LUCK ON THE PRAIRIE 181 



its charms, and had freshly in mind an enthusi- 

 astic eulogy of it by an old friend, now a resident 

 of Colorado, whom I had chanced to fall in with 

 a fortnight before in a railway car. With those 

 three lovely creatures talking to me, I felt that 

 the day was saved. 



A Say's phoebe was near by, in a pear orchard 

 (for the piece of prairie land on which we so un- 

 expectedly found ourselves was under irrigation), 

 and as I had met it first only forty-eight hours 

 before at Del Rio I was glad to see more 

 of its very demure and pretty habits, especially 

 of its clever trick of hovering at considerable 

 length just over the grass. The rather bright 

 buff of its under-parts is one of its striking char- 

 acteristics, and now, when I caught sight of it in 

 the distance, I had for a moment thoughts of 

 some unfamiliar kind of oriole. 



There was barely time to pay my respects to 

 the phoebe before a flash of blue wings made me 

 aware of something more interesting still, a bevy 

 of bluebirds. It would be good fortune, surely, 

 if they should turn out to be of one of the sev- 

 eral Western forms that I had never seen. I 

 drew near, therefore, with all carefulness, and 

 needed but one look to assure myself that such 

 was indeed the case. Their backs were not blue, 

 but of a chestnut shade. The blue of the wings, 



