AN EARLY COLORADO NATURALIST—DENIS GALE 33 
To note his glidings over this rich carpet of green, making his full stops and his half stops 
in length and duration, suggests his punctuating a sermon upon the harmony of the sur- 
roundings and loveliness. He acts no folly, thinks no evil, speaks no mischief. Where- 
fore should he be distrustful of harm to his home and brood? At present his mate per- 
forms her quiet function in a charming nest of moss and grasses secured by a few twigs 
in a small balsam hard by, which the genial warmth of July is forcing to infant maturity 
its young shoots, and the parent stem to a prodigality of perfume. Here sits our female 
hermit in patient devotion, sheltered from the rough winds but open to enjoy to the fullest 
the cool, soft, sighing breath of summer. Here her cheek is crimsoned by the matin ray, 
with languishing pleasure she marks its midday travel and receives the gilding of its 
vesper kiss. Within easy wing of her present charge are relics of previous summers 
which call up past thoughts of endearing labors. Within softening distance bubbles the 
mountain stream, the avenue by which the snows of yesterday upon the neighboring 
peaks in liquid haste reach here to temper meridian fervor. Everything is music, therefore 
her mate is silent. Birds of poetic tastes and habits, fast friends to solitude, fit ministers 
to share in sweet solitude’s silent adoration! 
The writer, in analyzing Mr. Gale’s notes, was sometimes forced to 
the conclusion that he had indulged in broad generalizations from limited 
data, and in one or two instances he seems to have allowed imagination 
of what was probably true to supplant deduction from the facts actually 
observed; but the facts themselves were usually definitely stated sepa- 
rately from his interpretation thereof, so that the reader of the notes may 
form his own conclusions. The notebooks, six in number, beginning 
with May 20, 1883, contain internal evidence of at least two or three 
years’ prior observations in the region, perhaps beginning with his acqui- 
sition of the mining interests in 1881, but of such prior observations 
either he kept no notes or they have not come to light. His notes are 
written in a fine, cramped, old-fashioned hand, often difficult to read, 
many words being legible only under a lens of low power. ‘These.note- 
books, together with his fine collection of nests and eggs, were acquired 
by the University of Colorado as part of the “Guggenheim Biological 
Collection,” purchased with funds generously furnished by Hon. Simon 
Guggenheim, of Denver. The notes have been transcribed by the 
writer of this sketch, making 305 typewritten pages of letter-head size, 
annotated, indexed, substantially bound, and placed in the University 
Library so that the information therein is available to ornithologists 
visiting the University. The collection includes fine series of eggs and 
nests of many species, beautifully prepared, and the work of arranging 
