Jan., 1910 
SOME CENTRAL COLORADO BIRD NOTES 
27 
The reason I made such a long stop at this place was that I was endeavoring to 
secure specimens of the Mountain Harvest Mouse, Reithrodontomys montanus , 
which has the interesting history of having for many years been known only from 
a single specimen taken by a Pacific Railroad Surveying expedition in 1853 some- 
where in the San Luis Valley, and to the northward of this place. However, Cary 
secured a series here two years ago, and I did my best to get more, but, though I 
covered the country with traps, and caught all kinds of mice except those most 
wanted, I failed to secure a single specimen. 
Where the land was not in hay, the soil was a light sand, and with the same 
old greasewood and rabbit brush. There were no trees close- by, but, along Sand 
Creek, three miles to the northward, were a number of cottonwoods. Each of us 
took a walk over there, but found comparatively few birds. Owing to this lack of 
trees, bird life, so far as species went, was rather limited around this camp, and our 
daily lists were repetitions of the same old names until we began to get decidedly 
tired of them, and gladly welcomed an occasional addition. Savannah Sparrowk 
and Meadow Larks were abundant in the meadows, Sage Thrashers and Brewer’s 
Sparrows among the brush away from them, and various other birds here and there 
in the localities they most favored. 
Finally I tired of trying to catch those Harvest Mice, and we left the morning 
of July 5, and began by taking a wrong road almost at the start, which led us sev- 
eral miles out of our way. However I do not specially regret this as we saw one or 
two interesting things we would otherwise have missed, and it made me familiar 
with the location of the “Durkee Ranch”, which will be referred to later. We had 
a long hard pull that morning over a sandy road, on which the mules hardly made 
over a mile an hour. The road in the afternoon was better, and we made nearly 
to Mosca Creek before camping. To the northwest of this place are the sandhills 
or dunes which are locally rather noted, a low range of them, nothing but sand, and 
constantly changing form with the wind. The next morning our trouble began. 
The lady mule of the team behaved in a very unladylike manner, ate her oats too 
greedily, and choked herself. However she apparently recovered, and we hitched 
up and started. Going up a little hill she got sick and gave out entirely, and we 
had to unhitch and let the wagon set right there, halfway up the hill. There was 
a very sick mule in camp, and we were afraid she would die. Of course we im- 
proved the time while waiting for her to do so, by collecting. Perhaps that was the 
reason she did not die, as we did not show her the respect proper at such a sad time, 
and so went on living from pure cussedness. This was at the mouth of the gulch 
up which the road to Mosca Pass went. This is the pass over which the travel 
formerly went, but the road having been washed out and impassable for two years, 
we were heading for Madenos Pass a few miles farther north. 
The next day finding the mule still alive, but unable to work, I started out 
afoot for a ranch on Madenos Creek to see if I could get a team to help me out. It 
was six miles over a very sandy road, and we learned that 1500 pounds was con- 
sidered a load for a four horse team, and judging from our experience it is. The 
following morning I took a pair of horses back to camp with me, and we started 
out. We hitched the well mule with one of the horses, and by pulling from the 
saddlehorn with the other horse we managed to make a mile an hour, and it was 
not up hill either; though there were little ups and downs, much of the road was 
quite level. 
In spite of the sandy soil there was a fine, somewhat scattering growth of 
yellow pine along the road, and many Lewis’s Woodpeckers were seen among them. 
We made camp in Madenos Canon, about a mile above Herard postoffice, on the 
