Canary seed, flax seed, finely cracked wheat, and, later in the year, lettuce, and other 

 tender leaves. As the sods at the bottom of the cage were often entirely removed, they 

 no doubt obtained also many insects. Every morning as I approached the cage, a 

 general and impatient chattering commenced for their breakfast and bath, and they 

 immediately availed themselves of both in my presence; and often I deluged the entire 

 thing, birds and all, with a large w^atering pot, they enjoying this sprinkling immensely. 

 Later in the spring this part of the programme was followed by their mounting to the 

 upper cage, pluming themselves in the sun, chattering among themselves, and the males 

 giving utterance to a low, subdued, and plaintive sort of a song, being different from 

 the shrill w^histle they gave to attract the attention of their passing fellow^s outside. 



"By the middle of May, all the birds of this species had entirely left the country; 

 the spring migration w^as thoroughly inaugurated, and the weather was becoming very 

 warm. Swallows were breeding and many other birds were evidently thinking of doing 

 likewise. I now made their home as attractive as possible, by every means that my 

 imagination could invent. Nests of birds of about their own size that built on the 

 ground were introduced into the secluded nooks of their breeding cage, but these they 

 invariably pulled to pieces the very day I placed them there. In short, by the middle 

 of June I had abandoned all hope of their breeding, and during their entire confinement 

 there never seemed any evidence of their pairing, or having the least desire, like sensible 

 birds, of resorting to the business of the season. 



"By the first of July, they were as gentle as any cage birds I ever saw; they 

 w^ould pick seed out of one's hand, and alight on your finger, if you quietly introduced 

 it between the bars ; in fact, they w^ere all that any one could desire in the way of cage 

 pets. On the 10th of July, I opened the doors of their little prison and allowed them 

 all to escape, as they had suffered intensely from the heat for several days ; the sudden 

 exercise was rather too much for one or two of them, and they w^ere readily retaken 

 but only to be kept until the cool of the evening. The brilliancy of their plumage 

 seemed to be at its acme in the early part of May ; at the time of their release it was 

 in all of them many shades paler. On several occasions during the summer they were 

 seen about the post, usually one at a time, so I am quite confident they never 

 made the attempt to either breed that season or to follow their companions to the 

 northward." 



A variety, Hepburn's Leucosticte, or Hepburn's Rosy Finch, L. tephrocotis 

 littoralis Coues, inhabits the Pacific coast ranges of north-western North America. In 

 winter it is found from Kadiak southward and south-eastward to the Great Basin, 

 western Nevada, and eastern Colorado. 



NAMES: Gray-crowned Rosy Finch, Gray-crowned Finch, Gray-crowned Leucosticte. 



SCIENTIFIC NAMES: LEUCOSTICTE TEPHROCOTIS Swainson (1831). 



DESCRIPTION: Male in -winter. General color, dark cinnamon-brown, lighter and more chestnut below; 

 the feathers to a considerable degree with paler edges, those of back with darker centres. 

 Nasal bristly feathers, and those along base of maxilla, and the hind head to nape ash-gray, this 

 color forming a square patch on top of head, and not extending below level of eyes. A fi-ontal 

 blackish patch extending from base of bill, and reaching somewhat beyond the line of the eyes, with 

 convex outline behind, and extending less distinctly on the loral region. Chin and throat, darker 



