. Birds of the Rockies . e was destined to receive a severetrouncing, when she suddenly dodged her pursuer bydiving. He just as suddenly gave up the chase, lookingas if it were a case of sour grapes, anyway. After watching the antics of these birds for a longtime, I turned my attention to another pretty scene, —a pair of coots leading their family of eight or ten littleones out into the clear area from their hiding-placeamong the reeds, presenting a picture of unruffled do-mestic bliss. How sweet and innocent the little cootswere ! Instead of the black heads and necks of theirparents, and the
. Birds of the Rockies . e was destined to receive a severetrouncing, when she suddenly dodged her pursuer bydiving. He just as suddenly gave up the chase, lookingas if it were a case of sour grapes, anyway. After watching the antics of these birds for a longtime, I turned my attention to another pretty scene, —a pair of coots leading their family of eight or ten littleones out into the clear area from their hiding-placeamong the reeds, presenting a picture of unruffled do-mestic bliss. How sweet and innocent the little cootswere ! Instead of the black heads and necks of theirparents, and the white bills and frontal bones, theseparts were tinted with red, which appeared quite brightand o-auze-like in the sunshine. The process of feeding the juvenile birds was interest-ing. The parents would swim about, then suddenly diptheir heads into the water, or else dive clear under,coming up with slugs in their bills. Turning to theyoungsters, which were always close upon their heels — 10 146 BIRDS OF THE ROCKIES /.. or perhaps I would better say their tails — they wouldhold out their bills, ulien the little ones would swim upand pick off the toothsome morsel. It must not besupposed that the bantlings opened their mouths, asmost young birds do, to receive the tidbits. No, indeed!That is not coot vogue. The little ones picked theinsects from the sides of the papas or mamma\s beak,turning their own little heads cunningly to one side asthey helped themselves to their luncheon. The other waterfowl of the lake acted in an ordinaryway, and therefore need no description. It was strange,however, that this was the only lake seen in all myRocky Mountain touring where I found water-fowl. At Seven Lakes, Moraine Lake, and others iny the vicinity of Pikes Peak, not a duck, crane, or cootwas to be seen ; and the same was true of CottonwoodLake, twelve miles from Buena \ ista, right in theheart of the rugged mountains. Two facts may account for the abundance of birdsat the little lake
Size: 1374px × 1818px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1902
