THE AMERICAN PIPIT. 



223 



direct. But here there is suspicion of desultory wintering on the one Iiand 

 (I have a record of forty birds seen im the Nisqually Flats, Fcli. 10, 1906; 

 and Fannin says they sometimes winter im X'ancouver Island) and there is 

 always a small percentage of loiterers who linger into May. Spring flocks 

 may be looked for in freshly-plowed fields, where they feed attentively, often 

 in absolute silence, moving about with "graceful, gliding walk, tilting the body 

 and wagging the tail at each 

 step, much in the manner of 

 a Sciiinis.' 



Pipits are boreal breeders ; 

 but inasmuch as our owm 

 superb Aljis claim kinship 

 W'ith the Arctic, there is no 

 more favorable spot to study 

 the nesting of the Pipits 

 than upon the Cascades of 

 northern Washington. At 

 home the Pipit is a \ery 

 different creature fnnn the 

 straggler of the long trail. 

 On his native heather, sur- 

 rounded by dwarfed fir 

 trees, melting snow-fields, 

 and splendid vi.stas of peak 

 and cloud, he knows exactly 

 w'hat he wants and is quite [: 

 capable of flying in a 

 straight line. 



All is bustle and stir 

 along Ptarmigan Ridge, — 

 the transverse rock-rib of 

 Cascade Pass which divides 

 the waters of Stehekin, 

 Chelan, and the Columbia 

 from those of the Cascade, 

 Skagit, and Puget Sound. 



The season is late, June 23, 1906, and the snows have onl\- just released the 

 ridge at 6000 feet elevation. Slate-colored Sparrows are carolling tenderly 

 from the thickets of stunted fir. Sierra Hermit Thrushes, those minstrels 

 of heaven, flit elusively fmni cluni]) to clump or ])ause to rehearse from (heir 

 depths some spiritual strain. I.eucostictes look in upon the scene in passitig, 

 but they hasten at a pruflent thought to their Infticr ram])arts. The real 



Shagit Couuty. 



Photo by IV. L. na:c 



OUR L.ADV OK THE SNOWS, 



,\kacti;kistic summi-;r haunt of Tin 



