INTRODUCTION TO SOME SPECIES 37 



bird makes his home, coming down into the valleys 

 to drink at the tinkling brooks and trill his rounde- 

 lays. Many, many times, as I was following a deep 

 fissure in the mountains, his ditty came dripping down 

 to me from some spot far up the steep mountain side — 

 a little cascade of song mingling with the cascades of 

 the brooks. The nests are usually placed under a bush 

 on the sides of the mesas and mountains. 



And would you believe it ? Colorado furnishes an- 

 other towhee, though why he should have been put 

 into the Pipilo group by the ornithologists is more than 

 I can tell at this moment. He has no analoo-ue in the 

 East. True, he is a bird of the bushes, running some- 

 times like a little deer from one clump to another ; but 

 if you should see him mount a boulder or a bush, and 

 hear him sing his rich, theme-like, finely modulated song, 

 you would aver that he is closer kin to the thrushes or 

 thrashers than to the towhees. There is not the re- 

 motest suggestion of the towhee minstrelsy in his pro- 

 longed and well-articulated melody. It ^vould be 

 difficult to find a finer lyrist among the mountains. 



But, hold ! I have neglected to introduce this pretty 

 Mozart of the West. He is known by an offensive and 

 inapt title — the green-tailed towhee. Much more ap- 

 propriately might he be called the chestnut-crowned 

 towhee, for his cope is rich chestnut, and the crest is 

 often held erect, making him look quite cavalier-like. 



