PLEASANT OUTINGS 279 



twice without a cjuaver of fear, the youngsters chirping 

 loudly for more of " that good dinner." At this place 

 barn swallows were describing graceful circles and loops 

 in the air, and a sheenv violet-green swallow squatted 

 on the dusty road and took a sun-bath, which she did bv 

 fluffing up all her plumes and spreading out her wings 

 and tail, so that the rays could reach every feather Avith 



, 1 . I i" 1 ■ 1 J T 1 J. tj. Violet-green Swallow 



their graterul warmth and light. It y, 



was a pretty performance, 



A stop-over at Bailey's 

 proved satisfactory for sev- 

 eral reasons, among which 

 was the finding of the Lou- 

 isiana tanagers, which were the first 

 we had seen on this trip, although many of them had " Squatted on the 



been observed in the latitude of Colorado Spring-s. '-"f'/ '■««'' "«'^ 



^ ° took a sun-bath 

 Afterwards we found them abundant in the neighbor- 

 hood of Boulder. The only pigmy nuthatches of this 

 visit were seen in a ravine above Bailey's. Li the same 

 wooded hollow I took occasion to make some special 

 notes on the quaint calls of the long-crested jays, a 

 task that I had thus far deferred from time to time. 

 There was an entire family of javs in the ravine, the 

 elders feeding their strapping youngsters in the cus- 

 tomary manner. These birds frequently give voice to a 

 strident call that is hard to distinguish from the cries 

 of their kinsmen, the mountain jays. When I pursued 



