He admired the genius of Mr. Dawson, with whom he worked so happily; 

 he believed in this Museum which Mr. Dawson founded; he wanted his own 

 collection to be here. 



And so I am happy, Mr. President, to present to you this deed of the land 

 on which this building stands; land, that was his father's and my father's, where 

 "the trees of the Lord are full of sap — where the birds build their nests, which 

 sing among the branches." 



THE SPECIMEN ROOMS 

 AUK HALL (fronts of new cases removed) 



BRANT HALL 



THE NESTING OF THE SIERRA NEVADA ROSY FINCH 



(Leucosticte tephrocotls dawsoni Grinnell). 

 By William Leon Dawson 



(Based chiefly upon material awaiting publication in "The Birds of California"). 



In one sense at least the American Leucostictes stand at the very apex of 

 evolutionary progress. If life began, as the biologists assert, in the depths of 

 the ocean, then it is the "Leuco" who has carried life's banner highest. Today he 

 flaunts it from the mountain peaks, from Shasta and Whitney no less than from 

 Blanca and Baker and Robson. If lofty association means anything for character 

 also, the Sierra Nevada Rosy Finch ought to be the very best of birds, for it is his 

 privilege to spend a lifetime wrestling with the eternal snows. Be that as it may — 

 and we, perhaps, are not able to set up the standards of bird ethics — there can be 

 no doubt that this exalted breed of birds affords one of the most fascinating 

 studies which western bird-life offers. And because its ways of life have been so 

 long remote from ordinary observation, the Leucosticte has been invested with 

 something of the same sanctity which, in the thought of Nature's purest wor- 

 shippers, clings about the vestal mountains. It seems a sort of sacrilege to 

 bring them down, these vestal mountaineers, to ply them with questions of food 

 and raiment and manner of life. The author knows something ot these things, 

 perhaps as much as anyone, but instead ot telling about them he would rather 

 sing a paean and draw the curtain ot respect. It is one thing to know the Eleu- 

 sinian mysteries, but quite another to proclaim them from the house-top. Your 

 pardon, gentle Leucos! 



A technical description of the Leucosticte's wardrobe may be found in 

 any manual, and we pause here only to note that the rosy fringes and flushes 

 which decorate its sober browns are a common adornment in the family Fringil- 

 lidae. There are, it may be, a hundred species of "rosy finches'' at the very 

 least, so that the attempted monopoly of the name "Rosy Finch'' for our Ameri- 

 can mountaineer is absurd and futile. No more fortunate is the name "Leuco- 

 sticte", meaning "varied by white". The whitish edgings on this bird are few 

 and obscure and in no wise distinctive. The name "Leucosticte" is a jaw- 

 breaker, and the public will not stand for it. We are in a box. But since we 



S 



