488 Birds of Colorado 
breast pure white, becoming rusty rufous on the abdomen ; iris brown, 
bill pale horny, legs dark brown. Length 5-0; wing 2-3; tail 2-10; 
culmen -80; tarsus -70. 
The sexes are alike; young birds have fewer white spots on the 
upper-parts, but are more coarsely vermiculated with dusky. 
Distribution.—The arid districts of western United States from 
Colorado to Nevada and south-eastern California; the Wyoming 
record appears to be based on a confusion between the two portions of 
the paper by Holden and Aiken, in the 15th vol. of the Proceedings of 
the Boston Society of Natural History, in which Holden’s notes refer 
to Wyoming and Aiken’s to Colorado. 
In Colorado the Cafion-Wren is a resident throughout the year and 
a somewhat uncommon bird, though probably often overlooked. It is 
most common along the eastern foothills, hardly extending upwards 
beyond an elevation of 8,000 feet ; it has been taken out on the arid 
plains near Cheyenne Wells, only eighteen miles from the Kansas 
border, in November, by Warren (07), but this appears to be exceptional. 
It is not uncommon near Colorado Springs, having been first recorded 
from this neighbourhood by Allen, who found it frequenting the rocks 
in the Garden of the Gods, where it is still to be seen and heard, while 
Minot found a nest near Manitou close by, and Miss Miller watched it 
in south Cheyenne Cafion.. Other records are: Trilby, near Fort 
Collins, June (Markman), Longmont, October 20th (Burnett), Boulder, 
October to January (Betts), Golden, February 22nd and October 10th 
(Test), Wet Mountains, up to 8,000 feet (Lowe), Irwin’s Ranch, Las 
Animas co., May Ist (Warren), Gaume’s Ranch, November (Cary,) 
and on the western slopes—twenty miles east of Rangeley, September 
(Cary), Glenwood Springs in winter (Cooke), Grand Junction, March 3rd 
(Smith apud Rockwell), and Fort Lewis, La Plata co. (Gilman). 
Habits.—The favourite haunt of the Cafion-Wren is 
among the crevices in perpendicular masses of rock and 
cliffs ; here it may be more frequently heard than seen, 
since its notes are exceedingly characteristic and once 
listened to can never be forgotten. Beginning with a 
high note, which is often twice repeated, it descends 
in chromatic scale for seven or eight notes, each dis- 
tinctly marked and clearly and somewhat shrilly given 
out in a series of detached whistles. It is very quick 
in its movements and seldom still, flying up and down 
the perpendicular faces of the great rocks and creeping 
about among the crevices, and even clinging to the over- 
