294 BIRDS OF THE ROCKIES 



in her bill flitted up the steep bank a short distance 

 and disappeared among the bushes. The tidbit in 

 her bill gave me a clew to the situation ; so I scrambled 

 up the steep place, and presently espied a nest in a 

 bush, about a foot and a half from the ground. As 

 had been anticipated, it turned out to be a green-tailed 

 townee's domicile, as was proved by the presence and 

 uneasy chirping of a pair of those birds. While the 

 nest at Breckenridge was set on the ground, this one 

 was placed on the twigs of thick bushes, showing that 

 these birds, like their eastern relatives, are fond of 

 diversity in selecting nesting places. 



This nest contained four bantlings, already well 

 fledged. My notes say that their mouths were yellow- 

 lined, and that the fleshy growths at the corners of 

 their bills were yellow. Does the lining of the juvenile 

 green-tail's mouth change from red to yellow as he 

 advances in age ? My notes certainly declare that the 

 nestlings at Breckenridge had carmine-lined mouths. 

 For the present I cannot settle the question either 

 affirmatively or negatively. 



Here I perpetrated a trick which I have ever since 

 regretted. The temptation to hold a baby green-tail 

 in my hand and examine it closely was so strong that, 

 as carefully as I could, I drew one from its grassy crib 

 and held it in my palm, noting the green tinting 

 already beginning to show on its wings and back. Its 



