76 BIRDS OF THE ROCKIES 



Altogether, an odd livery for a woodpecker. Silently 

 he swung from bole to bole for a few minutes, and then 

 disappeared. 



Not until I reached my room in Manitou could I fix 

 the bird's place in the avicular system. By consulting 

 Coues's Key and Professor Cooke's brochure on the Birds 

 of Colorado, I found this quaintly costumed woodpecker 

 to be Williamson's sapsucker (Sphyrapicus thyrvideu*), 

 known only in the western part of the United States from 

 the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific coast. I now lingered 

 in the beautiful pine grove surrounding the Halfway 

 House, hoping to see him again, but he did not appear, 

 and I reluctantly started down the cog-wheel track. 



As I was turning a bend in the road, I caught sight 

 of a mountain chickadee flitting to a dead snag on the 

 slope at the right, the next moment slipping into a 

 small hole leading inside. I climbed up to the shelf, a 

 small level nook among the tall pines on the mountain 

 side, to inspect her retreat, for it was the first nest of this 

 interesting species that I found. The chickadee flashed 

 in and out of the orifice, carrying food to her little ones, 

 surreptitiously executing her housewifely duties. The 

 mountain tit seems to be a shy and quiet little body 

 when compared with the common black-cap known in 

 the East. 



While watching this bird from my place of conceal- 

 ment, I became conscious of the half-suppressed chirping 



