224 Bailey, A Drop of Four Thousand Feet. [April 



berries, and birds were gathered in happy throngs. They were 

 everywhere. The air was full of their rails and fall songs, and 

 wherever you went, from wood, hush, and tree they flew before you. 

 The weed patches were rustling with Juncos, Chewinks, and Spar- 

 rows, Song and White-crowns — no White-crowns had been seen 

 on Willow Creek after the first snowstorm and only one Song- 

 Sparrow had been heard. The junipers and nut pines were full 

 of talkative Hush-tits, chattering Ruby Kinglets sometimes giving 

 a snatch of song, and House Finches and Bewick Wrens singing 

 gaily — what a clear loud ringing song the Wren has! Bluebirds 

 (bairdi) were seen on all sides. There were Robins, Mourning 

 Doves, Flickers, Horned Larks, Say's Phoebe, Canon Wrens, 

 flocks of Goldfinches and Redwings, and a variety of Hawks — 

 Red-tailed, Sparrow, Sharp-shinned, and Marsh — while Solitaires 

 whistled a clear one-syllabled hip, hip, hip, and on warm days 

 gave their full fall song. Brown Creepers were seen 3500 feet lower 

 than they had been noted a few days before, and one was actually 

 found on a Lower Sonoran mesquite instead of his native Canadian 

 lir and spruce. A small flock of Siskins also reminded us of 

 Willow Creek, but instead of cone seeds they were eating sunflower 

 seeds. 



Ignorant of the fact that most of the birds had left the mountains, 

 a boy whom we saw was planning a hunting trip to them with a 

 freighter. He was going to take one burro just for ammunition, 

 he boasted, for he shot everything he saw down to snowbirds! 



On the freight road our attention was attracted to a dooryard 

 with a flagpole flying an American flag — unusual in rural 

 New Mexico — and still more surprising, two stuffed White-faced 

 Glossy Ibises perched on the fence! Inside the house we were 

 pleased to find a family of Germans. The Ibises, together with a 

 Blue Heron which stood on the parlor mantelpiece, had been shot 

 along the river — which addeil to our list of valley species. The 

 apologetic taxidermist said the birds were SO handsome she wanted 

 to save them, and Inning nothing better had put them up with 

 tobacco and camphor gum, making eyes for the Ibises with black 

 buttons and yellow satin! 



At the next stage station, Lee's Station, a ranch just below the 

 juniper and nut pine slopes of the mountains to which the Wild 



