The Dawson Leuco 



Token in Mono County 



A MORAINIC NESTING SITE 



THE NEST IS DEEPLY CONCEALED UNDER SOME LARGE BOULDERS 



Photo by the Author 



minute. On the minute schedule she would spend about forty seconds 



gathering a load and fifteen or twenty seconds in arranging it; but I saw 



her speed up to twenty and five, respectively. The male, meanwhile, 



made himself useful by conducting periodical inspections, and offering 



advice (unheeded, no doubt), but chiefly by mounting guard and chasing 



off intruders. Needless to say, the birds did not resent my presence, for 



concealment is impossible under the pitiless glare of a Sierran noonday. 



When we saw a Leucosticte seize a blob of cotton-batting which had 



blown off our ledge onto the snow, and bear it off in triumph toward a 



neighboring moraine, we thought that our oological fortunes were made. 



We dashed after her forthwith; but somewhere near the rocks an aerial 



scrimmage developed into a quite spirited affair, in which half a dozen 



Leucos and a snooping Clark Nutcracker figured. It was all over in a 



moment; but when the smoke of battle cleared away, we saw nothing of 



bird, cotton, or nest. A second theft was no more successfully traced, for 



the fugitive had no sooner disappeared around a sharp turn than she gave 



up all further interest in nest-building. A third, indeed, yielded a 



location ; but this was a matter of sheer luck, for the bird used cotton only 



once, although tempting morsels were, by now, distributed all about the 



moraines. 



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