but
he hesitated, then appeared as if starting to burst out with "Caw" or
some such exclamation, but changed his mind and repressed it. Finally
he straightened and fixed himself for another good look at me. I did
not move, and my clothes must have been a good shade of protective
coloring, for he seemed to conclude that I was not worth considering.
He looked straight at me for a few seconds, uttered another "Hurrah,"
which he emphasized with a defiant gesture, and went on energetically
eating. In the midst of this, something alarmed him, and he flew
swiftly away and did not come back. Was this crow a pet that had
concluded to strike out for himself? Or had his mimicry or his habit
of laying hold of whatever pleased him caused him to appropriate this
word from bigger folk?

Go where you will over the Rockies and the birds will be with you. One
day I spent several hours on the summit of Long's Peak, and while
there twelve species of birds alighted or passed near enough for me to
identify them. One of these birds was an eagle, another a hummingbird.

[Illustration: PTARMIGAN]

On a June day, while the heights were more than half covered with
winter's snow, I came across the nest of a ptarmigan near a drift and
at an altitude of thirteen thousand feet above sea-level. The
ptarmigan, with their home above tree-line, amid eternal snows, are
wonderfully self-reliant and self-contained. The ouzel, too, is
self-poised, indifferent to all the world but his brook, and
showing an appreciation for water greater, I think, than that of any
other landsman. These birds, the ptarmigan and the ouzel, along with
the willow thrush, who sings out his melody amid the shadows of the
pines, who puts his woods into song,--these birds of the mountains are
with me when memory takes me back a solitary visitor to the lonely
places of the Rockies.

The birds of the Rockies, as well as the bigger folk who live there,
have ways of their own which distinguish them from their kind in the
East. They sing with more enthusiasm, but with the same subtle tone
that everywhere tells that all is right with the world, and makes all
to the manner born glad to be alive.

Nothing delights me more than to come across a person who is
interested in trees; and I have long thought that any one who
appreciates trees or birds is one who is either good or great, or
both. I consider it an honor to converse with one who knows the birds
and the trees, and have more than