Birds of the RockiesKeyser, Leander S. (Leander Sylvester)
History
Birds of the Rockies
Keyser, Leander S. (Leander Sylvester)
Birds; Birds -- Colorado
Let us return to the first rock wren I saw. He was exceedingly shy,
scurrying off to a more distant perch--another stone--as I approached.
Sometimes he would run down among the bushes and rocks like a mouse,
then glide to the top of another stone, and fling his pert little aria
at the intruder. It was interesting to note that he most frequently
selected for a singing perch the top of a high, pointed rock where he
could command a view of his surroundings and pipe a note of warning to
his mate at the approach of a supposed enemy. Almost every conspicuous
rock on the acclivity bore evidence of having been used as a lookout by
the little sentinel.
This wren is well named, for his home is among the rocks, in the
crannies and niches of which his mate hides her nest so effectually that
you must look long for it, and even after the most painstaking search
you may not be able to find it. The little husband helps to lead you
astray. He will leap upon a rock and send forth his bell-like peal, as
if he were saying, "Right here, right here, here is our nest!" but when
you go to the spot, he flits off to another rock and sounds the same
challenge. And so you can form no idea of the nest site. My nearest
approach to finding a nest was among the rocks and cliffs on the summit
of a mountain a few miles from Golden, where an adult bird was seen to
feed a youngster that had already flown from the nursery. It was
interesting to know that the rock wrens breed at so high an altitude.
However, they are not an alpine species, none having been seen by the
writer over eight thousand feet above sea-level, although they have been
known to ascend to an altitude of twelve thousand feet.
The fourth member of our feathered quartette was the oddest of all. On
the thirtieth of June my companion and I were riding slowly down the
mountain side a few miles below Gray's Peak, which we had scaled two
days before. My ear was struck by a flicker's call above us, so I
dismounted from my burro, and began to clamber up the hillside.
Presently I heard a song that seemed one moment to be near at hand, the
next far away, now to the right, now to the left, and anon directly
above me. To my ear it was a new kind of bird minstrelsy. I climbed
higher and higher, and yet the song seemed to be no nearer. It had a
grosbeak-like quality, I fancied, and I hoped to find either the pine
or the evening grosbeak, for both of which I had been making anxious
search. The shifting of the song from point to point struck me as odd,
and it was very mystifying.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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