nce been solved, through the aid of Mr. Aiken.
The Buena Vista bird was _montana_, while the bird in the Pike's
Peak hollow was Lincoln's sparrow.

How well I recall a rainy afternoon during my stay at Buena Vista! The
rain was not so much of a downpour as to drive me indoors, although it
made rambling in the bushes somewhat unpleasant. What was this haunting
song that rose from a thick copse fringing one of the babbling mountain
brooks? It mingled sweetly with the patter of the rain upon the leaves.
Surely it was the song of the veery thrush! The same rich, melodious
strain, sounding as if it were blown through a wind-harp, setting all
the strings a-tune at the same time. Too long and closely had I studied
the veery's minstrelsy in his summer haunts in northern Minnesota to be
deceived now--unless, indeed, this fertile avian region produced another
thrush which whistled precisely the same tune. The bird's alarm-call was
also like that of the veery. The few glimpses he permitted of his
flitting, shadowy form convinced me that he must be a veery, and so I
entered him in my note-book.

But on looking up the matter--for the bird student must aim at
accuracy--what was my surprise to find that the Colorado ornithologists
have decided that the veery thrush is not a resident of the State, nor
even an occasional visitor! Of course I could not set up my judgment
against that of those scientific gentlemen. But what could this minstrel
be? I wrote to my friend, Mr. Charles E. Aiken, of Colorado Springs, who
replied that the bird was undoubtedly the willow thrush, which is the
western representative of the veery. I am willing to abide by this
decision, especially as Ridgway indicates in his Manual that there is
very little difference in the coloration of the two varieties. One more
mile-post had been passed in my never-ending ornithological journey--I
had learned for myself and others that the willow thrush of the Rockies
and the veery of our Eastern and Middle States have practically the same
musical repertory, and nowhere in the East or the West is sweeter and
more haunting avian minstrelsy to be heard, if only it did not give one
that sad feeling which Heine calls _Heimweh_!

[Illustration: _Willow Thrush_]

A ROCKY MOUNTAIN LAKE

[Illustration: PLATE IV

LARK BUNTING--_Calamospiza melanocorys_
(Upper figure, male; lower, female)]

"You will find a small lake just about a mile from town. Follow the road