I refer to the turtle
dove, which is much hardier than its mild and innocent looks would seem
to indicate. It may be remarked, in passing, that very few birds are
found in the deep canyons and gorges leading up to the higher localities;
but the doves seem to constitute the one exception to the rule; for I
saw them in some of the gloomiest defiles through which the train
scurried in crossing the mountains. For instance, in the canyon of the
Arkansas River many of them were seen from the car window, a pair just
beyond the Royal Gorge darting across the turbulent stream to the other
side. A number were also noticed in the darkest portions of the canyon of
the Grand River, where one would think not a living creature could coax
subsistence from the bare rocks and beetling cliffs. Turtle doves are so
plentiful in the West that their distribution over every available
feeding ground seems to be a matter of social and economic necessity.

[Illustration: "_Darting across the turbulent stream_"

_Turtle Doves_]

BALD PEAKS AND GREEN VALES

[Illustration: PLATE II

GREEN-TAILED TOWHEE--_Pipilo chlorurus_
(Male)

SPURRED TOWHEE--_Pipilo megalonyx_
(Male)]

One of my chief objects in visiting the Rockies was to ascend Pike's
Peak from Manitou, and make observations on the birds from the base to
the summit. A walk one afternoon up to the Halfway House and back--the
Halfway House is only about one-third of the way to the top--convinced
me that to climb the entire distance on foot would be a useless
expenditure of time and effort. An idea struck me: Why not ride up on
the cog-wheel train, and then walk down, going around by some of the
valleys and taking all the time needed for observations on the
avi-faunal tenantry? That was the plan pursued, and an excellent one it
proved.

When the puffing cog-wheel train landed me on the summit, I was fresh
and vigorous, and therefore in excellent condition physically and
mentally to enjoy the scenery and also to ride my hobby at will over the
realm of cloudland. The summit is a bald area of several acres, strewn
with immense fragments of granite, with not a spear of grass visible.
One of the signal-station men asked a friend who had just come up from
the plain, "Is there anything green down below? I'd give almost
anything to see a green patch of some kind." There was a yearning strain
in his tones that really struck me as pathetic. Here were visitors
revelling in the magnificen