nXiii^ BiU on (^i (godke 



seconds, uttered another " Hurrah," which he em- 

 phasized with a defiant gesture, and went on 

 energetically eating. In the midst of this, some- 

 thing alarmed him, and he flew swiftly away and 

 did not come back. Was this crow a pet that had 

 concluded to strike out for himself? Or had his 

 mimicry or his habit of laying hold of whatever 

 pleased him caused him to appropriate this word 

 from bigger folk .? 



Go where you will over the Rockies and the 

 birds will be with you. One day I spent several 

 hours on the summit of Long's Peak, and while 

 there twelve species of birds alighted or passed 

 near enough for me to identify them. One of 

 these birds was an eagle, another a humming- 

 bird. 



On a June day, while the heights were more 

 than half covered with winter's snow, I came 

 across the nest of a ptarmigan near a drift and at 

 an altitude of thirteen thousand feet above sea- 

 level. The ptarmigan, with their home above 

 tree-line, amid eternal snows, are wonderfully self- 

 reliant and self-contained. The ouzel, too, is self- 

 poised, indifferent to all the world but his brook, 



158 



