as her noisy brother had done. Moreover, she sought a well and hid quietly, 

 while the cheeper winged off for other fields, — much to our relief. 



The Leucosticte is not, as I had once supposed, songless. It would be 

 fair to say, however, that he is tuneless. The "song" of the male consists only of 

 a high-pitched ecstatic (for him) chirping, reeled off by the minute and without 

 definite intermission. The notes vary so in "quantity", i. e., in length and in- 

 tensity, that an effect as of several participants is produced by each performer. 

 Three artists at a time will produce a "din,"; but the resulting effect of large 

 numbers does not exaggerate the abundance of the birds. Most of them are 

 silent. During the courting season the chirping choruses are kept up for an hour 

 after the last rays of sunlight have faded from the highest peak. The din so 

 created reminds one rather unpleasantly of a company of English Sparrows fore- 

 gathering in an ancient ivy, and quite too hilarious for sleep. Again, before sun- 

 rise, there is an outburst of tuneless racket, followed, very shortly, by dead 

 silence. 



Akin to these strident chirps, but of very different function, are the quest- 

 ing notes : zee o, zee o, hootititeet. The first couplet, strictly speaking, constitutes 

 the inquiry, while the hootititeet usually announces the intention to fly to another 

 spot. The entire cycle, then, may run somewhat as follows: (alighting) zee o, 

 zee o (ruffling of feathers) ; zee o, zee o (shifting on perch) ; zee o, zee o (feathers 

 composed again — "She evidently isn't here"); hootititeet (momentary pause — 

 flight to neighboring stand). 



The Leuco also indulges much sotto voce "slushy stuff" in the near presence 

 of his lady love. If you see a Leuco come in from a hundred yard flight, light on 

 a stone and begin to gush softly, it's ten to one his lady is in hiding near by; and 

 it's three to one he knows exactly where she is. 



Then there are scolding notes of various degrees of intensity, emotional 

 rather than functional expressions; and there is a mellow schthub of inquiry, 

 mellow and low, not often heard during the nesting season. Also a lighter, casual 

 note of greeting, inquiry, or appraisal, schthib, or schtlib, matter-of-fact and un- 

 emotional. Lastly, there are hovering or flight notes which are distinctly melo- 

 dious and very difficult to syllabize. If the Leuco is not a singer, he is by no 

 means destitute of expression. 



THE LEUCO NESTINGS OF 1922 



By William Leon Dawson 



The Sierran season of 1922 was marked by lingering snows, for the pre- 

 ceding winter had witnessed the heaviest snowfall in decades. It was not thought 

 worth while, therefore, to repair to the Grand Cirque, where Leuco nesting was 

 exclusively conducted, until the 30th of June. Even at that late date, the 

 "Grand Moraine" was just beginning to emerge, while the Cirque Lake at its 

 feet (alt. 11,000 feet) was completely ice-bound. In the course of twelve davs' 

 intermittent residence I made, with the help of assistants in two instances, ten 

 locations of Leucostictes' nests. Two of these occupying, the one a deeply 

 penetrating fissure in the mountain, and the other a niche under a protecting 

 overhang, were practically inaccessible. Another, placed in the deep interior 

 of a broad rock fissure, or "well," accessible from above, held on the 11th of July 

 four or five young a quarter grown. To each of the remaining nests a separate 

 interest attaches; and I propose to describe them briefly, or at least the cir- 

 cumstances surrounding their investigation. 



June 30, 1922; n/4, not taken: — As I was nearing the west member of the 

 two overshadowing cliffs of the Grand Cirque, by means of a steep snow-field, 

 a female Leuco, returning blithely from breakfast at 9 a. m., disappeared in a 

 deep perpendicular crevice not a hundred feet away. Arrived at the base of 

 the opening, I find a fissure which penetrates the mountain to a depth of fifteen 

 feet, but which is too narrow to permit of entrance, even "edgewise". The 

 floor of this cavity is irregularly terraced, and upon one of these terraces, with 



19 



