BALD PEAKS AND GREEN VALES 67 



chickadee's song on the western side of the range, and 

 found it to be quite unlike the minor strain of our pleas- 

 ant black -cap of the East. 



On the mountain side forming the descent to Moraine 

 Lake a flock of Clark's nutcrackers were flying about in 

 the pine woods, giving expression to their feelings in a 

 great variety of calls, some of them quite strident. 

 A little junco came in sight by the side of the trail, 

 and hopped about on the ground, and I was surprised 

 to note a reddish patch ornamenting the centre of his 

 back. Afterwards I learned that it was the gray- 

 headed junco, which is distinctly a western species, breed- 

 ing among the mountains of Colorado. Thrashing about 

 among some dead boles, and making a great to-do, were 

 a pair of small woodpeckers, which closely resembled the 

 well-known downies of our eastern longitudes. I suppose 

 them to have been their western representatives, which 

 are known, according to Mr. Aiken and Professor Cooke, 

 as Batchelder's woodpecker. Near the same place I saw 

 a second pair of mountain bluebirds, flitting about some- 

 what nervously, and uttering a gentle sigh at inter- 

 vals; but as evening was now rapidly approaching, I 

 felt the need of finding lodging for the night, and could 

 not stop to hunt for their nest. 



Faring down the mountain side to the lake, I circled 

 around its lower end until I came to the cottage of the 

 family who have the care of the reservoirs that supply 



