A Bird-Lover in the West   By: Olive Thorne Miller (1831-1918)

BY

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.

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