A ROCKY MOUNTAIN LAKE 141 



grassy but treeless mountain sides in search of food. 

 In October they retire to the plains, in advance of the 

 austere weather of the great altitudes, and soon the 

 majority of them hie to a blander climate than Colorado 

 affords in winter. 



Still more interesting to me was the large colony of 

 yellow-headed blackbirds that had taken up their resi- 

 dence in the rushes and flags of the upper end of the 

 lake. These birds are not such exclusive westerners as 

 their ebon-hued cousins just described ; for I found them 

 breeding at Lake Minnetonka, near Minneapolis, Min- 

 nesota, a few years ago, and they sometimes straggle, I 

 believe, as far east as Ohio. A most beautiful bird is 

 this member of the Icteridce family, a kind of Beau 

 Brummel among his fellows, with his glossy black coat 

 and rich yellow and even orange, in highest feather 

 mantle covering the whole head, neck, and breast, 

 and a large white, decorative spot on the wings, show- 

 ing plainly in flight. He is the handsomest blackbird 

 with which I am acquainted. 



At the time of my visit to the lake, the latter part 

 of June, the yellow-heads were busy feeding their young, 

 many of which had already left the nest. From the 

 shore, I could see dozens of them clinging to the reeds, 

 several of which they would grasp with the claws of 

 each foot, their little legs straddled far apart, the flexile 

 rushes spreading out beneath their weight. There the 



