lU'JJ.KTIX No :5:5. 



WING SHOTS AND RESTS. 



On the evening of June "iS, 1900, the editor and the writer 

 boarded the west-bound Santa Fe train at Chicago. Our plan 

 was to spend about ten days en route to Seattle,, Wash., via 

 Albuquerque, Pasadena and Portland, and to devote the re- 

 mainder of the summer to the mountainous region of northern 

 Washington. 



In spite of the fact that we had the summer before us we 

 were anxious to get to bed. But the gentleman who pre.sides 

 over the fortunes of the itinerant public couldn't get it thru 

 his Ethiopian skull that we had to get up at five o'clock in 

 the morning to look at the birds. There is nothing which will 

 so pleasantl}- relieve the tedium of railway travel as the taking 

 of a bird horizon. To be sure 3'our fellow-passengers look 

 askance at you as you suddenly thrust your head out of the 

 window to get the last wing-flash of an unexpected friend or 

 as 3^ou dash out of the car door to make the most of a station 

 stop. The}' will think you odd if you hasten to the edge of a 

 near-b}' swamp and listen, one ear strained for bird music and 

 the other on the engine bell ; but " what's the odds so long's 

 you're "appy ? " You have only to recall that your passage is 

 paid for, and that you are living in a larger world than is 

 allowed to some. 



There were no revelations and few notables until we 

 reached the high prairies of eastern Colorado. By the time 

 the Spanish Peaks were sighted the Lark Bunting and the 

 Desert Horned Lark had become familiar. Not until we 

 turned to skirt the Rockies did the distinctly " western " spe- 

 cies appear. These in turn had become so familiar that we 

 gave a shout of glad surprise when we heard Dickcissel at 

 Shoemaker, N. M. He was holding forth bravely at this dis- 

 tant outpost of his tribe. One could not help admiring his 

 taste. An encircling rock wall, with a convenient stream-cut 

 exit, in case the sheriff were incontinently to appear at the en- 

 trance, shut in a little paradise of meadow, shrubbery and 

 rest. Within Dickcissel held undisputed sway over a railroad 

 water tank, a farm house and the green ; while the Rock 

 Wrens, clamorous but cheerful, manned the battlements. 



From Las Vegas the chase became exciting. A Zone- 



