360 U.S. NATIONAL IVIUSEUM BULLETIN 23 7 part i 



eavestrough, there to spend the night. Frequently they flutter under projecting 

 eaves, and cling to some projecting support for the night. 



* * * 



The leucostictes feed on the seeds of the dwarf sage, or glean from the 

 snow about the bases of such plants. They are fond of gleaning along the hill- 

 sides at the margin of the snowy areas. In the spring, when a thaw is taking 

 place, a flock will congregate on a spot eight or ten feet across, all pecking indus- 

 trially from the bare ground. They also frequent the margins of dry ditches, 

 and a walk or fence on sloping ground, where exposed areas can be found, are 

 favored feeding-places. * * * 



Very early the leucostictes give evidence of the approach of the nuptial season. 

 After the middle of January, one male will frequently chase another coquettishly, 

 like meadowlarks in amorous sport. Occasionally at this season a male will 

 sit for a few moments, uttering a pretty little trill, like tree-ree-ree-ree-ree-ree-ree, 

 enunciating the syllables with great rapidity. As the season approaches, and the 

 warm sunshine of late February announces the further advance of the vernal 

 period, the leucostictes increase in their musical numbers. Sitting on the ridge of 

 house or barn, generally at the end of the ridge, alone or in small troops, they utter 

 their wheezy chants, sometimes with no more force than that used by the grass- 

 hopper sparrow, sometimes with greater force and more varied expression. 



The males sing also while sitting on the ground, appearing to be picking up 

 morsels of food, and singing as a frequent variation. In such instances the song 

 has a ventriloquial effect, appearing to issue from a point much farther away. 

 A male singing on the ground will sidle toward a female, and if she coyly takes 

 wing a reckless amorous pursuit will follow. * * * 



In early March the wing-bars of their plumage become more prominent, the 

 purple of the sides to show more noticeably, and the colors generally to assume 

 their vernal or nuptial hues. By the middle of April the last of the leucostictes 

 has disappeared. 



In his notes from Salida County, central Colorado, Edward R. 

 Warren (1910b) says: 



Rosy Finches were unusually abundant about Salida the winter of 1908-9, 

 which, as stated above was very severe, and especially so in the higher mountains 

 where the birds usually stay. Frey says in his notes: "Thousands of these birds 

 were here at all times during the winter. Every snow that came would drive 

 them down to the valleys; when the south hills became bare they would split up 

 in small bunches and scatter and climb up as the snow receded. I have taken 

 all four varieties from a single bunch, and might say at a single shot. They seemed 

 to be all varieties together, and the Gray-crowns were most plentiful, with Brown- 

 caps a close second, and about one in four or five would be Hepburn's, and a very 

 few black ones. These birds fed almost entirely on the tumbleweed (Russian 

 thistle) seeds, and their throats and crops were literally crammed with them." 



Distribution 



Range. — Alaska and Yukon to California, New Mexico, and 

 Nebraska. 



Breeding range. — Breeds in the mountains from northern Alaska 

 (Brooks Range), central Yukon, and western Alberta south to south- 

 eastern British Columbia (Indianpoint Mountain, Moose Pass) and 



