An Alpine Rosy Finch 105 



How blithe and cheerful were the pretty leucostictes ! 

 Now they darted fearlessly about in the air over the 

 summit and the gorges ; now they alighted on the wall of 

 the dilapidated old signal station, and anon hopped and 

 flitted about over the extensive snow beds, picking up 

 dainties that were evidently to their taste, all the while 

 beguiling the time with their companionable, half -musical 

 chirping. So far as I observed, they have no real song. 

 If they have, it is strange that they did not furnish a 

 sample of their lyrical gifts on so calm and sweet a sum- 

 mer day in the season of courtship. 



What billsome morsels did they find on the snow? 

 We examined their white tablecloth and found a number 

 of small beetles and other insects creeping up through it 

 or crawling around over its surface. Thus Nature spreads 

 her banquet everywhere for her feathered children. 



One cannot help falling into the speculative mood as 

 one reflects on these little birds and their remarkable 

 habits. Why do they, of all birds, choose the highest 

 mountain peaks for their summer homes? Might the 

 cause be physiological? Are their lungs, muscles, and 

 nervous systems so constructed as to be adapted to a dry, 

 rare, crisp atmosphere, which would prove injurious, per- 

 haps fatal, to birds of a different structural organization? 

 Who can tell? At all events, they live on these towering 

 elevations all summer long, woo their plainly-clad mates, 

 build their nests, and rear their happy families. 



Their nests are set amid the rocks, and are quite bulky, 

 the walls composed of grasses and the lining consisting 



