276 BIRDS OF THE ROCKIES 



Acquainted with such tactics, I did not follow her, 

 not even with my eye, but looked down at my feet. 

 Ah ! the water sprites had been kind, for there was the 

 dainty crib, set on a high tuft of sod raised by the win- 

 ter's frosts, a little island castle in the wet marsh, cosey 

 and dry. It was my first savanna sparrow's nest, 

 whether eastern or western. The miniature cottage 

 was placed under a fragment of dried cattle excrement, 

 which made a slant roof over it, protecting it from the 

 hot rays of the sun. Sunken slightly into the ground, 

 the nest's rim was flush with the short grass, while the 

 longer stems rose about it in a green, filmy wall or 

 stockade. The holdings of the pretty cup were four 

 pearls of eggs, the ground color white, the smaller end 

 and middle peppered finely with brown, the larger al- 

 most solidly washed with pigment of the same tint. 



Two more savannas' nests were found not long after- 

 wards, one of them by watching the female until she 

 settled, the other by accidentally flushing her as I 

 walked across the marshy pasture ; but neither of them 

 was placed under a roof as the first one had been, the 

 blue dome being their only shelter. These birdlets seem 

 to be especially fond of soggy places in pastures, setting 

 their nests on the little sod towers that rise above the 

 surrounding water. 



All the birds seen in the park have now been 

 mentioned. It was an idyllic spot, and I have often 



