LIFE AT HIGH ALTITUDES HINGSTON 345 



Certain birds of the plateau have formed communities with other 

 animals, this being a help to them in securing food. The most inter- 

 esting of these is the mouse hare community. The mouse hares 

 are most engaging little animals about the size of a large rat. They 

 live in burrows on the open plateau, where they are usually seen feed- 

 ing at the entrance or running from hole to hole. A number of birds 

 associate with these mouse hares. Amongst them were three kinds 

 of mountain finches and Elwes' horned lark. All these little birds 

 were remarkably tame ; there was a perfect confidence between them 

 and the mouse hares, the whole making a charming society of pro- 

 tectively colored mammals and birds. What is the object of this 

 friendly association? It is one of the ways in which the birds of 

 the plateau contend with the scarcity of food. For these birds are 

 sted-eating species, and find special attraction near the mouse hares' 

 holes. The mouse hares possess an instinctive forethought. They 

 store up a winter supply of seeds, which they carry into their dens. 

 But where storage takes place there must certainly be some refuse. 

 Little seeds will lie about in the vicinity of the burrows, and it is 

 these waste fragments that attract the birds. Very possibly the birds 

 also pillage the mouse hares, for we often observed them entering 

 the holes. 



At greater heights, on the almost barren mountains, a less con- 

 spicuous society may occasionally be seen. This is an association of 

 choughs and v;ild sheep. The chough sits on the wild sheep's back, 

 where it searches for insects in the animal's hair. The sheep seems 

 pleased with the bird's attention, and remains still while being 

 explored. It is an interesting association at the highest altitudes. 

 I have seen it on the crumbling snow-clad slopes as high as 17,000 

 feet. Thus the stress of food at these elevations drives certain birds 

 to associate with mouse hares; others to keep company with wild 

 sheep. The wild sheep at high altitudes are continually displacing 

 small rocks and stones. At different times my notice was first at- 

 tracted to the animals by the clatter of stones falling down the slope. 

 It is thus likely that these animals play no small part in the denuda- 

 tion of high-altitude cliffs. 



I pass to another point. How do the animals escape the cold of 

 winter^ A number, of course, migrate to lower altitudes; but of 

 those which remain, most go into hibernation and sleep the winter 

 through. When we reached the plateau, early in April, we found 

 it almost destitute of animal life. Everything was hibernating 

 underneath stones or in clefts of the rock or in the surface earth. 

 The ants were hidden in subterranean galleries. Under stones were 

 weevils quite motionless, also carabid beetles so torpid that they 



