfectly well
+that his nest and nestlings were as safely hidden in the middle of the
+growing lucern as if in another planet; while the chat, on the contrary,
+was plainly conscious of the ease with which his homestead might be
+discovered. A ruthless destroyer, a nest-robbing boy, would have had the
+whole thing in his pocket days ago. Even I, if I had not preferred to
+have the owners show it to me: if I had not made excuses to myself, of
+the marsh, of bushes too low to go under; if I had not hated to take it
+by force, to frighten the little folk I wished to make friends
+with,--even I might have seen the nest long before that morning. Thus I
+meditated as, after waiting an hour or two, I started for home.
+
+Outside the gate I met my fellow-student, and we went on together. Our
+way lay beside an old orchard that we had often noticed in our walks.
+The trees were not far apart, and so overgrown that they formed a deep
+shade, like a heavy forest, which was most attractive when everything
+outside was baking in the June sun. It was nearly noon when we reached
+the gate, and looking into a place
+
+               "So curtained with trunks and boughs
+ That in hours when the ringdove coos to his spouse
+ The sun to its heart scarce a way could win,"
+
+we could not resist its inviting coolness; we went in.
+
+As soon as we were quiet, we noticed that there were more robins than we
+had heretofore seen in one neighborhood in that part of the world; for
+our familiar bird is by no means plentiful in the Rocky Mountain
+countries, where grassy lawns are rare, and his chosen food is not
+forthcoming. The old apple-trees seemed to be a favorite nesting-place,
+and before we had been there five minutes we saw that there were at
+least two nests within fifty feet of us, and a grosbeak singing his
+love song, so near that we had hopes of finding his home, also, in this
+secluded nook.
+
+The alighting of a bird low down on the trunk of a tree, perhaps twenty
+feet away, called the attention of my friend to a neighbor we had not
+counted upon, a large snake, with, as we noted with horror, the color
+and markings of the dreaded rattler. He had, as it seemed, started to
+climb one of the leaning trunks, and when he had reached a point where
+the trunk divided into two parts, his head about two feet up, and the
+lower part of his body still on the ground, had stopped, and now rested
+thus, motionless as the tree itself. It may be that it was the sudden
+presence of his hereditary enemy that held him apparently spellbound, or
+it is possible that this position served his own purposes better than
+any other. Our first impulse was to leave his lordship in undisputed
+possession of his shady retreat; but the second thought, which held us,
+was to see what sort of reception the robins would give him. There was a
+nest full of young on a neighboring tree, and it was the mother who had
+come down to interview the foe. Would she call her mate? Would the
+neighbors come to the rescue? Should we see a fight, such as we had read
+of? We decided to wait for the result.
+
+Strange to say, however, this little mother did not call for help. Not
+one of the loud, disturbed cries with which robins greet an innocent
+bird-student or a passing sparrow hawk was heard from her; though her
+kinsfolk sprinkled the orchard, she uttered not a sound. For a moment
+she seemed dazed; she stood motionless, staring at the invader as if
+uncertain whether he were alive. Then she appeared to be interested; she
+came a little nearer, still gazing into the face of her enemy, whose
+erect head and glittering eyes were turned toward her. We could not see
+that he made the slightest movement, while she hopped nearer and nearer;
+sometimes on one division of the trunk, and sometimes on the other, but
+always, with every hop, coming a little nearer. She did not act
+frightened nor at all anxious; she simply seemed interested, and
+inclined to close investigation. Was she fascinated? Were the old
+stories of snake power over birds true? Our interest was most intense;
+we did not take our eyes from her; nothing could have dragged us away
+then.
+
+Suddenly the bird flew to the ground, and, so quickly that we did not
+see the movement, the head of the snake was turned over toward her,
+proving that it was the bird, and not us, he was watching. Still she
+kept drawing nearer till she was not more than a foot from him, when our
+sympathy with the unfortunate creature, who apparently was unable to
+tear herself away, overcame our scientific curiosity. "Poor thing,
+she'll be killed! Let us drive her away!" we cried. We picked up small
+stones which we threw toward her; we threatened her with sticks; we
+"shooed" at her with demonstrations that would have quickly driven away
+a robin in possession of its senses. Not a step farther off did she
+move; she hopped one side to avoid our missiles, but instantly fluttered
+back to her doom. Meanwhile her mate appeared upon the scene, hovering
+anxiously about in the trees overhead, but not coming near the snake.
+
+By this time we had lost all interest in the question whether a snake
+can charm a bird to its destruction; we thought only of saving the
+little life in such danger. We looked around for help; my friend ran
+across the street to a house, hurriedly secured the help of a man with a
+heavy stick, and in two minutes the snake lay dead on the ground.
+
+The bird, at once relieved, flew hastily to her nest, showing no signs
+of mental aberration, or any other effect of the strain she had been
+under. The snake was what the man called a "bull snake," and so closely
+resembled the rattler in color and markings that, although its
+exterminator had killed many of the more famous reptiles, he could not
+tell, until it was stretched out in death, which of the two it was. This
+tragedy spoiled the old orchard for me, and never again did I enter its
+gates.
+
+Down the wild rose path I took my way the next morning. Silently and
+quickly I gained my seat of yesterday, hoping to surprise the chat
+family. No doubt my hope was vain; noiseless, indeed, and deft of
+movement must be the human being who could come upon this alert bird
+unawares. He greeted me with a new note, a single clear call, like "ho!"
+Then he proceeded to study me, coming cautiously nearer and nearer, as I
+could see out of the corner of my eye, while pretending to be closely
+occupied with my notebook. His loud notes had ceased, but it is not in
+chat nature to be utterly silent; many low sounds dropped from his beak
+as he approached. Sometimes it was a squawk, a gentle imitation of that
+which rang through the air from the mouth of his spouse; again it was a
+hoarse sort of mewing, followed by various indescribable sounds in the
+same undertone; and then he would suddenly take himself in hand, and be
+perfectly silent for half a minute.
+
+After a little, madam took up the matter, uttering her angry squawk, and
+breaking upon my silence almost like a pistol shot. At once I forgot her
+mate, and though he retired to a little distance and resumed his
+brilliant musical performance, I did not turn my head at his
+beguilements. She was the business partner of the firm whose movements I
+wished to follow. She must, sooner or later, go to her nest, while he
+might deceive me for days. Indeed, I strongly suspected him of that very
+thing, and whenever he became bolder in approaching, or louder and more
+vociferous of tongue, I was convinced that it was to cover her
+operations. I redoubled my vigilance in watching for her, keeping my
+eyes open for any slight stirring of a twig, tremble of a leaf, or quick
+shadow near the ground that should point her out as she skulked to her
+nest. I had already observed that whenever she uttered her squawks he
+instantly burst into energetic shouts and calls. I believed it a
+concerted action, with the intent of drawing my attention from her
+movements.
+
+On this day the disturbed little mother herself interviewed me. First
+she came silently under the green canopy, in plain sight, stood a moment
+before me, jerking up her beautiful long tail and letting it drop slowly
+back, and posing her mobile body in different positions; then suddenly
+flying close past me, she alighted on one side, and stared at me for
+half a dozen seconds. Then, evidently, she resolved to take me in hand.
+She assumed the role of deceiver, with all the wariness of her family;
+her object being, as I suppose, carefully to point out where her nest
+was _not_. She circled about me, taking no pains to avoid my gaze. Now
+she squawked on the right; then she acted "the anxious mother" on the
+left; this time it was from the clump of rosebushes in front that she
+rose hurriedly, as if that was her home; again it was from over my head,
+in the chokecherry-tree, that she bustled off, as if she had been
+"caught in the act." It was a brilliant, a wonderful performance, a
+thousand times more effective than trailing or any of the similar
+devices by which an uneasy bird mother draws attention from her brood.
+It was so well done that at each separate manoeuvre I could hardly be
+convinced by my own eyes that the particular spot indicated did not
+conceal the little homestead I was seeking. Several times I rose
+triumphant, feeling sure that "now indeed I _do_ know where it is," and
+proceeded at once to the bush she had pointed out with so much simulated
+reluctance, parted the branches, and looked in, only to find myself
+deceived again. Her acting was marvelous. With just the properly
+anxious, uneasy manner, she would steal behind a clump of leaves into
+some retired spot admirably adapted for a chat's nest, and after a
+moment sneak out at the other side, and fly away near the ground,
+exactly as all bird-students have seen bird mothers do a thousand
+times.
+
+After this performance a silence fell upon the tangle and the solitary
+nook in which I sat,--and I meditated. It was the last day of my stay.
+Should I set up a search for that nest which I was sure was within
+reach? I could go over the whole in half an hour, examine every shrub
+and low tree and inch of ground in it, and doubtless I should find it.
+No; I do not care for a nest thus forced. The distress of parents, the
+panic of nestlings, give me no pleasure. I know how a chat's nest looks.
+I have seen one with its pinky-pearl eggs; why should I care to see
+another? I know how young birds look; I have seen dozens of them this
+very summer. Far better that I never lay eyes upon the nest than to do
+it at such cost.
+
+As I reached this conclusion, into the midst of my silence came the
+steady tramp of a horse. I knew the wild rose path was a favorite
+retreat from the sun, and it was very hot. The path was narrow; if a
+horse came in upon me, he could not turn round and retreat, nor was
+there room for him to pass me. Realizing all this in an instant, I
+snatched up my belongings, and hurried to get out before he should get
+in.
+
+When I emerged, the chat set up his loudest and most triumphant shouts.
+"Again we have fooled you," he seemed to say; "again we have thrown
+your poor human acuteness off the scent! We shall manage to bring up our
+babies in safety, in spite of you!"
+
+So indeed they might, even if I had seen them; but this, alas, I could
+not make him understand. So he treated me--his best friend--exactly as
+he treated the nest-robber and the bird-shooter.
+
+I shall never know whether that nest contained eggs or young birds; or
+whether perchance there was no nest at all, and I had been deceived from
+the first by the most artful and beguiling of birds. And through all
+this I had never once squarely seen the chat I had been following.
+
+ "Even yet thou art to me
+ No bird, but, an invisible thing,
+ A voice, a mystery."
+
+
+
+
+XX.
+
+ON THE LAWN.
+
+
+The first thing that strikes an Eastern bird-student in the Rocky
+Mountain region, as I have already said, is the absence of the birds he
+is familiar with. Instead of the chipping sparrow everywhere, one sees
+the lazuli-painted finch, or the Rocky Mountain bluebird; in place of
+the American robin's song, most common of sounds in country
+neighborhoods on the Atlantic side of the continent, is heard the silver
+bell of the towhee bunting, sometimes called marsh robin, or the harsh
+"chack" of Brewer's blackbird; the music that opens sleepy eyes at
+daybreak is not a chorus of robins and song-sparrows, but the ringing
+notes of the chewink, the clear-cut song of the Western meadow-lark, or
+the labored utterance of the black-headed grosbeak; it is not by the
+melancholy refrain of the whippoorwill or the heavenly hymns of thrushes
+that the approach of night is heralded, but by the cheery trill of the
+house wren or the dismal wail of the Western wood-pewee.
+
+Most of all does the bird-lover miss the thrushes from the feathered
+orchestra. Some of them may dwell in that part of the world,--the books
+affirm it, and I cannot deny it,--but this I know: one whose eye is
+untiring, and whose ear is open night and day to bird-notes, may spend
+May, June, July, yes, and even August, in the haunts of Rocky Mountain
+birds, and not once see or hear either of our choice singing thrushes.
+
+However the student may miss the birds he knows at home, he must rejoice
+in the absence of one,--the English sparrow. When one sees the charming
+purple finch and summer yellow-bird, nesting and singing in the streets
+of Denver, and the bewitching Arkansas goldfinch and the beautiful
+Western bluebird perfectly at home in Colorado Springs, he is reminded
+of what might be in the Eastern cities, if only the human race had not
+interfered with Nature's distribution of her feathered families. In
+Utah, indeed, we meet again the foreigner, for in that unfortunate
+Territory the man, wise in his own conceit, was found to introduce him,
+and Salt Lake, the city of their pride and glory, is as completely
+infested by the feathered tramp as New York itself. Happy is Colorado
+that great deserts form her borders, and that chains of mountains
+separate her from her neighbors; for, since the sparrow is as fond of
+the city as Dr. Johnson, it may be hoped that neither he, nor his
+children, nor his grandchildren, will ever cross the barriers.
+
+In Utah, as everywhere, the English sparrows are sharp-witted rogues,
+and they have discovered and taken possession of the most comfortable
+place for bird quarters to be found, for protection from the terrible
+heat of summer, and the wind and snow of winter; it is between the roof
+and the stone or adobe walls of the houses. Wherever the inequalities of
+the stones or the shrinkage of the wood has left an opening, and made
+penetration possible, there an English sparrow has established a
+permanent abode.
+
+The first bird I noticed in the quiet Mormon village where I settled
+myself to study was a little beauty in blue. I knew him instantly, for I
+had met him before in Colorado. He was dining luxuriously on the
+feathery seeds of a dandelion when I discovered him, and at no great
+distance was his olive-clad mate, similarly engaged. They were
+conversing cheerfully in low tones, and in a few minutes I suppose he
+called her attention to the superior quality of his dandelion; for she
+came to his side, and he at once flew to a neighboring bush and burst
+into song. It was a pretty little ditty, or rather a musical rattle on
+one note, resembling the song of the indigo bird, his near relative.
+
+The lazuli-painted finch should be called the blue-headed finch, for the
+exquisite blueness of his whole head, including throat, breast, and
+shoulders, as if he had been dipped so far into blue dye, is his
+distinguishing feature. The bluebird wears heaven's color; so does the
+jay, and likewise the indigo bird; but not one can boast the lovely and
+indescribable shade, with its silvery reflections, that adorns the
+lazuli. Across the breast, under the blue, is a broad band of chestnut,
+like the breast color of our bluebird, and back of that is white, while
+the wings and tail are dark. Altogether, he is charming to look upon.
+Who would not prefer him about the yard to the squawking house sparrow,
+or even the squabbling chippy?
+
+My catching the pair at dinner was not an accident; I soon found out
+that they lived there, and had settled upon a row of tall raspberry
+bushes that separated the garden from the lawn for their summer home.
+Madam was already at work collecting her building materials, and very
+soon the fragile walls of her pretty nest were formed in an upright
+crotch of the raspberries, about a foot below the top.
+
+Naturally, I was greatly interested in the fairy house building, and
+often inspected the work while the little dame was out of sight. One
+day, however, as I was about to part the branches to look in, I heard
+an anxious "phit," and glanced up to see the owner alight on the lowest
+limb of a peach-tree near by. Of course I turned away at once,
+pretending that I was just passing, and had no suspicion of her precious
+secret in the raspberries, and hoping that she would not mind. But she
+did mind, very seriously; she continued to stand on that branch with an
+aggrieved air, as if life were no longer worth living, now that her home
+was perhaps discovered. Without uttering a sound or moving a muscle, so
+far as I could see, she remained for half an hour before she accepted my
+taking a distant seat and turning my attention to dragonflies as an
+apology, and ventured to visit her nest again. After that I made very
+sure that she was engaged elsewhere before I paid my daily call.
+
+The dragonflies, by the way, were well worth looking at; indeed, they
+divided my interest with the birds. So many and such variety I never
+noticed elsewhere, and they acted exactly like fly-catching birds,
+staying an hour at a time on one perch, from which every now and then
+they sallied out, sweeping the air and returning to the perch they had
+left. Sometimes I saw four or five of them at once, resting on different
+dead twigs in the yard the other side of the lawn, and I have even seen
+one knock a fellow-dragonfly off a favorite perch and take it himself.
+
+They were very beautiful, too: some with wings of transparent white or
+light amber barred off by wide patches of rich dark brown or black;
+others, again, smaller, and all over blue as the lazuli's head; and a
+third of brilliant silver, which sparkled as it flew, as if covered with
+spangles. One alighted there with wings which seemed to be covered with
+a close and intricate design in the most brilliant gold thread. I went
+almost near enough to put my hand on him, and I never saw a more
+gorgeous creature; beside his beautiful wings his back was of old gold,
+coming down in scallops over the black and dark blue under part.
+
+In due time four lovely blue eggs filled the nest of the lazuli, and
+about the middle of June madam began to sit, and I had to be more
+careful than ever in timing my visits.
+
+Some birds approach their nest in a loitering, aimless sort of way, as
+if they had no particular business, in that quarter, and, if they see
+any cause for alarm, depart with an indifferent air that reveals nothing
+of their secret. Not thus the ingenuous lazuli. She showed her anxiety
+every moment; coming in the most businesslike way, and proclaiming her
+errand to the most careless observer, till I thought every boy on the
+street would know where her eggs were to be found. She had a very pretty
+way of going to the nest; indeed, all her manners were winning. She
+always alighted on the peach-tree branch, looked about on all sides,
+especially at me in my seat on the piazza, flirted her tail, uttered an
+anxious "phit," and then jumped off the limb and dived under the bushes
+near the ground. It is to be presumed that she ascended to her nest
+behind the leaves by hopping from twig to twig, though this I could
+never manage to see.
+
+And what of her gay little spouse all this time? Did he spend his days
+cheering her with music, as all the fathers of feathered families are
+fabled to do? Indeed he did not, and until I watched very closely, and
+saw him going about over the poplars in silence, I thought he had left
+the neighborhood. Once in the day he had a good singing time, about five
+o'clock in the morning, two hours before the sun rose over the
+mountains. If one happened to be awake then, he would hear the most
+rapturous song, delivered at the top of his voice, and continuing for a
+long time. But as it grew lighter, and the human world began to stir, he
+became quiet again, and, if he sang at all, he went so far from home
+that I did not hear him.
+
+But the wise little blue-head had not deserted; he was merely cautious.
+Every time that the little sitter went off for food she met him
+somewhere, and he came back with her. Occasionally he took a peep at the
+treasures himself, but he never entered by her roundabout way. He always
+flew directly in from above.
+
+Ten days passed away in this quiet manner, my attention divided between
+the birds, the dragonflies, and the clacking grasshopper, who went
+jerking himself about with a noise like a subdued lawn-mower, giving one
+the impression that his machinery was out of order.
+
+The tenth day of sitting we had a south wind. That does not seem very
+terrible, but a south wind on the shore of the Great Salt Lake is
+something to be dreaded.
+
+ "A wind that is dizzy with whirling play,
+ A dozen winds that have lost their way."
+
+It starts up suddenly, and comes with such force as to snap off the
+leaves of trees, and even the tender twigs of shrubs. As it waxes
+powerful it bends great trees, and tries the strength of roofs and
+chimneys. From the first breath it rolls up tremendous clouds of dust,
+that come and come, and never cease, long after it seems as if every
+particle in that rainless land must have been driven by. It is in the
+"Great Basin," and the south wind is the broom that sweeps it clean. Not
+only dust does the south wind bring, but heat, terrible and
+suffocating, like that of a fiery furnace. Before it the human and the
+vegetable worlds shrink and wither, and birds and beasts are little
+seen.
+
+Such a day was the birthday in the little nest in the raspberries, and
+on my usual morning call I found four featherless birdlings, with beaks
+already yawning for food. Every morning, of course, I looked at the
+babies, but it was not till the eighth day of their life that I found
+their eyes open. Before this they opened their mouths when I jarred the
+nest in parting the branches, thus showing they were not asleep, but did
+not open their eyes, and I was forced to conclude that they were not yet
+unclosed.
+
+Sometimes the daily visit was made under difficulties, and I was
+unpleasantly surprised when I stepped upon the grass of the little lawn
+that I was obliged to cross. The grass looked as usual; the evening
+before we had been sitting upon it. But all night a stream had been
+silently spreading itself upon it, and my hasty step was into water two
+or three inches deep, which swished up in a small fountain and filled a
+low shoe in an instant.
+
+This is one of the idiosyncrasies of irrigation, which it seemed I
+should never get accustomed to, and several times I was obliged to turn
+back for overshoes before I could pay my usual call. A lawn asoak is a
+curious sight, and always reminds me of Lanier's verses,
+
+                               "A thousand rivulets run
+ 'Twixt the roots of the soil; the blades of the marsh grass stir;
+     ... and the currents cease to run,
+     And the sea and the marsh are one."
+
+The morning the lazulis were ten days old, before I came out of the
+house, that happened which so often puts an end to a study of bird
+life,--the nest was torn out of place and destroyed, and the little
+family had disappeared. The particulars will never be known. Whether a
+nest-robbing boy or a hungry cat was the transgressor, and whether the
+nestlings were carried off or eaten, or had happily escaped, who can
+tell? I could only judge by the conduct of the birds themselves, and as
+they did not appear disturbed, and continued to carry food, it is to be
+presumed that part, if not all, of the brood was saved from the wreck of
+their home.
+
+Happily, to console me in my sorrow for this catastrophe, the lazuli was
+not the only bird to be seen on the lawn, though his was the only nest.
+I had for some time been greatly interested in the daily visits of a
+humming-bird, a little dame in green and white, who had taken possession
+of a honeysuckle vine beside the door, claiming the whole as her own,
+and driving away, with squeaky but fierce cries, any other of her race
+who ventured to sip from the coral cups so profusely offered.
+
+The season for humming-birds opened with the locust blossoms next door,
+which were for days a mass of blooms and buzzings, of birds and bees.
+But when the fragrant flowers began to fall and the ground was white
+with them, one bird settled herself on our honeysuckle, and there took
+her daily meals for a month. Being not six feet from where I sat for
+hours every day, I had the first good opportunity of my life to learn
+the ways of one of these queer little creatures in feathers.
+
+After long searching and much overhauling of the books, I made her out
+to be the female broad-tailed humming-bird, who is somewhat larger than
+the familiar ruby-throat of the East. Her mate, if she had one, never
+came to the vine; but whether she drove him away and discouraged him, or
+whether he had an independent source of supply, I never knew. She was
+the only one whose acquaintance I made, and in a month's watching I came
+to know her pretty well.
+
+In one way she differed strikingly from any humming-bird I have seen:
+she alighted, and rested frequently and for long periods. Droll enough
+it looked to see such an atom, such a mere pinch of feathers, conduct
+herself after the fashion of a big bird; to see her wipe that
+needle-like beak, and dress those infinitesimal feathers, combing out
+her head plumage with her minute black claws, running the same useful
+appendages through her long, gauzy-looking wings, and carefully removing
+the yellow pollen of the honeysuckle blooms which stuck to her face and
+throat. Her favorite perch was a tiny dead twig on the lowest branch of
+a poplar-tree, near the honeysuckle. There she spent a long time each
+day, sitting usually, though sometimes she stood on her little wiry
+legs.
+
+But though my humming friend might sit down, there was no repose about
+her; she was continually in motion. Her head turned from side to side,
+as regularly, and apparently as mechanically, as an elephant weaves his
+great head and trunk. Sometimes she turned her attention to me, and
+leaned far over, with her large, dark eyes fixed upon me with interest
+or curiosity. But never was there the least fear in her bearing; she
+evidently considered herself mistress of the place, and reproved me if I
+made the slightest movement, or spoke too much to a neighbor. If she
+happened to be engaged among her honey-pots when a movement was made,
+she instantly jerked herself back a foot or more from the vine, and
+stood upon nothing, as it were, motionless, except the wings, while she
+looked into the cause of the disturbance, and often expressed her
+disapproval of our behavior in squeaky cries.
+
+The toilet of this lilliputian in feathers, performed on her chosen twig
+as it often was, interested me greatly. As carefully as though she were
+a foot or two, instead of an inch or two long, did she clean and put in
+order every plume on her little body, and the work of polishing her beak
+was the great performance of the day. This member was plainly her pride
+and her joy; every part of it, down to the very tip, was scraped and
+rubbed by her claws, with the leg thrown over the wing, exactly as big
+birds do. It was astonishing to see what she could do with her leg. I
+have even seen her pause in mid-air and thrust one over her vibrating
+wing to scratch her head.
+
+Then when the pretty creature was all in beautiful order, her
+emerald-green back and white breast immaculate, when she had shaken
+herself out, and darted out and drawn back many times her long
+bristle-like tongue, she would sometimes hover along before the tips of
+the fence-stakes, which were like laths, held an inch apart by
+wires,--collecting, I suppose, the tiny spiders which were to be found
+there. She always returned to the honeysuckle, however, to finish her
+repast, opening and closing her tail as one flirts a fan, while the
+breeze made by her wings agitated the leaves for two feet around her.
+Should a blossom just ready to fall come off on her beak like a coral
+case, as it sometimes did, she was indignant indeed; she jerked herself
+back and flung it off with an air that was comical to see.
+
+When the hot wind blew, the little creature seemed to feel the
+discomfort that bigger ones did: she sat with open beak as though
+panting for breath; she flew around with legs hanging, and even alighted
+on a convenient leaf or cluster of flowers, while she rifled a blossom,
+standing with sturdy little legs far apart, while stretching up to reach
+the bloom she desired.
+
+Two statements of the books were not true in the case of this bird: she
+did not sit on a twig upright like an owl or a hawk, but held her body
+exactly as does a robin or sparrow; and she did fly backward and
+sideways, as well as forward.
+
+Toward the end of June my tiny visitor began to make longer intervals
+between her calls, and when she did appear she was always in too great
+haste to stop; she passed rapidly over half a dozen blossoms, and then
+flitted away. Past were the days of loitering about on poplar twigs or
+preening herself on the peach-tree. It was plain that she had set up a
+home for herself, and the mussy state of her once nicely kept breast
+feathers told the tale,--she had a nest somewhere. Vainly, however, did
+I try to track her home: she either took her way like an arrow across
+the garden to a row of very tall locusts, where a hundred humming-birds'
+nests might have been hidden, or turned the other way over a neighbor's
+field to a cluster of thickly grown apple-trees, equally impossible to
+search. If she had always gone one way I might have tried to follow, but
+to look for her infinitesimal nest at opposite poles of the earth was
+too discouraging, even if the weather had been cool enough for such
+exertion.
+
+When at last I could endure the wind and the dust and the heat no
+longer, and stood one morning on the porch, waiting for the most
+deliberate of drivers with his carriage to drive me to the station, that
+I might leave Utah altogether, the humming-bird appeared on the scene,
+took a sip or two out of her red cups, flirted her feathers saucily in
+my very face, then darted over the top of the cottage and disappeared;
+and that was the very last glimpse I had of the little dame in green.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX.
+
+
+ Acadian flycatcher, 161.
+
+ Arkansas goldfinch, 23.
+
+ At four o'clock in the morning, 95.
+
+
+ Barbed wire fence, 157.
+
+ Behind the tangle, 246.
+
+ Birds:
+   and poets, 194.
+   a strange song, 73.
+   different ways, 264.
+   hard to study, 20.
+   in Colorado, 18.
+   in Colorado Springs, 260.
+   in Denver, 260.
+   in the "Wrens' Court," 161, 166, 168.
+   leave nesting place, 154.
+   morning chorus, 21, 22, 105.
+   music in Colorado, 32.
+   not on exhibition, 19.
+   not sing alike, 34.
+   panic among, 39.
+   unfamiliar, 23, 259.
+   Utah, 260.
+
+ Black-headed grosbeak, 244, 251.
+   song of, 244.
+
+ Blue jay, 126.
+   and doll, 103.
+   and red-headed woodpecker, 104.
+   apple-tree nest, 151.
+   a struggle, 149.
+   attentive to mate, 127.
+   bad name, 147.
+   devoted mother, 127.
+   eating, 144.
+   getting over the ground, 145.
+   home deserted, 140.
+   interview with, 146.
+   joke or war-cry? 134.
+   manners, 130, 132, 144.
+   my search for nest, 126.
+   no pretense, 130.
+   pine-tree nest, 126.
+   vocabulary, 133.
+   when babies are noisy, 131.
+   with a stranger, 148.
+   with catbirds, 150.
+
+ Blue jay, the young:
+   accident to, 140.
+   beauty of, 143.
+   climber, 141.
+   first outing, 138.
+   imperfect, 152.
+   intelligence in house, 152.
+   on edge of nest, 137.
+   returned to parents, 153.
+
+ Bobolink song, 120.
+
+ Burro an investigator, 89.
+
+
+ Camp Harding, 9.
+
+ Camping in Colorado, 3.
+
+ Canyon wren, the, 74.
+   manners, 86, 87.
+   song, 74.
+
+ Cardinal grosbeak, 107.
+   abandoning the nest, 120.
+   as a father, 113.
+   confidence in people, 121.
+   delight of parents, 123.
+   eating corn, 109, 115.
+   importance of the builder, 119.
+   kindness to young, 117.
+   manners, 107.
+   nest, 122.
+   on grass, 105, 107.
+   politeness to mate, 116.
+   reception of woodpecker, 108.
+   rose trellis nest, 121.
+   speeding the parting guest, 125.
+   victim of English sparrow, 114.
+
+ Cardinal, the young, 113.
+   characteristics, 114.
+   first baby out, 122.
+   food of, 123.
+   song of, 116.
+   training, 116.
+   with sparrows, 114, 115.
+
+ Carolina wren, the great:
+   babies appear, 172.
+   ceremony of approaching, 177.
+   father disturbed, 175.
+   first sight of, 159.
+   fighting a chipmunk, 178.
+   hard to see, 177.
+   interruption to study, 168.
+   manners, 163, 173, 175.
+   mother anxious, 176.
+   nest, 149, 182.
+   song, 162, 164.
+   trailing, 162.
+   "Wrens' Court," 160.
+
+ Carolina wren, the young:
+   cries of, 181.
+   delay in taking flight, 179.
+   development of, 174.
+   first sallies, 180, 181.
+   manners, 178.
+
+ Catbird song, 23.
+
+ Cat on lawn, 112.
+
+ Cedar-tree little folk, 194.
+
+ Charming nook, a, 124.
+
+ Chat, long-tailed, yellow-breasted, 40, 232.
+   alertness of, 240.
+   bewitching, 241.
+   comes in sight, 237.
+   eccentric, 232.
+   egg stolen, 50.
+   farewell, 51.
+   first sight of, 45.
+   hard to study, 47.
+   haunts of, 241.
+   home of, 246.
+   humor, 40.
+   manners, 44, 46, 238, 239, 240.
+   nest, 47, 48.
+   on hand, 245.
+   saucy, 41.
+   secret of invisibility, 239.
+   studies me, 254,
+   triumphant, 257.
+   voice, 40, 43, 45, 236, 237, 239.
+
+ Chat, the madam:
+   interviews me, 255.
+   keeps her mate up to duty, 249.
+   manners, 248.
+   squawks, 254.
+   wonderful acting, 256.
+
+ Chewink, or towhee bunting:
+   babies, 31.
+   green-tailed towhee, 210.
+   husky cry, 30.
+   manners, 28, 29.
+   nest, 30.
+   song, 29.
+
+ Cheyenne Canyon, 15.
+   solitary possession of, 75.
+
+ Cheyenne Mountain, 43.
+
+ Chipmunk, 78.
+
+ Cinderella among the flowers, a, 60.
+
+ Cliff-dwellers in the canyon, 70.
+
+ Colorado, a restful way to see, 13.
+   the wonderland, 14.
+
+ Cotton storm, a, 17.
+
+ Cottonwoods, in the, 17.
+
+ Cuckoo, 157, 231.
+
+
+ Doll as a bogy, 103.
+
+ Dragonflies in Utah, 263.
+
+
+ English or house sparrow:
+   as a climber, 110.
+   autocrat, 129.
+   in Utah, 261.
+   robbing blackbirds, 100.
+   robbing red-headed woodpecker, 110.
+
+
+ Feast of flowers, the, 52.
+
+ Flicker a character, 106.
+
+ Flowers:
+   abundance of bloom, 54.
+   anemone, 61.
+   cactus, 56, 62, 74.
+   castilleia, 67.
+   cleome, 67.
+   columbine, 58, 67.
+   cyclamen, 67.
+   extermination by cattle, 208.
+   extermination by tourists, 68.
+   geranium, 58.
+   gilia, 64.
+   golden prince's feather, 65.
+   gummy and clinging stems, 66.
+   harebells, 67.
+   in a niche, 73.
+   in Kansas, 52.
+   mariposa lily, 65.
+   mentzelia, 60.
+   mertensia, 67.
+   Mexican poppy, 62.
+   milky juice, 66.
+   moccasin plant, 54, 75.
+   nasturtium, self-willed, 149.
+   ox-eye daisy, 66.
+   painter of, 68.
+   paradise of, 53.
+   pentstemon, 58.
+   pink stranger, 62.
+   primrose, 58, 67.
+   roses, 58, 63, 75.
+   spiderwort, 52.
+   symphony in green, 55.
+   varieties, 53, 57.
+   vetches, 67.
+   wild garden, 57.
+   wild mignonette, 62.
+   yellow daisies, 52.
+   yucca, 55, 62.
+
+
+ Gates, idiosyncrasies of, 220.
+
+ Getting up in the morning, 95.
+
+ Glen, a beautiful, 155.
+   frightened out of, 169.
+
+ Grasshopper, a clacking, 266.
+
+ Grave of "H. H.," 90, 91.
+
+ Great-crested flycatcher, 167.
+
+ Gull, the herring, 211.
+   following the plow, 213.
+   flight, 215.
+   manners, 213.
+   nesting, 216.
+   nooning, 215.
+   penalty for killing, 212.
+   sent to the "Chosen People," 212.
+   value of, 216.
+
+
+ Horned lark:
+   horns, 36.
+   nest, 36.
+   song, 35.
+
+ Horse, a scared, and result, 228.
+   drive me away, 257.
+
+ House wren, the Western, 24.
+   babies, 27, 28.
+   disturbed, 27.
+   manners, 24.
+   nest, 25.
+   song, 27.
+   strange cry, 25.
+
+ Humming-bird:
+   collecting spiders, 271.
+   different from the Eastern, 38.
+   dislike of heat, 272.
+   in canyon, 76.
+   last glimpse, 273.
+   manners, 269.
+   nesting, 272.
+   noisy, 38.
+   precious beak, 271.
+   scolding, 42.
+   surveillance, 40.
+   the broad-tailed, 268.
+   toilet of, 271.
+
+
+ Ideal retreat, an, 247.
+
+ In a pasture, 207.
+
+ In the Middle Country, 93.
+
+ In the Rocky Mountains, 1.
+
+ Irrigation vagaries, 242, 245, 267.
+
+
+ Kansas, 7.
+
+ Kitchen, an al fresco, 243.
+
+ Kitten, a lost, 39.
+
+
+ Lazuli-painted finch, 261.
+   anxiety of mother, 263.
+   babies, 267.
+   manners, 262, 265.
+   nest, 262.
+   nest destroyed, 268.
+
+
+ Magpie:
+   discover us, 225.
+   manners, 216, 219, 224.
+   nest, 223.
+   nursery, 230.
+   reception to us, 227.
+   search for nest, 216.
+   song, 224.
+
+ Meadow-lark, the Western, 249.
+   cry, 120.
+   song, 24, 32, 34.
+
+ Morning tramp, a, 156.
+
+ Mosquito, absence of, 20.
+   a lonely, 21.
+
+ Mourning dove, 103.
+   headquarters, 199.
+   joke of, 200.
+   manners, 196, 198, 199.
+   nest, 198.
+   silence of, 201, 204.
+   song, 195, 204.
+   talk, 204.
+   wing whistle, 204.
+   young, interview with, 201.
+   young, manners of, 197, 201.
+
+
+ Oak-brush, the, 222.
+
+ On the lawn, 259.
+
+ Orchard, an old, 250.
+
+ Orchard oriole:
+   a later view, 191.
+   anxiety of parents, 185.
+   baby cries, 186.
+   babies' first flight, 189, 190.
+   call from a Baltimore, 188.
+   called by nestlings, 184.
+   manners, 186, 190.
+   nest, 184, 192.
+   song of female, 191.
+   song of male, 192.
+
+
+ Park, a deserted, 42.
+
+ Pewee, Western wood, 22.
+   nest, 38.
+   song, 22, 37.
+   voice, 37.
+
+ Purple grackle, the, 96.
+   discouraging them, 104.
+   eating, 100.
+   greeting to me, 97.
+   husky tones, 98.
+   humor, 99.
+   no repose of manner, 101.
+   plumage, 99.
+   robbed by sparrows, 100.
+   strange utterances, 98.
+   treatment of young, 101.
+   young, 98, 101, 102.
+   young, persistence of, 102.
+
+
+ Red-headed woodpecker:
+   autocrat, 106.
+   eating corn, 109.
+   protecting the place, 110.
+   treatment of cardinal grosbeak, 108.
+   treatment of doll, 104.
+
+ Rest, to find, 3, 4, 5, 6, 11.
+
+ Robin, absence of, 28.
+   and corn, 103.
+   and doll, 103.
+   not plentiful, 250.
+   reception of snake, 250.
+
+ Rocky Mountains:
+   a pasture on, 207.
+   Cheyenne range, 235.
+   Wasatch range, 233, 234.
+
+
+ Sage-bush, 233.
+
+ Sage the delight of my friend, 234.
+
+ Salt Lake, view of, 218.
+
+ Secret of the Wild Rose Path, 231.
+
+ Seven Sisters' Falls, 72.
+
+ Sight-seeing travelers, 12.
+
+ South wind, 266.
+
+ Strange character of feathered world, 128.
+
+ Strangers not allowed, 129.
+
+ Study of birds, my way, 226.
+
+ Study of birds, two ways, 236.
+
+
+ Tents to live in, 11.
+
+ Thrushes absent, 260.
+
+ Tourist, 89, 91.
+
+ Tourist, the unscrupulous, 68.
+
+ Towhee (see Chewink).
+
+ Tragedy of a nest, 42.
+
+
+ Uproar of song, an, 32.
+
+
+ Vagaries of name-givers, 160.
+
+ View, a beautiful, 136.
+
+
+ Walks from the camp, 70.
+   the evening, 70.
+   the morning, 72.
+   up to the canyon, 72.
+
+ Water ouzel, or American dipper:
+   baby, 80, 85.
+   cry, 79.
+   "dipping," 80.
+   feats in the water, 83.
+   manners, 80, 81.
+   nest, 77.
+   song, 79, 81.
+   the mother, 82.
+
+ Wood-thrush nest, 168.
+
+
+ Yellow warbler:
+   nest, 36, 37.
+   song, 23, 36.
+
+
+
+
+    +----------------------------------------------+
+    |             Transcriber's Note:              |
+    |                                              |
+    | Letters with a macron above are represented  |
+    | by [=x].                                     |
+    |                                              |
+    | Typographical errors corrected in the text:  |
+    |                                              |
+    | Page  72  standstone changed to sandstone    |
+    | Page 153  Word "to" added before "one side"  |
+    | Page 250  cooes changed to coos              |
+    | Page 277  " added to "Wrens' Court,          |
+    +----------------------------------------------+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Bird-Lover in the West, by
+Olive Thorne Miller and Harriet Mann Miller
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