60 BIRDS OF THE ROCKIES 



late, suffused over neck, breast, and back with intense 

 crimson, while the pileum was quite black. With one 

 exception the white-tailed ptarmigan they range 

 the highest in summer of all Colorado birds. They are 

 never seen below timber-line in that season, and are not 

 known to breed below twelve thousand feet ; thence to 

 the tops of the highest peaks they hatch and rear their 

 young. In August old and young swarm over the sum- 

 mits picking edible insects from the snow, while in winter 

 they descend to timber-line, where most of them remain 

 to brave the arctic weather and its frequent storms. 



Bidding a regretful good-by to the summit, for it 

 held me as by a magician's spell, I hastened down the 

 steep incline of the cog-wheel road, past Windy Point, 

 and turning to the right, descended across the green 

 slope below the boulder region to the open, sunlit valley 

 which I had visited on the previous afternoon. It was 

 an idyllic place, a veritable paradise for birds. Such a 

 chorus as greeted me from the throats of I know not 

 how many white-crowned sparrows, several dozen, per- 

 haps, it would have done the heart of any lover of 

 avian minstrelsy good to listen to. The whole valley 

 seemed to be transfigured by their roundelays, which 

 have about them such an air of poetry and old-world 

 romance. During the morning I was so fortunate as to 

 find a nest, the first of this species that I had ever dis- 

 covered. Providence had never before cast my lot with 



