308 
FINCHES, SPARROWS, ETC. 
On a Sierra grade we have passed a flock busily gathering wild 
cherries in a bush beside the road, and when camped under the firs 
of Mt. Shasta have had wandering bands stop for a drink from the 
camp brook, delighting us by their striking yellow and white 
plumage. Although they are so highly colored and in flight their 
white wing patches make such prominent directive marks, this very 
yellow and white coloration often becomes positively protective. 
While watching the birds on Mt. Shasta one day, I was struck by 
the conspicuousness of one that flew across an open space. As it lit 
on a dead stub whose silvery branches were touched with yellow 
lichen, to my amazement it simply vanished. Its peculiar greenish 
yellow toned in perfectly with the greenish yellow of the lichen. 
The breeding range of the grosbeak is largely coincident with the 
range of the lichen, the lichen being a striking feature of the forests 
of the Sierra Nevada, Cascades, and northern Rockies, so that the 
unusual coloration of the bird may be of marked significance. 
GENUS PINICOLA. 
Bill short, broad, and thick, upper mandible strongly curved; nasal 
plumules conspicuous, hiding nostrils; 
wing about five times as long as tar¬ 
sus ; tail long, emarginate ; feet small, 
tarsus not longer than middle toe 
Fig. 394. without claw. 
KEY TO ADULT MALES. 
1. Feathers of back with conspicuously dusky centers. 
alascensis, p. 309. 
1'. Feathers of back without distinctly dusky centers. 
2. Bill and body smaller. High mountains of California. 
californica, p. 308. 
2 '. Bill and body larger. Rocky Mountains . . . montana, p. 308. 
515a. Pinicola enucleator montana Ridgw. Rocky Moun¬ 
tain Pine Grosbeak. 
Like P. e. californica , but large? and slightly darker, adult male carmine 
red instead of vermilion. Male : length (skins), 8.00-8.55, wing 4.72-4.86, 
tail 3.67-4.00, bill .61-68. Female : length (skins), 8.00-8.30, wing 4.65- 
4.69, tail 3.48-3.50. 
Distribution. — Breeds in Hudsonian zone in the Rocky Mountains from 
Montana and Idaho to New Mexico. 
Nest. — A rather flat thin structure, largely of fine rootlets placed in 
coniferous trees. Eggs: greenish. or bluish, spotted with brown and 
black. 
Food. — Caterpillars, cocoons, coniferous seeds, needles, buds, and blos¬ 
soms. 
515b. P. e. californica Price. C alifornia P ine Grosbeak. 
Adult male. — Light vermilion red , headslighi%tinged withyellow and 
pink, and changing to ash gray on scapulars, belly, flanks, and under tail 
