AN EARLY COLORADO NATURALIST—DENIS GALE 27 
them in their flight from canyon to divide to discover their nests. It 
must be remembered, too, that his labors in this field continued until 
he reached the age of sixty-five years and were only stopped by an injury 
to his knee which incapacitated him for climbing the steep slopes of 
mountain gorges. He made frequent excursions to the St. Vrain, Little 
Thompson, Big Thompson, and even as far north as the Cache la Poudre, 
almost always on foot, stopping wherever night overtook him and wel- 
come at any ranch house or miner’s cabin, for he was genial, interest- 
ing and well informed. He was reticent concerning his natural history 
investigations except with those whom he recognized to some extent as 
kindred spirits and with whom he was very modest about his work. Men 
whose interests were almost entirely centered upon business affairs and 
who knew him well in a business way had not even the slightest knowledge 
of his love for nature, and expressed their surprise when the fact became 
public at the time of his death. Even of his acquaintances who knew 
of his work among the birds few had any real idea of its extent or thorough- 
ness. 
In the mountains he made the acquaintance of many birds whose 
life-histories were not well known. His observations on the nesting and 
food habits of the Clarke crow, dipper, cross-bills, Rocky Mountain 
screech owl (which was named in honor of Mrs. Maxwell, another early 
Boulder County naturalist), sparrow hawk, red-naped and Williamson 
sapsuckers, pigmy nuthatch, Townsend solitaire and Audubon thrush, 
are particularly interesting and valuable. 
When Captain Charles E. Bendire began the preparation of his great 
work on Lije Histories of North American Birds," he entered into a 
correspondence with Mr. Gale which continued for several years. Asa 
result we find that more or less extensive notes from Mr. Gale on at least 
twenty-two species appear in the two parts of that work published, as 
follows: 
A. 0. U. No. 
289 Colinus virginianus—Bob-white. 
297 Dendragapus obscurus—Dusky grouse. 
t CHARLES BENDIRE, Life Histories of North American Birds with Special Reference to Their Breeding 
Habits and Eggs, Special Bulletin U. S. National Museum; only two parts issued, 1892, 1895, when his death 
stopped the work. 
