FINCHES, SPARROWS, ETC.: HEPBURN ROSY FINCH 697 
Gray-crowned Rosy Finches quietly hopping around feeding on the 
frozen ground. 
HEPBURN ROSY FINCH: Leucosticte tephrocotis littoralis Baird 
Description. — Male: Length (skins) 6-6.8 inches, wing 4-4.3, tail 2.4-2.7, 
bill .4-.5. Female: Length (skins) 6.1-6.5 inches, wing 3.9-4.1, bill .4-5. Similar 
to the Gray-crowned Rosy Finch, but with the sides of the head partly or wholly gray. 
In some cases the entire head and throat, except for the black frontal patch, are 
light ash-gray. 
Range.— Mountain districts of northwestern North America, probably breed¬ 
ing above timberline in mountains from the Alaska Peninsula east and south to 
Washington and Oregon; winters from Kodiak to Vancouver Island, and southeast 
in mountains to Oregon, Montana, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico. 
State Records. —From a mixed flock of about 300 leucostictes, which Ligon 
encountered on November 29, 1926, some 12 miles northwest of Vermejo Park, at 
about 10,500 feet, he obtained at one shot representatives of three species—the 
Brown-capped, Hepburn, and Black Rosy Finches. 
General Habits. —An interesting note comes from Mr. Alfred 
Bailey, at Juneau, Alaska, where a large flock of the Hepburn Rosy 
Finches stopped in passing, on April 3. They fed about the Capitol 
grounds, in the dried grass free from snow, and were so tame that they 
would allow him to come within six feet of them before taking wing. 
At Muir Inlet, in Glacier Bay, he found them working back and forth 
across the moraines and entering crevices high up on the glaciated 
cliffs (1927, p. 357). 
BLACK ROSY FINCH: Leucosticte atrata Ridgway 
Description. — Male: Length (skins) 5.9-6.3 inches, wing 4.2-4.3, tail 2.6-2.7, 
bill .4-.5. Female: Length (skins) 5.6-6.2 inches, wing 3.9-4.2, tail 2.4-2.6, bill 
.4-.5. Adult male in summer: Forehead and part of crown black, sides of crown and 
entire occiput ash-gray , not descending below level of eyes ; rest of head and underparts 
broumish black or deep clove brown; feathers of sides and abdomen broadly tipped 
with peach-blossom pink; hind-neck, back, and scapulars dark brown, the feathers 
with lighter edgings, rump , upper tail coverts and wing coverts peach-blossom pink, 
the feathers gray or dusky basally. Adult male in winter: Similar to summer male 
but brownish edgings on back and scapulars broader and more distinct, feathers of 
breast margined with buffy, the pink markings softer and the bill yellowish, tipped 
with dusky. Adult female: Much duller than male, underparts brown, the back 
more brownish and the pink paler, less extensive, largely replaced by white, especially 
on wings. Immature male: Similar to adult male but pink markings paler, largely 
replaced on wings by broad tips and edgings of buffy white. Immature female: 
Duller and browner than adult female, with pink markings more extensively 
replaced by whitish and pale buffy, feathers of back, scapulars, and breast margined 
with buffy. 
Range. —Northern Rocky Mountains, and probably other ranges; breeding in 
Idaho (probably Montana), and Utah; wintering to southeastern Wyoming, Arizona, 
southern Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico. Recorded from California. 
State Records. —The Black Leucosticte taken November 29, 1926, in Colfax 
County, by Ligon, from a mixed flock of about 300 leucostictes, was a young male 
in first fall plumage. (See Hepburn Rosy Finch, State Records.) 
