(% Harblrr 



ii 



motive or vegetation as the top of an adobe hut : under irrigant conditions 

 it is of an almost exhaustless fertility.) One can well imagine, then, that 

 the long, deep canyon gorges between Newcastle and Cambria, in Weston 

 county, Wyoming, are perfectly adapted for summer abodes of the L,ono-- 

 tailed Chat. And there is positively no other area, anywhere, broader or 

 narrower, larger or smaller, that is so intensely crowded, during May or 

 June, with bird-delights as is Cambria Canyon. I have studied it by night 

 and by day ; and I have found its bird-treasures infinite. 



One who has in him all the homing instinct of any Carrier Pio-eon will 

 gladly compass many a weary midnight tramp, in order to reach his own 

 bed. Many a Sunday evening, then, after evening prayer and sermon, have 

 I refused the unbounded hospitality of my Cambria miners; and set out 

 down the canyon, after nine o'clock : for the nine-mile walk to Newcastle. 



NEST OF LONG-TAILED CHAT 



Really, the charm of those night walks cannot possibly be expressed 

 in words. One hungers after them, in reminiscence ; for there is nothing 

 like them, for unexpected (and occasionally hair-lifting) experience, any- 

 where else in all the world. The wierd glare of the coke-ovens confuses 

 you so that you walk warily along the winding, dangerous road ; gingerly 

 watching for the precipitous results of the latest shut-in freshet. And so, 

 for sheer safety, you turn into the railway cuts ; preferring to measure ties 

 along the fifteen bridges of the canyon rather than chance a rude rolling, 

 at some sudden break in the road, down, sixty feet or more, over boulders 

 and pine logs, into the slender, cinder-grimy stream. And so, along the rail- 

 road cuts; you are brought, silently and suddenly, into close contact with 

 many a shut-in pocket; wherein walled-up moisture has promoted luxuriant 



