The Dawson Leuco 



sity, 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 foregathering in an ancient ivy, and quite 

 too hilarious for sleep. Again, before sunrise, there is an outburst of tune- 

 less racket, followed very shortly by dead silence. 



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

 the questing 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 (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, emo- 

 tional 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 unemotional. Lastly, there are hovering or flight notes 

 which are distinctly melodious and very difficult to syllabize. If the 

 Leuco is not a singer, he is by no means destitute of expression. 



These are impressions of nesting time. What the bird does with him- 

 self throughout the long Sierra winters we scarcely know. It is certain 

 that he does not have as hard a time of it as some of his northern cousins. 

 But for the sake of comparison I append a condensation of Mr. E. S. 

 Cameron's account 1 of the Gray-crowned Leucostictes (L. t. tephrocotis), 

 which he encountered in winter in northern Montana. 



Mr. Cameron found that these birds arrived each season about the 

 25th of October, and departed about March 15th. At Miles City during a 

 February cold snap which registered 42 degrees below, the birds remained 

 moping about in the cottonwoods and appeared paralyzed with cold and 

 hunger. One which ventured into the house through an open door was 

 captured and kindly treated, but was too far gone to recover. In milder 

 times the Leucos are a prominent and charming feature of the prairie 

 landscape. They feed not alone upon the ground, but also over the weeds 



1 The Auk. Vol. XXIV, Oct., 1907, pp. 402 & 403. 



177 



