308 



On a Sierra grade we have passed a flock busily gathering wild 

 cherries in a bush beside the road, and when camped under the firs 

 of Mt. Shasta have had wandering bands stop for a drink from the 

 camp brook, delighting us by their striking yellow and white 

 plumage. Although they are so highly colored and in flight their 

 white wing patches make such prominent directive marks, this very 

 yellow and white coloration often becomes positively protective. 

 While watching the birds on Mt. Shasta one day, I was struck by 

 the conspicuousness of one that flew across an open space. As it lit 

 on a dead stub whose silvery branches were touched with yellow 

 lichen, to my amazement it simply vanished. Its peculiar greenish 

 yellow toned in perfectly with the greenish yellow of the lichen. 

 The breeding range of the grosbeak is largely coincident with the 

 range of the lichen, the lichen beirg a striking feature of the forests 

 of the Sierra Nevada, Cascades, and northern Rockies, so that the 

 unusual coloration of the bird may be of marked significance. 



GENUS PINICOLA. 



Bill short, broad, and thick, upper mandible strongly curved; nasal 



plumules conspicuous, liiding nostrils ; 

 wing about five times as long- as tar- 

 sus ; tail long, emarginate ; feet small, 

 tarsus not longer than middle toe 

 Fig^ 394. without claw. 



KEY TO ADULT MALES. 



1. Feathers of back with conspicuously dusky centers. 



alascensis, p. 309. 

 1'. Feathers of back without distinctly dusky centers. 



2. Bill and body smaller. High mountains of California. 



californica, p. 308. 

 2'. Bill and body larger. Rocky Mountains . . . montana, p. 308. 



515a. Pinicola enucleator montana Ridgw. Rocky Moun- 

 tain Pine Grosbeak. 



Like P. e. californica, but larger and slightly darker, adult male carmine 

 red instead of vermilion. Mole : length (skins), 8.00-8.55, wing 4.72-4.86, 

 tail 3.67-4.00, bill .61-.68. Female : length (skins), 8.00-8.30, wing 4.65- 

 4.69, tail 3.48-3.50. 



Distribution. — Breeds in Hudsonian zone in the Rocky Mountains from 

 Montana and Idaho to New Mexico. 



Nest. — A rather flat thin structure, largely of fine rootlets placed in 

 coniferous trees. -Eggs : greenish or bluish, spotted with brown and 

 black. 



Food. — Caterpillars, cocoons, coniferous seeds, needles, buds, and blos- 

 soms. 



615b. P. e. calif ornica Pnce. California Pine Grosbeak. 



Adult male. — Light vermilion red, head slightly tinged with yellow and 

 pink, and changing to ash gray on scapulars, belly, flanks, and under tail 



