A Bird-Lover in the West

Part 1

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A BIRD-LOVER IN THE WEST

OLIVE THORNE MILLER

BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY The Riverside Press, Cambridge 1900

Copyright, 1894, BY H. M. MILLER.

All rights reserved.

The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A. Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton & Co.

INTRODUCTORY.

The studies in this volume were all made, as the title indicates, in the West; part of them in Colorado (1891), in Utah (1893), and the remainder (1892) in what I have called "The Middle Country," being Southern Ohio, and West only relatively to New England and New York, where most of my studies have been made.

Several chapters have appeared in the "Atlantic Monthly" and other magazines, and in the "Independent" and "Harper's Bazar," while others are now for the first time published.

OLIVE THORNE MILLER.

CONTENTS.

IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.

PAGE

I. CAMPING IN COLORADO 3

II. IN THE COTTONWOODS 17

Western wood-pewee. Contopus richardsonii. Western house wren. Troglodytes aëdon aztecus. Towhee. Pipilo erythrophthalmus.

III. AN UPROAR OF SONG 32

Western meadow-lark. Sturnella magna neglecta. Horned lark. Otocoris alpestris leucolæma. Yellow warbler. Dendroica æstiva. Western wood-pewee. Contopus richardsonii. Humming-bird. Trochilus colubris. Long-tailed chat. Icteria virens longicauda.

IV. THE TRAGEDY OF A NEST 42

Long-tailed chat. Icteria virens longicauda.

V. A FEAST OF FLOWERS 52

VI. A CINDERELLA AMONG FLOWERS 60

VII. CLIFF-DWELLERS IN THE CAÑON 70

Cañon wren. Catherpes mexicanus conspersus. American dipper. Cinclus mexicanus.

IN THE MIDDLE COUNTRY.

VIII. AT FOUR O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING 95

Purple grackle. Quiscalus quiscula. Mourning dove. Zenaidura macroura. Red-headed woodpecker. Melanerpes erythrocephalus. Blue jay. Cyanocitta cristata. Cardinal grosbeak. Cardinalis cardinalis. American robin. Merula migratoria. Golden-wing woodpecker. Colaptes auratus. House sparrow. Passer domesticus.

Part 2

IX. THE LITTLE REDBIRDS 113

Cardinal grosbeak. Cardinalis cardinalis. House sparrow. Passer domesticus.

X. THE CARDINAL'S NEST 119

Cardinal grosbeak. Cardinalis cardinalis. Bobolink. Dolichonyx oryzivorus. Meadow-lark. Sturnella magna.

XI. LITTLE BOY BLUE 126

Blue jay. Cyanocitta cristata.

XII. STORY OF THE NESTLINGS 136

Blue jay. Cyanocitta cristata.

XIII. BLUE JAY MANNERS 144

Blue jay. Cyanocitta cristata.

XIV. THE GREAT CAROLINIAN 154

Great Carolina wren. Thryothorus ludovicianus. Yellow-billed cuckoo. Coccyzus americanus. Crested flycatcher. Myiarchus crinitus.

XV. THE WRENLINGS APPEAR 172 Great Carolina wren. Thryothorus ludovicianus.

XVI. THE APPLE-TREE NEST 183

Orchard oriole. Icterus spurius.

XVII. CEDAR-TREE LITTLE FOLK 194

Mourning dove. Zenaidura macroura.

BESIDE THE GREAT SALT LAKE.

XVIII. IN A PASTURE 207

Louisiana tanager. Piranga ludoviciana. Green-tailed towhee. Pipilo chlorurus. Magpie. Pica pica hudsonica.

XIX. THE SECRET OF THE WILD ROSE PATH 231

Long-tailed chat. Icteria virens longicauda. Western robin. Merula migratoria propinqua. Black-headed grosbeak. Habia melanocephala.

XX. ON THE LAWN 259

Lazuli-painted finch. Passerina amoena. Broad-tailed humming-bird. Trochilus platycercus. House sparrow. Passer domesticus.

IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.

Trust me, 't is something to be cast Face to face with one's self at last, To be taken out of the fuss and strife, The endless clatter of plate and knife, The bore of books, and the bores of the street, From the singular mess we agree to call Life.

* * * * *

And to be set down on one's own two feet So nigh to the great warm heart of God, You almost seem to feel it beat Down from the sunshine and up from the sod; To be compelled, as it were, to notice All the beautiful changes and chances Through which the landscape flits and glances, And to see how the face of common day Is written all over with tender histories.

Part 3

JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL.

A BIRD-LOVER IN THE WEST.

CAMPING IN COLORADO.

This chronicle of happy summer days with the birds and the flowers, at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, begins in the month of May, in the year eighteen hundred and ninety-two.

As my train rolled quietly out of Jersey City late at night, I uttered a sigh of gratitude that I was really off; that at last I could rest. Up to the final moment I had been hurried and worried, but the instant I was alone, with my "section" to myself, I "took myself in hand," as is my custom.

At the risk of seeming to stray very far from my subject, I want at this point to say something about rest, the greatly desired state that all busy workers are seeking, with such varying success.

A really re-creative recreation I sought for years, and

"I've found some wisdom in my quest That's richly worth retailing,"

and that cannot be too often repeated, or too urgently insisted upon. What is imperatively needed, the sole and simple secret of rest, is this: To go to our blessed mother Nature, and to go with the whole being, mind and heart as well as body. To deposit one's physical frame in the most secret and sacred "garden of delights," and at the same time allow the mind to be filled, and the thoughts to be occupied, with the concerns of the world we live in year after year, is utterly useless; for it is not the external, but the internal man that needs recreation; it is not the body, but the spirit that demands refreshment and relief from the wearing cares of our high-pressure lives. "It is of no use," says a thoughtful writer, "to carry my body to the woods, unless I get there myself."

Let us consult the poets, our inspired teachers, on this subject. Says Lowell,--

"In June 't is good to lie beneath a tree While the blithe season comforts every sense, Steeps all the brain in rest, and heals the heart, Brimming it o'er with sweetness unawares, Fragrant and silent as that rosy snow Wherewith the pitying apple-tree fills up And tenderly lines some last-year's robin's nest."

And our wise Emerson, in his strong and wholesome, if sometimes rugged way,--

"Quit thy friends as the dead in doom, And build to them a final tomb.

* * * * *

Behind thee leave thy merchandise, Thy churches and thy charities.

* * * * *

Enough for thee the primal mind That flows in streams--that breathes in wind."

Even the gentle Wordsworth, too; read his exquisite sonnet, beginning,--

"The world is too much with us; late and soon, Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers."

All recognize that it is a mental and spiritual change that is needed.

With the earnest desire of suggesting to tired souls a practicable way of resting, I will even give a bit of personal history; I will tell the way in which I have learned to find recreation in nature.

When I turn my back upon my home, I make a serious and determined effort to leave behind me all cares and worries. As my train, on that beautiful May evening, passed beyond the brick and stone walls, and sped into the open country, and I found myself alone with night, I shook off, as well as I was able, all my affairs, all my interests, all my responsibilities, leaving them in that busy city behind me, where a few burdens more or less would not matter to anybody. With my trunks checked, and my face turned toward the far-off Rocky Mountains, I left the whole work-a-day world behind me, departing--so far as possible--a liberated soul, with no duties excepting to rejoice and to recruit. This is not an easy thing to do; it is like tearing apart one's very life; but it can be done by earnest endeavor, it has been done, and it is a charm more potent than magic to bring restoration and recreation to the brain and nerve-weary worker.

To insure any measure of success I always go alone; one familiar face would make the effort of no avail; and I seek a place where I am a stranger, so that my ordinary life cannot be recalled to me. When I reach my temporary home I forget, or at least ignore, my notions as to what I shall eat or drink, or how I shall sleep. I take the goods the gods provide, and adjust myself to them. Even these little things help one out of his old ways of thought and life. To still further banish home concerns, I mark upon my calendar one week before the day I shall start for home, and sternly resolve that not until I reach that day will I give one thought to my return, but will live as though I meant to stay always. I take no work of any sort, and I banish books, excepting a few poets and studies of nature.

Such is the aim of my honest and earnest striving; that I do not quite reach my goal is merely to say I am human. Letters from home and friends will drag me back to old interests, and times will come, in sleepless nights and unguarded moments, when the whole world of old burdens and cares sweep in and overwhelm me. But I rouse my will, and resolutely, with all my power, push them back, refuse to entertain them for a moment.

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