THE MOUNTAINEER. 



13 



clad in a warm coat of chocolate- 

 brown, with much edging of rich 

 rose-red upon the wings and hinder 

 parts ; while the feathers of the fore- 

 parts and back have irregular whit- 

 ish and grayish edgings (whence the 

 name, rather inapropos, meaning 

 varied by white). Moreover, as an 

 extra precaution, this boreal bird 

 wears an ashy gray hood coming 

 well down on the sides of the head. 



Looking out on the chilly wilder- 

 ness of snow-clad peaks which con- 

 fronts Leueosticte upon an early day 

 in June, one wonders what he sees 

 to justify the assumption of family 

 cares. Save for a few^ dripping 

 south exposures of inhospitable rock, 

 there is nothing visible which affords 

 promise of food unless it be the snow 

 itself. And when one sees a little 

 company of them moving about de- 

 murely upon the face of a choppy 

 snowdrift pecking at the surface 

 here and there, he begins to enter- 

 tain an uncanny suspicion that the 

 bird does eat snow. Closer examina- 

 tion, however, shows that the surface 

 of all snow banks, not freshly cov- 

 ered, is sprinkled with insects, in- 

 sects which the spring gales have 

 swept up to uncongenial heights and 

 dropped benumbed or dead with cold. 

 These battered waifs the Leucostic- 

 tes gather with untiring patience, 

 and they are thus able to subsist, as 

 no other species can, up to the very 

 summits. 



The nest of the Hepburn Leueos- 

 ticte has not yet been taken, but Mr. 

 D. E. Brown found them scooping 

 hollows under grass tussocks on the 

 middle slopes of Baker, above timber 

 line, on the 7th of June, 1905. On 

 the 20th of July, 1900. Professor 

 Lynds Jones and myself found a 

 thick-walled grass nest settled upon 

 the bare rock on the south slope of 

 the aiguille of Wright's Peak, at an 

 elevation of some 9,000 feet, and 

 within a hundred yards of the sum- 

 mit; and this could hardly have be- 



longed to any other species. 



Wlien mountain birds are spoken 

 of, doubtless the image of the White- 

 tailed Ptarmigan (Lagopus leucurus) 

 comes early to mind. These gentle 

 creatures range by choice somewhat 

 above timber line in summer, but de- 

 scend far below it, (as do also the 

 Leucostictes), in winter. Their win- 

 ter plumage is pure white, but their 



A slope of Mount Baker. 



