224 MijSTOT on Colorado Birds. 



above the sea, and, in fact, nearly on a level with the summit of 

 Mount Washington. Here I spent most of June, making one ex- 

 cursion up Pike's Peak, and two, in the last week, to the Seven 

 Lakes, which lie over 11,000 feet up, and about 500 feet below 

 timber line, suggesting, wnth their swampy moorlands and spruce 

 timber, the Adirondacks, — for instance, the Saint Regis Lakes. 



1. Turdus aonalaschkae auduboni, Ridg. Hermit Thrush. — 

 Abundant at Boulder, May 31, in the groves along the town creek and 

 elsewhere, associated with an equal number of Swainson's Thrushes, 

 many Audubon's Warblers, a few Snow-birds, and perhaps a Lincoln's 

 Sparrow, besides a flock of Cassin's Finches in the fields, — all brought 

 down, I suppose, by a cold storm, above the plains of snow, that on the 

 mountains may have been heavy. I found them all again on the bright 

 morning of June 1, before leaving town. On Pike's Peak I neither saw 

 nor heard the Hermit Thrush. 



2. Turdus swainsoni, Cah. Swainson's Thrush. — Common 

 summer residents. Established by May 20, above 8,000 feet. Abundant, 

 however, at Boulder, May 31, as related above. On Pike's Peak, June 

 21, sinQ;ing plentifully at evening from 9,500 to 10,500 feet up. 



3. Cinclus mexicanus, Swain. Dipper. — Do more than one pair of 

 these birds ever inhabit tlie same stream or district ? I think not. I found 

 one pair to every clear, forcible mountain stream ; though these may have 

 occupied merely one section. No matter how swift his flight, and how 

 tortuous the stream, the Dipper always follows it closely, never taking a 

 " cross-cut," and never flying much above it, except to scale a fall. In 

 " ducking," as he does constantly when perched, he often does not bend 

 the legs, but merely compresses the body, and slightly spreads the wings. 

 He can climb, for sometimes he runs down a slojie of rock to the water's 

 edge, and sci-ambles back again. His ordinary notes are a sharp chip, 

 and a chatter. In June his song is rarely to be heard. He is so active 

 and unsuspicious that he may readily be traced to his nest, which is usually 

 built near some fall. The only one I took was quitted by the young in 

 the last week of June, when I found the bottom or bedding gone. Did the 

 parents, as a sanitary measure, remove this, with a view to future occupa- 

 tion ? This nest is a sort of compressed globe, about seven inches by ten, 

 with a circular entrance in front, four inches in diameter. It was built of 

 moss, dry grasses, and some leaves, all cemented with mud, in a rift of 

 rock, some five feet above the water, in a chasm just below a high cascade. 

 It was completely hidden from any ordinary human point of view. 



4. Saxicola oenanthe, Bechst. Stone-chat. — One specimen at 

 Boulder, May 14, 1880. Considering how admirably suited the foot-hill 

 slopes of the Rocky Mountains seemed to the wants of the Stone-chat, as 

 exemplified in England, I looked hopefully for other specimens. Though 

 I found none, I believe that this pretty species will prove to be of circum- 



