AN ALPINE ROSY FINCH* 



THE common name of the subject of this sketch 

 is the brown-capped rosy finch; in the scientific 

 works on ornithology he is called the brown- 

 capped leucosticte. He is certainly a bird of peculiar 

 habits and out-of-the-way preferences. Should he send 

 you his card from his summer residence, it would read 

 something like this: "At home in ^he mountains of 

 Colorado, from 10,000 feet above sea-level to the summits 

 of the highest peaks." There is only one other bird in 

 Colorado that has so high a summer range, and that is 

 the white-tailed ptarmigan, usually called, in hunter's 

 parlance, the "mountain quail." 



The rosy finch is slightly larger than the bluebird. 

 His general color is light brown, suffused with a beauti- 

 ful pink or rosy tint, the dark shaft lines and pale edges 

 of the feathers of the back giving it a striped appear- 

 ance, 'fhe forepart of the top of the head is blackish, 

 and the cap is brown, from which he gets the qualifying 

 adjective of his name. In the best nuptial plumage the 



*Part of the material used in this chapter has already appeared in the author's work 

 entitled " Birds of the Rockies," but it is here printed in different form, that of a monograph, 

 with a number of additional facts. The writer feels that the readers of the present volume 

 will relish at least a taste of bird study among the alpine heights of the Rocky Mountains. 

 The article is reprinted from the " Denver Post," whose courtesy is hereby acknowledged. 



