336 Birds of Colorado 



Grey-crowned Rose-Finch. Leucosticte tephrocotis. 



A.O.U. Checklist no 524— Colorado Records— Allen 72, p. 162 (in 

 part) ; Ridgway 73, p. 182 ; 75, p. 68 ; Trippe 74, p. 888 (in part) ; 

 Drew 85, p. 16 ; Cooke 97, pp. 97, 164, 212 ; Henderson 03, p. 236 ; 

 09, p. 235. 



Description. — Male in winter — Forehead and crown black, separated 

 from the general brown colour of the body by an ashy-grey band running 

 back from the eye and crossing the occiput ; wings and tail dusky black ; 

 feathers of the rump and upper tail-coverts, the wing-coverts, the 

 flanks and under tail-coverts all tipped with pink ; the outer primaries 

 edged with the same ; iris brown, legs black ; bill yellowish with dusky 

 tip. Length 6-30; wing 4-15 ; tail 2-60 ; culmen -40; tarsus -75. 



In summer the male has a black bill. The female closely resembles 

 the male, but the black of the crown is not so distinctly demarcated 

 posteriorly, and fades into the grey of the hind-neck ; the pink wash, 

 especially on the flanks, is less pronounced ; it is also shghtly smaller 

 — wing about 4 05. 



Distribution. — Breeding so far as is known only in the higher moun- 

 tains of California, in winter and during migration eastwards to the 

 mountains of Colorado to Nebraska, Manitoba and Saskatchewan. 



In Colorado the Grey-crowned Rose-Finch is only a winter bird, and 

 is chiefly confined to the mountains unless driven down by heavy 

 storms, when it often resorts to ranches and to suburbs of towns along 

 the foothills. 



The following are recorded localities : Gold Hill, Boulder co., Novem- 

 ber and February (Gale), Magnolia, Boulder co., November (Sprague 

 apud Cooke), Breckenridge (Carter), near Colorado Springs, January, 

 February, March; Fremont co., April; South Park, January; between 

 Rifle and Meeker at about 8,000 feet, October 27th (Aiken) ; Lake 

 Moraine, slopes of Pikes Peak, 10,250 feet, December, and Crested 

 Butte, 9,000 feet (Warren) ; Salida, December (Frey) ; a straggler to 

 Fort ColUns, March 31st (Cooke). 



Habits. — The Grey-crowned Rose-Finch is essentially 

 a mountain bird, inhabiting the cold and snowy solitudes 

 about timber line during the winter season, and appar- 

 ently finding a subsistence on grass and other seeds ; 

 it is usually met with in flocks. After a heavy storm 

 in the mountains it is often driven down to lower 

 elevations, and takes refuge in towns and villages. Mr. 

 Aiken found an enormous number of this and other 

 species of the same genus on such an occasion, crowded 



