506 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



vada. The flock was flitting restlessly over the snow in the manner of the 

 Plcdrophancs. 



Nothing has been ascertained, so far as we are now informed, as to its nest, 

 eggs, or general distribution during the breeding-season. 



]Mr. J. K. Lord states tliat he met with a flock of these rare and beautiful 

 birds on the summit of the Cascade Mountains. It was late in October, and 

 he observed a flock of nine or ten birds pecking along the ground, and feed- 

 ing somewhat in the manner of Larks. Puzzled to know wiiat birds they 

 could be at such an altitude so late in the year, he fired among tliem and 

 secured three, a female and two males in fine plumage. (Perhaps var. littor- 

 alis.) 



In July of the following summer, on the summit of the Pocky IVIountains, 

 near the Kootanie Pass, he again saw these birds feeding on the ground. He 

 shot several, but they were all young birds of the year. It is therefore ren- 

 dered probable that these Finches breed on the Cascade and Rocky Moun- 

 tains, in both at about the same altitude, or seven thousand feet, coming 

 into the lowlands during the winter, as it is not likely that they could endure 

 the cold of the summits, or find there a sufficiency of food, the winter being 

 very severe, and the snow three feet. or more in depth. 



Mr. Charles N. Holden, a promising young ornithologist of Chicago, who 

 observed these birds among the Black Hills, near Sherman, at an altitude 

 of eight thousand feet above the sea, has furnished me with interesting 

 observations in regard to them. He informs me that he did not meet with 

 these birds there in summer. They came in small flocks in the coldest part 

 of winter. Their food consisted of small seeds and insects. In some in- 

 stances he found the crops so distended with seeds as to distort their sliape. 

 They become very fat, and are excellent eating. In one specimen, a young 

 male, the plumage Avas almost black, as described at tlie beginning of this 

 article. These birds were quite numerous, and nearly forty specimens were 

 secured. He was not able to learn anything in reference to their breeding- 

 places. Except by dissection, he found it difficult to distinguish between a 

 young male of the first year and a female. 



If the specimen referred to in the foot-note at the beginning of this arti- 

 cle as collected by Mr. Allen on JMount Lincoln be really tliis species, an im- 

 portant advance in its history will have been reached, showing that their 

 summers are spent in the high mountain summits, and that the rest of the 

 year is passed lower down on the plains. 



