OVER THE DIVIDE AND BACK 129 



line ; and he dwells on both sides of the mountains, for 

 I met with him at Glen wood. About a half mile above 

 Malta a western night-hawk was seen, hurtling in his 

 eccentric, zigzag flight overhead, uttering his strident 

 call, and "hawking for flies," as White of Selborne 

 would phrase it. A western grassfinch flew over to some 

 bushes with a morsel in its bill, but I could not discover 

 its nest or young, search as I would. Afterwards it 

 perched on a telegraph wire and poured out its evening 

 voluntary, which was the precise duplicate of the trills 

 of the grassfmches of eastern North America. There 

 seems to be only a slight difference between the eastern 

 and western forms of these birds, so slight, indeed, that 

 they can be distinguished only by having the birds in 

 hand. 



Turtle doves were also plentiful in the valley above 

 Malta, as they were in most suitable localities. Here 

 were also several western robins, one of which saluted 

 me with a cheerful carol, whose tone and syllabling 

 were exactly like those of the merry redbreast of our 

 Eastern States. I was delighted to find the sweet- 

 voiced white-crowned sparrows tenants of this valley, 

 although they were not so abundant here as they had 

 been a little over a week before in the hollows below 

 the summit of Pikers Peak. But what was the bird 

 which was singing so blithely a short distance up the 

 slope? He remained hidden until I drew near, when 



