76 THE GRAY-CROWNED LEUCOSTICTE. 
chirps of alarm and call to each other with a long, sweet note, something 
similar to that of the Goldfinch (Spinus tristis). ‘They keep up a constant 
cheeping repetition of this note when feeding in parties, and if one of their 
number is shot the others approach closer and closer to the hunter, and gaze 
with mingled curiosity and sympathy upon their fluttering companion.” 
No. 27. 
GRAY-CROWNED LEUCOSTICTE. 
A. O. U. No. 524. Leucosticte tephrocotis Swains. 
Synonyms.—Rosy FincH. SWar1nson’s Rosy FINcuH. 
Description Adults: Similar to L. t. littoralis but ashy gray of head re- 
stricted to sides of crown and occiput—in worn plumages black of crown pro- 
duced backward to meet brown of hind neck. Seasonal changes as in succeeding. 
Size of next. 
Recognition Marks.—Sparrow size; warm brown plumage; ashy gray not 
encroaching upon sides of head as distinguished from L. t. littoralis. 
Nesting.—Not known to breed in Washington. “Nest made of strips of 
bark and grass, built in a fissure of a rock at the side of a bunch of grass” (Reed). 
Eggs: 4 or 5, white. Season: June; one brood. 
General Range.—Imperfectly made out—probably discontinuous. Reported 
breeding from such widely separated localities as the Rocky Mountains of 
British America and the Sierra Nevada and White Mountains of southern Cali- 
fornia; winters on the eastern slopes of the Rockies and irregularly eastward to 
western Nebraska, Manitoba, etc., westward to Cascade and Sierra Nevada 
ranges (Camp Harvey, Ore. Pullman, Wash. Chilliwhack. B. C.). 
Range in Washington.—Probably of regular occurrence during migrations 
and in winter east of the Cascade Mountains only. 
Authorities.—Not previously reported; W. T. Shaw in epistola, Dec. 31, 
1908. 
Specimens.— Pullman. 
MOUNTAIN climbing as an art is still in its infancy in the Northwest 
and altho the Mountaineers and the Mazamas are attacking the situation 
vigorously we have yet much to learn of the wild life upon our Washington 
sierras. But what problem could be more fascinating to a lover of birds and 
mountains than that of working out accurately the distribution of the Rosy 
Finches in America? They are the mountaineers par excellence, they are the 
Jebusites of the untaken citadels, and our ignorance of their ways will ere 
long become a reproach to our vaunted western enterprise. As it stands, 
