WITH BROWN PREDOMINATING 211 



as the family cares are over they become as friendly as 

 possible with the few who invade their haunts. 



The nest is snugly hidden in a cleft in the rock under- 

 neath a crag, where the fury of the storm will pass it by. 

 It is not an elaborate affair, but composed of weed stalks, 

 and lined with deer moss and occasionally a few feathers. 

 Late in June incubation begins, and it continues four- 

 teen days. The newly hatched young are only thinly 

 sprinkled with hair-like gray down and look not unlike 

 baby juncos. They remain in the nest fully three weeks, 

 and by the middle of August are able to fly nearly as 

 well as the adults. In September the broods of the 

 vicinity unite in bands of one or two families, frolicking 

 and chattering about the summit as if it were mid- 

 summer, and braving the snowstorms until the cold 

 dark November days drive them to the firs for shelter 

 at night. Even then the adults fly back to the crests 

 during the sunny hours, as if homesick for the bare, 

 bleak crags and the broad vista of snowy peaks. By 

 December they are well within the forest, whirling from 

 place to place in masses like juncos, and sleeping huddled 

 together in the heavy firs, sometimes almost buried in 

 the snow but always sure of a joyous resurrection in the 



533. PINE SISKIN, OR PINE Fl^CH.—Spinus pinus. 

 Family : The Finches, Sparrows, etc. 



Length: 4.50-5.25. 



Adults: Upper parts grayish or brownish; under parts whitish ; whole 



body finely streaked With brown ; sulphur-yellow patches on wings 



and tail. 



