Birds of the RockiesKeyser, Leander S. (Leander Sylvester)
History
Birds of the Rockies
Keyser, Leander S. (Leander Sylvester)
Birds; Birds -- Colorado
Acquainted with such tactics, I did not follow her, not even with my
eye, but looked down at my feet. Ah! the water sprites had been kind,
for there was the dainty crib, set on a high tuft of sod raised by the
winter's frosts, a little island castle in the wet marsh, cosey and dry.
It was my first savanna sparrow's nest, whether eastern or western. The
miniature cottage was placed under a fragment of dried cattle excrement,
which made a slant roof over it, protecting it from the hot rays of the
sun. Sunken slightly into the ground, the nest's rim was flush with the
short grass, while the longer stems rose about it in a green, filmy wall
or stockade. The holdings of the pretty cup were four pearls of eggs,
the ground color white, the smaller end and middle peppered finely with
brown, the larger almost solidly washed with pigment of the same tint.
Two more savannas' nests were found not long afterwards, one of them by
watching the female until she settled, the other by accidentally
flushing her as I walked across the marshy pasture; but neither of them
was placed under a roof as the first one had been, the blue dome being
their only shelter. These birdlets seem to be especially fond of soggy
places in pastures, setting their nests on the little sod towers that
rise above the surrounding water.
All the birds seen in the park have now been mentioned. It was an
idyllic spot, and I have often regretted that I did not spend a week in
rambling over it and making excursions to the engirdling ridges and
peaks. A few suggestive questions arise relative to the migratory habits
of the feathered tenants of a mountain park like this, for most of those
that have been named are only summer residents. How do they reach this
immured Eden at the time of the spring migration? One may conjecture and
speculate, but one cannot be absolutely sure of the precise course of
their annual pilgrimage to their summer Mecca. Of course, they come up
from the plains, where the spring arrives much earlier than it does in
the higher altitudes. Our nomads may ascend by easy stages along the few
cañons and valleys leading up from the plains to this mountain-girt
plateau; or else, rising high in air at eventide--for most birds perform
their migrations at night--they may fly over the passes and mountain
tops, and at dawn descend to the park.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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