Brown-capped Rose-Finch 339 



peach-blossom pink, the wing-coverts and upper tail-coverts tipped, 

 and the whole of the flanks and abdomen washed with the same, the 

 colour richest on the abdomen ; iris brown ; bill and legs black. 

 Length 6-30 ; wing 4-20 ; tail 2-60 ; cuhnen 40 ; tarsus -70. 



The male in winter has the bill horny-yellow, tipped with black ; the 

 general colour is greyer owing chiefly to most of the feathers being 

 tipped and edged with greyish-brown, while the pink is very much 

 lighter in shade. The female is greyer than the male, the brown being 

 of a duskier shade ; the pink wash is much less distinct, and in some 

 specimens almost absent. Young birds are buffy-brown, including the 

 crown, and show no pink. 



Distribution. — Breeding above timber line — 11,000 feet, to sutomits 

 of the higher mountain ranges of Colorado ; in winter descending to 

 below timber line, but not leaving the mountains except when driven 

 down by storms. 



The following are summer records : Longs Peak, July (Kellogg), 

 Bald Mountain, 10,000 to 11,000 feet (Gale), Grays Peak (Keyser), 

 mountains near Breckenridge (Carter apud Cooke), Mount Lincoln, 

 July (Allen), Mount Harvard (Henshaw), Pikes Peak (Keyser), moun- 

 tains near Crested Butte (Warren), Sangre de Cristo range above 

 timber line, June, 1874, and Summit Peak, Conejos co., September 

 (Aiken), San Juan co. (Drew), La Plata Mountains, 13,000 feet, June, 

 July (Gilman). 



Winter records are : Gold Hill, Boulder co., January (Anthony) ; 

 near Colorado Springs, January, March (Aiken), Lake Moraine, El Paso 

 CO. (10,230 feet), December (Warren), Canon City, April (Aiken); 

 Sahda, December 14th (Frey) ; Fort Lewis, La Plata co., 7,500 feet, 

 January (Gilman), near De Beque, Mesa co., March (Rockwell). 



So far as I am aware this species has never yet been recorded from 

 outside the State of Colorado. Its reported occurrence in New Mexico 

 is due to an error (Henshaw 05). 



Habits, — This is the only species of the genus which 

 is known to breed in Colorado, and even now eggs have 

 never yet been taken. Mr. Richmond informs me that 

 there is a nest in the United States National Museum 

 supposed to have been that of a Brown-capped Rose- 

 Finch, from which the young had already flown, taken 

 by F. M. Drew at Round Mt., San Juan co., on the 27th 

 of August, 1883, at an elevation of 13,000 feet. 



In fact, the only species of the genus of which the 

 breeding habits are well known is L. griseinucha, from 



Y 2 



