BALD PEAKS AND GREEN VALES 71 



the mountains. It is an exceedingly wary bird, keeping 

 itself hidden amid the bushy clusters for the greater 

 part of the time, now and then venturing to peep out 

 at the intruder, and then bolting quickly into a safe 

 covert. Occasionally it will hop out upon the top of 

 a bush in plain sight, and remain for a few moments, 

 just long enough for you to fix its identity and note the 

 character of its pleasing trill. Some of these points 

 were settled afterwards and not on the morning of my 

 first meeting with the chary little songster. 



]My plan for the day was to retrace my steps of the 

 previous afternoon, by climbing over the ridge into the 

 upper valley and visiting the famous Seven Lakes, which 

 I had missed the day before through a miscalculation in 

 my direction. Clark"'s crows and the mountain jays 

 were abundant on the acclivities. One of the latter 

 dashed out of a pine bush with a clatter that almost 

 raised the echoes, but, look as I would, I could find no 

 nest or young or anything else that would account for 

 the racket. 



The Seven Lakes are beautiful little sheets of trans- 

 parent water, embosomed among the mountains in a 

 somewhat open valley where there is plenty of sunshine. 

 They are visible from the summit of Pikers Peak, from 

 which distant viewpoint they sparkle like sapphire gems 

 in a setting of green. As seen from the Peak they 

 appear to be quite close together, and the land about 



