^°'- i^l'e^"^] Warren, Birds of the Elk Mountain Region, Colo. 299 



May 22, 1899, a flock of eight or ten birds came to Hillside Lake, of which 

 four were secured. 



Actitis macularia. Spotted Sandpiper. — A common summer resi- 

 dent along the streams, both in the Crested Butte region and on Muddy 

 Creek. 



Oxyechus vociferus. Killdeer. — A common summer resident in 

 suitable places in the region about Crested Butte; my notes make no 

 mention of it on Muddy Creek, though it should be there. June 21, 1900, 

 young, apparently a day or two old, were seen with the parent on the 

 East River road, near Brush Creek. 



Dendragapus obscurus obscurus. Dusky Grouse. — A common 

 resident, though much reduced in numbers during the past twenty years 

 by persistent hunting, especially by the Austrians and ItaUans, most of 

 whom have no regard for close seasons or game laws, and no scruples about 

 killing a bird on the nest or with a brood of newly hatched young. It is 

 found everywhere from the upper limit of heavy green timber down. 

 June 20, 1900, a nest with seven eggs was found near the Jarvis Ranch on 

 East River. June 5, 1902, a nest and four eggs were found near Deep 

 Creek, at the base of Ragged Mountain. It was under a big log, just a 

 depression with grass above it and lined with a few feathers. There must 

 be considerable irregularity about the nesting of this species for one often 

 finds broods of young of quite different ages at the same time in the same 

 locality. 



Lagopus leucurus leucurus. White-tailed Ptarmigan. — The 

 Ptarmigan is a fairly common resident Uving above timberline in the 

 summer, descending to the valleys in winter when driven down by the deep 

 snow. During the last four years of my residence at Crested Butte, from 

 1899 to 1902, I paid much attention to these birds, looking for them, 

 studying arid photographing them at every opportunity and at all seasons. 

 In summer they are apt to be rather difficult to find as they are scattered 

 about the mountain tops, often singly, or females with young, though one 

 may run across a flock of male birds who are enjoying bachelor life while 

 their wives attend to the family duties. The birds are often, one may say 

 usually, remarkably tame. I have known a female to squat down on the 

 ground and the young to get under her and to pay no attention whatever 

 to me when I placed a camera on a rock close by, focussed, adjusted the 

 shutter, and made several exposures. I have never been so fortunate as to 

 find a nest, though I have spent considerable time in the search for one, but 

 it is one of those things one finds by stumbling upon them rather than by 

 search. In late summer the birds often go to some particular place for 

 water once a day, usually the middle or latter part of the forenoon. This 

 is when the last remnants of the preceding winter's snow have disap- 

 peared, for they will eat snow readily enough, and at extreme high alti- 

 tudes springs are not at all common. The change to the winter plumage 

 begins after the middle of September, and is nearly complete the last of 

 October, and fully so the first week in November. The reverse change 



