io6 



RECREATION. 



affectionate way that seemed to indicate 

 they were having' a little conference just 

 among themselves. 



As I still pursued them, one of the old 

 birds cried "Quick! quick! quick!" as 

 fast as he could fling the syllable from his 

 tongue, the meaning of the outburst being 

 "Hurry away ! hurry, hurry !" But that 

 was not all; one of the birds uttered an- 

 other call, which I translated, "Go ware ! 

 go ware !" delivered in so raucous a tone 

 that it might have frightened one who was 

 not used to uncanny sounds in lonely 

 places. Presently the whole company dis- 

 appeared, not caring for human society any 

 longer, but I could still hear them filing 

 their saws far up in the mountain side. 



While there were many birds at the low- 

 er end of the ravine where it opened into 

 the valley, their numbers grew less the 

 farther I climbed into the mountains. In 

 all my rambling I found this the case. 

 Comparatively few birds care for the soli- 

 tudes ; at least, their favorite haunts are in 

 the neighborhood of babbling streams, 

 where they can drink and bathe without 

 making too long a journey. Far up the 

 hollows from Bailey's a few Western rob- 

 ins, gray headed j uncos and mountain 

 chickadees were seen, and their voices 

 seemed sad in those solitudes, whereas 

 down in the valley their songs sounded rol- 

 licksome as they mingled with the roar of 

 the mountain stream. 



Other birds seen in this neighborhood 

 were pine siskins, which are the same as 

 the siskins of the East, only they do not 

 go so far North to breed, finding the cli- 

 mate they want in the mountains ; Audu- 

 bon's warblers, almost like the myrtle 



warblers in Eastern States; mountain blue- 

 birds, whose breasts are blue instead of 

 reddish brown; Say's phcebes, distinctly a 

 Western species ; spotted sandpipers, with 

 which Easterners are familiar ; Western 

 nighthawks, which zigzag overhead and 

 "boom" now and then, just as their Eastern 

 cousins do ; and red shafted flickers, tak- 

 ing the place of the well known golden 

 winged flicker of the East. 



The sweetest and best bird of all has 

 been reserved to be mentioned last. It was 

 at Bailey's that my long and wearisome 

 search for the nest of the white crowned 

 sparrow was rewarded. In many a moun- 

 tain valley, from an altitude of 7,000 feet to 

 the foot of the loftiest peaks far above 

 timber line, I had found the white-crowns, 

 singing their dulcet tunes, and had sought 

 in vain for their nests, probably because it 

 was a little too early in the season. 



One evening at Bailey's, as I was walk- 

 ing along the bank of the noisy creek, a 

 male white-crown was singing blithely in 

 the bushes, and I stopped to listen to his 

 vesper hymn. Presently a female scuttled 

 to my side of the stream, chirped uneasily 

 a moment, and then flitted to a bush- 

 clump, into which she slipped. The little 

 lady fluttered away as I peeped into the 

 bush, and there was the pretty nest, con- 

 taining 4 white eggs dappled with brown, 

 looking like pearls in a tiny casket. All the 

 while the male trilled his liveliest airs to 

 beguile my attention. His mate chirped 

 anxiously, and so I hurried away to set her 

 mind at rest, glad I had found a white- 

 crown's nest, and just as glad to leave it 

 undisturbed. 



SPOTTED SANDPIPER, ACTITIS MACULAR1A. 

 Can Any Reader of Recreation Identify it? 



AMATEUR PHOTO BV J. BAUERSl 





