PLEASANT OUTINGS 



ONE of our pleasantest trips was taken up South 

 Platte Caiion, across South Park, and over the 

 range to Breckenridge. The town lies in the 

 valley of the Blue River, the famous Ten Mile Range, 

 with its numerous peaks and bold and rugged contour, 

 standing sentinel on the west. Here we found many 

 birds, but as few of them were new, I need not stop to 

 enter into special detail. 



At the border of the town I found my first green- 

 tailed towhee^s nest, which will be described in the last 

 chapter. A pair of mountain bluebirds had snuggled 

 their nest in a cranny of one of the cottages, and an 

 entire family of blues were found on the pine-clad slope 

 beyond the stream ; white-crowned sparrows were plen- 

 tiful in the copses and far up the bushy ravines and 

 mountain sides ; western chippies rang their silvery 

 peals ; violet-green swallows wove their invisible fabrics 

 overhead ; juncos and Audubon's warblers proclaimed 

 their presence in many a remote ingle by their little 

 trills ; and Brewer's blackbirds " chacked "" their remon- 



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