20 IN THE EOCKY MOUNTAINS. 



The difficulties in the way of studying Colo- 

 rado birds are several, aside from their exces- 

 sive suspicion of every human being. In the 

 first place, observations must be made before 

 ten o'clock, for at that hour every day a lively 

 breeze, which often amounts to a gale, springs 

 up, and sets the cottonwood and aspen leaves in 

 a flutter that hides the movements of any bird. 

 Then, all through the most interesting month of 

 June the cottonwood-trees are shedding their 

 cotton, and to a person on the watch for slight 

 stirrings among the leaves the falling cotton is 

 a constant distraction. The butterflies, too, 

 wandering about in their aimless way, are all 

 the time deceiving the bird student, and draw- 

 ing attention from the bird he is watching. 



On the other hand, one of the maddening 

 pests of bird study at the East is here almost 

 unknown, the mosquito. Until the third week 

 in June I saw but one. That one was in the 

 habit of lying in wait for me when I went to a 

 piece of low, swampy ground overgrown with 

 bushes. Think of the opportunity this combi- 

 nation offers to the Eastern mosquito, and 

 consider my emotions when I found but a soli- 

 tary individual, and even that one disposed to 

 coquette with me. 



I had hidden myself, and was keeping motion- 

 less, in order to see the very shy owners of a 



