74 BIRDS OF THE ROCKIES 



chievous chipmunk, and drove him away, as if he knew 

 him for an arrant nest-robber. 



Leaving this enchanting spot, I trudged down the 

 mountain valleys and ravines, holding silent converse 

 everywhere with the birds, and at length reached a 

 small park, green and bushy, a short distance above the 

 Halfway House. While jogging along, my eye caught 

 sight of a gray -headed junco, which flitted from a clump 

 of bushes bordering the stream to a spot on the ground 

 close to some shrubs. The act appeared so suggestive 

 that I decided to reconnoitre. I walked cautiously to 

 the spot where the bird had dropped down, and in a 

 moment she flew up with a scolding chipper. There 

 was the nest, set on the ground in the grass and cosily 

 hidden beneath the over-arching branches of a low bush. 

 Had the mother bird been wise and courageous enough 

 to retain her place, her secret would not have been be- 

 trayed, the nest was so well concealed. 



The pretty couch contained four juvenile j uncos 

 covered only with down, and yet, in spite of their ex- 

 treme youth, their. foreheads and lores showed black, and 

 their backs a distinctly reddish tint, so early in life were 

 they adopting the pattern worn by their parents. The 

 persistency of species in the floral and faunal realms 

 presents some hard nuts for the evolutionist to crack. 

 But that is an excursus, and would lead us too far afield. 

 This was the first j unco's nest I had ever found, and 



