A Bird-Lover in the West

John Stuart Mill · en
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 amœna._
           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.

 JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL.

A BIRD-LOVER IN THE WEST.

I.

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.