Sept, 1910 DISCOVERY OF NEST AND EGGS OF GRAY-CROWNED LEUCOSTICTE 
151 
Barlow has stated that the birds feed on the seeds of this conifer; but in this in- 
stance it appeared to us they were picking off lady-bugs which happened to be 
especially numerous on the branches. We also notist on several occasions two of 
the brilliantly colored males suing for the affections of some undecided female, and 
from this we began to fear that our trip had perhaps been made at too early a date. 
After two and a half hours of continuous field work we came to the conclusion that 
at any rate we were not, by our present methods, making satisfactory progress, and 
on holding a conference decided to collect a specimen or so for the purpose of 
dissection. Carriger took aim at a bird on a nearby snow-patch, but mist, scatter- 
ing the snow about it in all directions; and when, a few moments later, this or 
some other individual lit on a rock close by, Carriger was joyfully amazed to note 
Fig. 46. PYRAMID PEAK, FROM POINT NEAR TRAIT FOUR MITES FROM PHITTIPS’ 
STATION AND AT AN ETEVATION OF 7750 FEET 
that its bill was filled with grass stems. On seeing the bird disappear among the 
rocks and then reappear with an empty bill, he rusht to the spot, but failed to find 
the hoped-for nest. And now it was only by the very slenderest thred of chance that 
the nest -was discovered. Carriger found by laying one eye upon the flat sur- 
face of a large rock that a portion of an almost completed nest could just be dis- 
cerned in the semi-darkness beneath the boulders. Wild with excitement over the 
discovery, he hastily called me to the spot; and hid by adjacent boulders we jointly 
watcht the bird, a female, return from the edge of the timber-line far below, with 
more material for the nest, so intent on her purpose that she seemed oblivious of 
our presence, alighting but two feet from us. For a second time we saw her swing 
off in a whirlwind flight down to the base of the peak and with equally rapid 
