PLEASANT OUTINGS 279 



twice without a quaver of fear, the youngsters chirping 

 loudly for more of " that good dinner." At this place 

 barn swallows were describing graceful circles and loops 

 in the air, and a sheeny violet-green swallow squatted 

 on the dusty road and took a sun-bath, which she did by 

 fluffing up all her plumes and spreading out her wings 

 and tail, so that the rays could reach every feather with 



, i . , p i , i j v i , T.L Violet-green Swallow 



their grateful warmth and light. It 

 was a pretty performance. 



A stop-over at Bailey's 

 proved satisfactory for sev- 

 eral reasons, among which 

 was the finding of the Lou- 

 isiana tanagers, which were the first 

 we had seen on this trip, although many of them had Squatted on the 



been observed in the latitude of Colorado Springs, dusty road and 



took a sun-bath " 



Afterwards we found them abundant in the neighbor- 

 hood of Boulder. The only pigmy nuthatches of this 

 visit were seen in a ravine above Bailey's. In the same 

 wooded hollow I took occasion to make some special 

 notes on the quaint calls of the long-crested jays, a 

 task that I had thus far deferred from time to time. 

 There was an entire family of jays in the ravine, the 

 elders feeding their strapping youngsters in the cus- 

 tomary manner. These birds frequently give voice to a 

 strident call that is hard to distinguish from the cries 

 of their kinsmen, the mountain jays. When I pursued 



