THE PLAINS AND COLORADO 121 



They are droll little birds standing on the 

 summit of the earth heaped at the mouth of a 

 burrow. As you approach they begin to nod and 

 gesticulate with their heads, bowing and seemingly 

 much interested in the visit. This series of genu- 

 flexions is continued until a close approach is 

 made, when the bird flies away with a rather slow, 

 silent, flapping sort of flight, or more often disap- 

 pears into the burrow beside the mound, like a 

 jack-in-the-box. This habit of disappearance not 

 only interested the human element in our party, 

 but my setter Grouse, who accompanied us to 

 Colorado, was equally impressed. He could not 

 get used to it. That a bird standing on the 

 ground should, in an instant, instead of taking 

 flight, vanish into the bowels of the earth, was too 

 much ! He protested loudly whenever he wit- 

 nessed the phenomenon. 



A drive from Denver to this prairie-dog town 

 served to introduce two other birds characteristic 

 of the region. The mountain-plover, a species 

 with something about it suggestive of the kill- 

 deer, but larger and of the build of the lapwing 

 of Europe ; and the prairie falcon recalling the 

 peregrine, and in size about halfway between that 

 bird and his miniature relative, the pigeon hawk. 



"Just in the town itself are very many birds, doubtless 

 attracted by the trees planted so liberally along the streets, 

 and by the little streams of water that run along in what we 



