310 Widmann, Birds of Estes Park, Colorado. \tuUi 



Not counting those species that have been found only at Fork's, 

 6160 feet, which place was probably not visited by Kellogg and 

 McGregor, twelve species must be considered new additions from 

 the east to the bird fauna of Estes village. They are Chestnut- 

 backed Bluebird, Catbird, Western Yellowthroat, Yellow Warbler, 

 Rough-winged Swallow, Western Vesper Sparrow, Pine Siskin, 

 House Finch, Cowbird, Bobolink, Kingbird, House Sparrow. 



Increased in numbers seem to have the following: Western Robin, 

 Western House Wren, Mountain Song Sparrow, Barn Swallow, 

 Red-headed Woodpecker, Red-winged Blackbird, Western Meadow- 

 lark, Pygmy Nuthatch (of which Kellogg saw but one), and the 

 Band-tailed Pigeon, now protected by State law until September 1, 

 1914. 



Decreased have: Kingfisher, Rock Wren; Western Tanager, 

 which McGregor found abundant; Cassin's Purple Finch, also 

 called abundant by McGregor; probably also Audubon's Hermit 

 Thrush, found "not uncommon" by Kellogg. That Cassin's 

 Kingbird has ever been common, as Professor Kellogg found it 

 twenty years ago, is so much more astonishing as not a single 

 individual has been met with anywhere. To the decrease of Birds 

 of Prey is due the enormous increase of Chipmunks and Spermo- 

 philes, and to their increase the scarcity of birds which build on or 

 near ground. The little chipmunk (Eutamias amoenus operarius) 

 may be less injurious to birds than the larger one, Say's spermophile 

 (C alios per mophilus lateralis), which is by far the commoner of the 

 two at the altitude of Long's Peak Inn, 9000 feet. That not even 

 bird nests in low trees are safe from the attacks of this rodent, 

 which has the size of a house rat, was proved to us June 28, when 

 near Horse Shoe Falls our attention was called by the most piteous 

 cries of a pair of Audubon's Warblers to a young Douglas spruce, 

 in which a Say's spermophile was climbing up and had already 

 reached a height of three feet, climbing higher in spite of the hostile 

 demonstrations of the distressed warblers. Eight feet from the 

 ground and two feet from the tip of the spruce was the home of 

 four not yet fully fledged warblers and it was clear that the 'rat' 

 intended an attack upon it, for the animal is never seen to go up 

 trees in its ordinary occupation, which is chiefly aimed at the 

 destruction of wild flowers, on which it seems to live in summer, 



