ROCKY MOUNTAIN PINE GROSBEAK 343 



eastern Oregon, south-central Utah, central eastern Arizona, and cen- 

 tral northern New Mexico. The race winters from southern British 

 Columbia and southern Alberta south to southeastern Oregon, south- 

 western New Mexico, northwestern Texas, and western Nebraska. 



Except for slight variations arising out of a habitat involving a more 

 western type of flora, the life history of this race differs doubtfully 

 from that of the other races. I. N. Gabrielson and S. G. Jewett (1940) 

 state that the habits and behavior of this race are quite similar to those 

 of P. e. alascensis and that it is impossible to separate the two in the 

 field. W. L. Dawson (1909) says that the pine grosbeaks breeding on 

 the higher mountain ranges in British Columbia occupy a zone from 

 timber line downward about 2,000 feet, and that the birds favor hem- 

 lock and balsam timber. He found the race (which he treated as 

 alascensis) in the Cascade Mountains due north of Mount Baker on 

 both sides of the 49th parallel, breeding close to timber line. Young 

 were being fed on July 17. He failed to note any red males, although 

 many gray males were singing in the early norning from the topmost 

 spray of balsams. Alden H. Miller (1940) noted a young bird that 

 had nearly finished its post juvenal molt on September 7, 1939. 



Habits. — Norman R. French (1954) studied this race at an ele- 

 vation of 10,000 feet in the Uinta Mountains in northeast Utah be- 

 tween June 10 and July 30, 1953. The Engelmann spruce, Picea 

 engelmanni, and the alpine fir, Abies lasiocarpa, were the two dominant 

 trees. Carez prevailed in a wet meadow. The snow had a uniform 

 depth of at least 3 feet, with drifts of many times that depth, on June 

 10. On June 11 French observed an adult pair of these birds feeding 

 amid debris from the spruces scattered on the snow, in company with 

 at least a dozen red crossbills, two pine siskins, a gray-headed junco, 

 and a male black rosy finch. The adult pine grosbeaks ate principally 

 seeds of the spruces. One bird had its esophagus filled with tender 

 new growth from the tips of spruce boughs. Other food included 

 seeds of Silene acavlis, the ovaries of glacier lihes, Erythronium grandi- 

 jlorum, and insects. One female fed steadily in flycatcher fashion, 

 taking insects on the wing. The male acted similarly once. 



Nesting. — A nest he located July 4 was near the end of a sloping 

 Engelmann spruce limb and contained two young birds. These were 

 last seen in the nest on July 14. The nesting territory had a diameter 

 of about 1,200 feet. The adults tolerated strange pine grosbeaks on 

 two occasions, but this happened late in the nesting period. Gray- 

 headed juncos nested at the base of the same tree. The parent pine 

 grosbeaks united to drive off Canada jays; the male grosbeak drove off 

 a red squirrel. 



In feeding the young, both parent birds approached the nest at the 

 same time with their throats noticeably distended by the filled gular 



