380 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETEST 23 7 part i 



impregnated with snow water until they are very soft. As the 

 snow melts, they appear on the surface of the patch, where the 

 rosy finches gorge themselves on them. F. W. Miller (MS.) notes 

 that these snowbanks are the favorite feeding grounds of the rosy 

 finches as long as the patches remain. He observed that the birds 

 feed extensively on dead and torpid insects that have been chilled 

 and dropped to the ground. He says that "As the season advances 

 and the snow disappears, the birds resort to the cliffs and rock slides, 

 where they find a variety of insect food, including a large number 

 of moths. After a storm, they are always out to gather up the in- 

 sects that have taken refuge in the grass and litter." 



The winter diet is almost completely herbaceous, except for such 

 animal substances as may be present in refuse heaps visited by the 

 birds. Roadside grass and weed seeds supply a large proportion of 

 their nourishment at this season, especially the Russian thistle or 

 tumbleweed {Salsola sp.), which they eat until their crops are over- 

 full (Warren, 1910). Aiken (Ridgway, 1875) reports them to be 

 very fond of hemp and canary seed, from which they remove the 

 shells almost instantly. 



Behavior. — ^Leucostictes are more at home on the ground than above 

 it, but they do alight occasionally on bushes, trees, fences, or buildings. 

 E. R. Warren (1915) watched a flock of brown-capped rosy finches 

 at timberline on Mount Bross in late September and writes: "Several 

 of them worked down a little and perched in some dead trees, in the 

 topmost branches, something I do not recall having seen these birds 

 do before, though when at lower elevations in winter I have seen them 

 in low bushes or trees." During the winter when mixed flocks of 

 rosy finches forage along the roadsides of the mountain "parks," 

 passing vehicles often flush them from the weeds. Usuall}^ they alight 

 on the ground a hundred yards or so away, but not infrequently some 

 will perch briefly upon a fence wire or tall weed, seldom staying there 

 more than a few seconds. 



On their alpine meadows in summer, the rosy finches are shy and 

 quick to fly at the approach of an intruder. By sitting quietly, how- 

 ever, one may watch them at fairly close range, especiaUy if one 

 settles near a favored snowbank where the birds come to feed. The 

 parents of a nest of young Niedrach (MS.) was photographing showed 

 no fear at his presence. In winter they become tame and con- 

 fiding. Robert Ridgway (1875) quotes C. E. Aiken, who studied 

 these bii-ds at Colorado Springs during that season: "Every morning 

 they came, usually only one or two at a time, to pick up crumbs in 

 the door-yard, and fearlessly ventured on the porch for seeds that 

 fell from a canary cage hung there; indeed, so tame were they that 

 they would pick seeds at my very feet as I dropped them from my 



