124 THE STORY OF A BIRD LOVER 



spotted all over with light brown, which becomes quite definite 

 at the larger end. They are large in proportion to the size of 

 the bird, and one end is very little sharper than the other. The 

 following are the dimensions : .55 x .45, .55 X .44, .54 X .42, 

 •57 X .45> -58 X .43-" 



During our stay at Twin Lakes we went a 

 number of times to Leadville, some fourteen 

 miles away. A successful mining camp in em- 

 bryo, situated in what had once been a famous 

 gold placer, California Gulch, it presented a novel 

 and remarkable spectacle. A camp, in the remote 

 fastnesses of the mountains, with a few hundred 

 inhabitants, grew, from the time of the melting 

 of the snow in spring, to a city of fifteen thousand 

 people ere, with the early fall, the first white flakes 

 appeared betokening the coming winter. It was 

 a city of canvas and wood, largely canvas. A 

 mighty stream of adventurers of all kinds was 

 flowing in daily. Miners and capitalists, gamblers 

 and courtesans, preachers and actors, swelled the 

 throng. With the virgin pine forests, at the edge 

 of its streets and squares, fourteen steam sawmills 

 were unable to supply the demand for lumber for 

 building, and tents were conspicuous for the en- 

 tire first year of this city's life. 



Beside other woodpeckers, notably the red- 

 shafted flicker and the type of yellow-bellied 

 woodpecker prevalent in the West, the brown- 

 headed woodpecker was common and bred at 



