INTRODUCTION TO SOME SPECIES 



IT was night when I found lodgings in the pic- 

 turesque village of Manitou, nestling at the foot 

 of the lower mountains that form the portico 

 to Pikers Peak. Early the next morning I was out for 

 a stroll along the bush-fringed mountain brook which 

 had babbled me a serenade all night. To my delight, 

 the place was rife with birds, the first to greet me being 

 robins, catbirds, summer warblers, and warbling vireos, 

 all of which, being well known in the East, need no 

 description, but are mentioned here only to show the 

 reader that some avian species are common to both the 

 East and the West. 



But let me pause to pay a little tribute to the brave 

 robin redbreast. Of course, here he is called the 

 "western robin." His distribution is an interesting 

 scientific fact. I found him everywhere on the arid 

 plains and mesas, in the solemn pines of the deep 

 gulches and passes, and among the scraggy trees border- 

 ing on timber-line, over ten thousand feet above sea-level. 

 In Colorado the robins are designated as " western,*" 

 forms by the system-makers, but, even though called by 



31 



