36 BIRDS OF THE ROCKIES 



In the vicinity of Manitou many trips were taken 

 by the zealous pedestrian. Some of the dry, steep 

 sides of the first range of mountains were hard chmb- 

 ing, but it was necessary to make the effort in order to 

 discover their avian resources. One of the first birds 

 met with on these unpromising acchvities was the 

 spurred towhee of the Rockies. In his attire he 

 closely resembles the towhee, or "chewink," of the 

 East, but has as an extra ornament a beautiful 

 sprinkling of white on his back and wings, which 

 makes him look as if he had thrown a gauzy mantle 

 of silver over his shoulders. 



But his song is different from our eastern towhee''s. 

 My notes say that it is "a cross between the song of 

 the chewink and that of dickcissel," and I shall 

 stand by that assertion until I find good reason to 

 disown it — should that time ever come. The opening 

 syllabication is like dickcissePs ; then follow^s a trill 

 of no specially definable character. There are times 

 when he sings with more than his wonted force, and it 

 is then that his tune bears the strongest likeness to the 

 eastern towhee*'s. But his alarm-call ! It is no *' che- 

 wink " at all, but almost as close a reproduction of a 

 cat's mew as is the catbird's Mell-known call. Such 

 crosses and anomalies does this country produce ! 



On the arid mountain sides among the stunted 

 bushes, cactus plants, sand, and rocks, this quaint 



