GKEY-CKOWNED FINCH. 155 



Ptarmigan Hill, because these grouse were so very 

 plentiful on it. It was late in October, and we 

 were hurrying back to winter-quarters, hourly 

 expecting the first fall of snow. I observed 

 a flock of nine or ten birds pecking along 

 the ground, much as larks feed; the more I 

 looked at them, the more I was puzzled to 

 imagine what birds they could be, at such an 

 altitude, so late in the year. To settle the matter 

 I fired in amongst them, and picked up three a 

 female, and two males in splendid plumage. I 

 tried for more, but never saw them again on the 

 Cascades. 



In July, in the following summer, I was on 

 the summit of the Rocky Mountains, near the 

 Kootanie Pass, and again saw these beautiful 

 birds feeding on the ground. I shot several, 

 but all of them were young birds of the year, 

 barely fledged, or badly-plumaged old ones. 

 Hence there can be no doubt these finches breed 

 on the Cascades and Rocky Mountains, in both 

 about the same altitude, 7,000 feet above the sea- 

 level. They are very late migrants, or they 

 winter on the mountains; although I hardly 

 think they could bear the cold, or find a suffi- 

 ciency of food, the winter being very severe, and 

 the snow three feet and more in depth. 



