io6 Bird Comrades 



of soft feathers. In order to procure the grasses required, 

 they must descend at least to the belt of scant vegetation 

 just below the region of bare rocks and boulders. Where 

 they get the downy feathers for the carpet of their nur- 

 series I have not been able to ascertain. No nest has yet 

 been discovered below an elevation of 12,000 feet. Our 

 little bird may, indeed, be called a " haunter of the sky." 

 The height of the breeding season is in the latter part of 

 July. The broods having left the nests, old and young 

 gather in small flocks and range over the peaks and ridges, 

 feeding on the insects tp be found on the fields of snow. 



No less interesting are the habits of these birds in 

 winter. In October and November most of them "descend 

 only to the timber line, where they remain throughout 

 the winter, save as they are driven down into the denser 

 forests by the fierce tempests of this arctic region. What 

 feathered Vikings they are ! They do not even make for 

 themselves snow huts for protection from the winter 

 storms. However, a few descend almost to the base of 

 the foothills, while others perhaps the less hardy seek 

 a blander climate in the northern part of Mexico. 



There are in North America four other species of the 

 genus Leucosticte; the Aleutian, whose habitat is the Aleu- 

 tian and Prybilof islands and east as far as- the island 

 of Kadiak; the gray-crowned, which breeds in British 

 America near the Rooky Mountains, comes to Colorado 

 in winter, and has been taken as far east as western Iowa ; 

 the Hepburn, dwelling chiefly in the mountain ranges of 

 the Pacific coast, breeding mostly in the far North, and in 



