64 



"The young break the shell at the expiration of twenty or twenty- 

 two days' incubation, the labor of which is not shared by the male, 

 who, however, brings food to his mate, singing the while, as if highly 

 elated by his prospects of paternity. 



" The chicks, at first, are sparsely covered with a sprinkling of dark- 

 gray down, and in two or three weeks gain their feathers, fitting. them 

 for flight, although they do not acquire the bright rosy hues and rich 

 brown of the parents the first year. 



" Between the old birds there is no outward dissimilarity according to 

 sex ; the male and female- being exactly alike in size, shape, and colora- 

 tion. They feed upon various seeds and insects, as well as the larvse 

 which swarm on the killing-grounds. They are fearless and confiding, 

 fluttering in the most familiar manner around the village huts. 



" In the summer of 1873, a pair built their nest and reared a brood 

 under the eaves of the old Greek church at Saint George's. 



" The nests, of which I collected fifteen or twenty, are very neatly 

 made up of dry grass and moss, thick and compactly interwoven, placed 

 on the faces of the basaltic and breccia cliffs which rise from the shore- 

 line of the islands. These disintegrating tufa and breccia bluffs afford 

 a thousand and one little pockets and crannies, in which the pahtoshkie 

 builds, secure from molestation from prowling foxes. It has no song, 

 but utters a low mellow chirp, alike either when flying or sitting. It is 

 most abundant on Saint George's, where hundreds may be seen at any 

 time during a short walk along the north shore. It consorts in pairs 

 throughout the year, never going in flocks, and seldom flying or feeding 

 alone." 



The L. australis was found breeding on the alpine summits of the 

 Colorado Mountains by Mr. Allen, Mr. Batty, and Dr. Eothrock ; but 

 only the latter has favored us with the benefit of his observations. 

 "The following interesting notes are given by Dr. Kothrock, who found 

 the species very abundant in the mountains back of Fairplay in the 

 South Park, and also on Mounts Harvard, Evans, Red Mountains, and 

 elsewhere. These birds are, in habitat, the associates of the white- 

 tailed ptarmigan, and, like that bird, are never found below the timber- 

 line in summer, ranging thence upward to the summits of the highest 

 peaks. It is never found singly, but usually in flocks of from six to 

 thirty, and rarely far away from large bodies of snow; its favorite resort 

 being the edge of snow-banks, where they find grass-seeds, and also a 

 small black coleopterous insect. Even when found among the scrub- 

 pines, which was rarely the case, it was noticed that they seldom alighted 

 in a tree, but kept constantly on the ground. At all times, they were 

 rather shy and suspicious. The specimens taken were all in breeding- 

 dress."* 



The habits in winter seem to be much the same in all the forms, and 

 at this season several of them associate in the same flock in the Eocky 

 Mountain region. Mr. C. E. Aiken, who has probably enjoyed better op- 

 portunities for studying them at this time than any other observer, has 

 kindly favored us with the following very interesting description :t 



" The first information that I had of this genus was derived from speci- 

 mens sent to Mr. Holden from Wyoming Territory, in 1870, as related 

 in my last letter. The next was in February, 1872, when I saw and 



*Eeportupon Ornithological Specimens collected in the years 1871,1872, and 1873, by 

 Dr. H. C. Yarrow and Mr. H. W. Hensbaw, Naturalists to the Geographical and Geological 

 Explorations and Surveys West of the One Hundredth Meridian. First Lieut. George M. 

 Wheeler, Corps of Engineers, U. S. A., in charge. Washington, Government Priuting- 

 Office, 1874. P. 79. 



t Letter dated "Colorado Springs, Colorado, July 13, 1874." 



