THE HEPBURN LEUCOSTICTE. 



79 



purity tliereun displayed? If so, she will not appreciate the Leucosticte. 

 This bird is the vestal virgin of the snows, the attendant minister of Nature's 

 loftiest altars, tlie guardian of the glacial sanctuaries. 



One who loves the mountains cannot measure his praise nor Isound his 

 enthusiasm. Their sublimity bids him forget his limitations; and if one 

 happens also to care for birds, it is matter of small justice to laud a bird 

 whose devotion to the peaks appears as boundless as his own. besides knowing 

 neither admixture of caution nor limitation of opportunity. Here is the 

 patron saint of mountaineers ! Pie alone of all creatures is at home on the 

 heights, and he is not even dependent upon the scanty vegetation \\hich 

 follows the retreating snows, since he is able to wrest a living from the very 

 glaciers. Abysses do ni)t appall him. nor do the flower-strewn meadows of 

 the lesser heights alienate his snow-centered affections. 



Taken in Chelan County. Photo by the Author 



-THE CHILLY WILDERNESS OF SXOW-CLAD PEAKS." 



Looking out on the chilly \vilderness of snow-clad peaks which confronts 

 Leucosticte on an early day in June, one wonders what the bird sees to justify 

 the assumption of family cares. Save for a few dripping south exposures 

 of inhospitable rock, there is nothing visible which affords promise of food 

 unless it be the snow itself. And when one sees a little company of the 



