^°1'^4'^^] Bailey, Birds of the Upper Pecos. 35 I 



Actitis macularia. Spotted Sandpiper. — Two families of young were 

 found at 8000 feet in the Transition zone where Mr. Henshaw found 

 breeding birds. One brood left the nest on July 15, the other probably a 

 week later. An adult male in beautiful, fresh winter plumage was shot 

 on August 15 by the lake at the foot of Pecos Baldy, at n,6oo feet, and 

 another, August 24, on the Pecos at 7200 feet. 



Dendragapus obscurus. Dusky Grouse. — Grouse were found through- 

 out the Canadian and Hudsonian zones, but the total number seen by our 

 party during the month that we were in their country was only eleven 

 cocks, nine hens, and six small broods of young. As the birds are sup- 

 posed to lay from seven to ten eggs and the number of young attributed 

 to four out of the six broods seen was respectively one, two, three, and 

 four, we surmised that the severe mountain hailstorms had depleted the 

 families. Near our camp at the foot of Pecos Baldy, Mr. Bailey discov- 

 ered a winter roosting tree of the grouse. The tree was on a sheltered part 

 of the wooded slope and was so densely branched that after a prolonged 

 rain the ground beneath was perfectly dry. The earth was strewn with 

 winter droppings, composed entirely of leaves of conifers. Conifer 

 needles had also been eaten by three of the grouse that were taken, under 

 our collecting permit, in July and August, but at this season the birds 

 were living principally on such fresh food as strawberries, bearberries 

 {^Arctostaphylos tivaursa), shepherdia berries, flowers of the lupine and 

 paint brush, seeds, green leaves, grasshoppers, caterpillars, ants, and other 

 insects. One crop contained twenty-seven strawberries, twenty-eight 

 bearberries, and twelve shepherdia berries, besides flowers, leaves, and 

 insects, while the accompanying gizzard was filled with seeds, green 

 leaves, and insects. 



Lagopus leucurus altipetens. Southern White-tailed Ptarmigan. 

 — A cattleman and one of the range riders of the Reserve both reported 

 having seen a few ptarmigan in previous seasons on the highest peaks, 

 but although Pecos Baldy (12,600 feet) was climbed seven times by differ- 

 ent members of our party and Truchas (13,300 feet) three times, our 

 anxious search for the birds was not rewarded. It must be said, however, 

 that on seveial of our ascents the wind was blowing a gale that would 

 have driven most birds to cover. As this is the extreme southern limit 

 of the Alpine zone in the Rocky Mountain system, and as there is a break 

 of approximately thirty or forty miles in the Hudsonian zone between 

 the high peaks of the Pecos Mountains and the Taos Mountains thirty or 

 forty miles farther north, the range sweeping down to 9300 feet in the 

 lower Canadian zone at Taos Pass, it is hardly to be expected that ptar- 

 migan would be abundant on this isolated southern extremity of the 

 range. There are, however, undoubtedly a few of the birds on the south- 

 ernmost of the high peaks. At the southern end of the gap in the Hud- 

 sonian zone, the game warden told us, eleven years ago he found two 

 of the ptarmigan near Mora Pass at an altitude of more than 11,000 feet. 

 We did not succeed in finding any of the birds, however, even in the Taos 



