. Birds of the Rockies . cycloramalies the plateau as you descend the mountain side fromKenosha Pass ; or wheel around a lofty spur of MountBoreas, and you almost feel as if you must be enteringParadise. It was the fifth of July, and the park haddonned its holiday attire, the meadows wearing robes ofemerald, dappled here and there with garden spots ofvariegated flowers that brought more than one excla-mation of delight from our lips. Before leaving the village, our attention was called toa colony of cliff-swallows, the first we had seen in ourtouring among the mountains. Against the bare wallb
. Birds of the Rockies . cycloramalies the plateau as you descend the mountain side fromKenosha Pass ; or wheel around a lofty spur of MountBoreas, and you almost feel as if you must be enteringParadise. It was the fifth of July, and the park haddonned its holiday attire, the meadows wearing robes ofemerald, dappled here and there with garden spots ofvariegated flowers that brought more than one excla-mation of delight from our lips. Before leaving the village, our attention was called toa colony of cliff-swallows, the first we had seen in ourtouring among the mountains. Against the bare wallbeneath the eaves of a barn they had plastered theiradobe, bottle-shaped domiciles, hundreds of them, somein orderly rows, others in promiscuous clusters. Atdusk, when we returned to the village, the birds were ■.£> SOUTH PARK FROM KENOSHA HILL A paradise of green engirdled by snow-mantled mountains,making a summer home for western meadow-larks, Brewer sblackbirds, desert horned larks, and western Savanna 266 BIRDS OF THE ROCKIES going to bed, and it was interesting to watch theirmethod of retiring. The young were already grown,and the entire colony were converting their nests intosleeping berths, every one of them occupied, some of thepartly demolished ones by two and three birds. Butthere were not enough couches to go round, and severalof the birds were crowded out, and were clinging to theside of the wall on some of the protuberances left fromtheir broken-down clay huts. It was a query in mymind whether they could sleep comfortably in thatstrained position, but I left thein to settle that matterfor themselves and in their own way. Leaving the town, we soon found that the irrigatedmeadows and bush-fringed banks of the stream madehabitats precisely to the taste of Brewers blackbirds,which were quite plentiful in the park. My companionwas in clover, for numerous butterflies went undulat-ing over the meadows, leading him many a headlongchase, but frequently getti
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1902
