heights in the spring and
rears his brood at an elevation of from nine thousand feet to the
timber-line, building a nest far up in a pine tree; whereas his eastern
kindred hie to the northern part of the United States and beyond, to
find summer homes and suitable breeding grounds. Within their chosen
boundaries the rubies are very plentiful in the Rockies, their quaint
rondeaus tumbling down from every pine-clad acclivity. In October they
descend to the plains, and in the latter part of the month hurry off to
a more southerly clime.

The birds were most abundant in the upper part of the valley, keeping
close to the precipitous heights of the Peak. It was a long walk down to
the mountaineer's cabin, and I had reason to be glad for not having
undertaken to find it the evening before, as I should certainly have
lost my way in the darkness. No one was at home now, but through the
screen door I could see a canary in a cage. Not a very inviting place to
spend the night, I reflected, and I crossed the valley, climbed a steep
ridge, following a slightly used wagon road, and trudged down the other
side into what I afterwards found was the valley of Moraine Lake, one of
the crystal sheets of water that are seen from the summit of Pike's Peak
sparkling in the sunshine. While climbing the ridge, I saw my first
mountain chickadee, capering about in the trees. He called like the
familiar black-cap, and his behavior was much like that bird's. As will
be seen in another chapter, I afterwards heard the mountain chickadee's
song on the western side of the range, and found it to be quite unlike
the minor strain of our pleasant black-cap of the East.

On the mountain side forming the descent to Moraine Lake a flock of
Clark's nutcrackers were flying about in the pine woods, giving
expression to their feelings in a great variety of calls, some of them
quite strident. A little junco came in sight by the side of the trail,
and hopped about on the ground, and I was surprised to note a reddish
patch ornamenting the centre of his back. Afterwards I learned that it
was the gray-headed junco, which is distinctly a western species,
breeding among the mountains of Colorado. Thrashing about among some
dead boles, and making a great to-do, were a pair of small woodpeckers,
which closely resembled the well-known downies of our eastern
longitudes. I suppose them to have been their western representatives,
which are known, according to Mr. Aiken and Pr