262 BIRDS OF THE ROCKIES 



Oddly enough, no leucostictes were seen on this peak. 

 Why they should make their homes on Pike's and Gray's 

 Peaks and neglect Tillie Ann is another of those puzzles 

 in featherdom that cannot be solved. Must a peak be 

 over fourteen thousand feet above sea-level to meet 

 their physiological wants in the summery season ? Who 

 can tell ? There were pipits on this range, but, for 

 some reason that was doubtless satisfactory to them- 

 selves, they were much shyer than their brothers and 

 sisters had been on Gray's Peak and Mount Kelso ; more 

 than that, they were seen only on the slopes of the 

 range, none of them being observed on the crest itself, 

 perhaps on account of the cold, strong gale that was 

 blowing across the snowy heights. A nighthawk was 

 sailing in its erratic course over the peaks — a bit of 

 information worth noting, none of these birds having 

 been seen on any of the summits fourteen thousand feet 

 high. These matters are perhaps not of supreme inter- 

 est, yet they have their value as studies in comparative 

 ornithology and are helpful in determining the locale of 

 the several species named. In the same interest I desire 

 to add that mountain chickadees, hermit thrushes, 

 warbling vireos, and red-shafted flickers belong to my 

 Breckenridge list. Besides, what I think must have 

 been a Mexican crossbill was seen one morning among 

 the pines, and also a large hawk and two kinds of wood- 

 peckers, none of which tarried long enough to permit 



