122 THE STORY OF A BIRD LOVER 



would call gutters in the East, but which here serve to keep 

 alive and green the trees and grass that the dry soil and cli- 

 mate would soon kill were they left to nature's protection. 



" Some of our readers will perhaps be glad to know that there 

 is a large city in this country where the familiar sparrows are 

 hot known, and where their place is supplied by natural inhabit- 

 ants, who, if not so abundant or conspicuous, seem to be able 

 to keep the insect pests at bay ; for rarely have we seen more 

 flourishing and thrifty trees, apparently free from all kinds of 

 cutworms and the like that trouble us so much about our 

 homes in the East. A week ago, in Chicago, we found the 

 sparrows abundant, and their familiar chip, chip, chap, chap, 

 brought New York streets vividly to our minds; and pass- 

 ing through Kansas City the day after, in only a twenty 

 minutes' stop, we detected, we thought, the same little fellows 

 that throng our Eastern cities. But here, in Denver, we have 

 not seen or heard an English sparrow, and as every now and 

 then a bright oriole or gay flycatcher flashes by, with a strain of 

 most beautiful song, or the weak, harsh notes that characterize 

 the latter bird, we congratulate the citizens that their town 

 birds are much more interesting and varied than ours at home. 

 This morning, walking up one of the main streets, the familiar 

 song of the robin was heard, and looking about we saw a superb 

 male bird, apparently of very dark coloring, sitting on the 

 chimney-top of one of the low houses that are a feature of the 

 city. The song seemed to us richer and fuller than at home, 

 and by far more musical, though we would not for a moment 

 disparage that of the Eastern representative of the bird in ques- 

 tion. Maybe, after hearing such a number of strange, and to 

 us new songs for the past few days, this one, from its very fa- 

 miliarity, sounded doubly sweet. The robins do not seem at all 

 common, and, as we said before, this is the only one we have 

 heard singing about here, though we have seen a number of 

 others. There is hardly a bird that one misses more than 

 this, and we should be careful in protecting them about our 



