_Linaria (Leucosticte) tephrocotis_, SW. F. Bor. Am. II, 1831, 255,
pl. 1. _Leucosticte tephrocotis_, SW. Birds II, 1837.—Bon. Consp.
1850, 536.—BAIRD, Stansbury’s Salt Lake, 1852, 317.—IB. Birds N.
Am. 1858, 430.—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 164. _Erythrospiza
tephrocotis_, Bon. List, 1838.—AUD. Syn. 1839.—IB. Birds Am. III,
1841, 176, pl. cxcviii. _Fringilla tephrocotis_, AUD. Orn. Biog.
V. 1839, 232, pl. ccccxxiv.
SP. CHAR. (No. 19,255.) _Male in winter._ General color dark
chocolate-brown or umber, lighter and more chestnut below; the
feathers to a considerable degree with paler edges (most evident in
immature specimens), those of back with darker centres. Nasal bristly
feathers, and those along base of maxilla, and the hind head to nape
ash-gray, this color forming a square patch on top of head, and not
extending below level of eyes. A frontal blackish patch extending from
base of bill (excepting the bristly feathers immediately adjacent to
it), and reaching somewhat beyond the line of the eyes, with convex
outline behind, and extending less distinctly on the loral region.
Chin and throat darker chestnut, not grayish anteriorly. Body behind
dusky; the feathers of abdomen and flanks washed, and of crissum,
rump, and upper tail-coverts tipped, with rose-red; wing-coverts, and
to some extent quills, edged with the same; otherwise with white. Bill
yellowish, with dusky tip; feet black. Length before skinning, 6.50;
extent, 11.50. Skin: Length, 6.50; wing, 4.30; tail, 3.00.
_Young._ Pattern of coloration as in the adult of _L. tephrocotis_;
ash similarly restricted, but with the black frontal patch badly
defined. The brown of the plumage, however, is of an entirely
different shade from that of adult specimens of _tephrocotis_, being
of a blackish-sepia cast, much darker, even, than in _griseinucha_;
each feather also broadly bordered terminally with paler, these
borders being whitish on the throat and breast, brownish on the nape
and back, and light rose (broadly) on the scapulars. The whole
abdomen, flanks, and crissum are nearly continuously peach-blossom
pink, which, with that of the lesser and middle wing-coverts and rump,
is of a finer and brighter tint than in adults. The other edgings to
wings are pale ochraceous; under side of wing pure white. Bill dull
yellow, dusky toward tip. Wing, 4.20; tail, 3.80. (60,638, Uintah
Mountains, Utah, September 20, 1870; DR. F. V. HAYDEN.)
The young specimen described was obtained during the summer of 1871 in
the Uintah Mountains; and were it not unmistakably a bird of the year,
it would be considered almost a distinct species, so different is it
from adult specimens of _tephrocotis_.
HABITS. Of the history and habits of this well-marked and strikingly
peculiar bird, but little is known. It was first described by Swainson
from a single specimen, obtained on the Saskatchewan Plains, in May,
by Dr. Richardson’s party. Specimens were afterwards procured in
Captain Stansbury’s expedition, near Salt Lake City, Utah, in March,
1850. Dr. Hayden found them very abundant on the Laramie Plains during
the winter season, and Mr. Pearsall obtained numbers about Fort
Benton. Dr. Cooper has also seen one specimen brought from somewhere
east of Lake Tahoe, in Washoe, by Mr. F. Gruber. They were said to be
plentiful there in the cold winter of 1861-62. Dr. Cooper thinks it
probable that they visit the similar country east of the northern
Sierra Nevada, in California.
A single flock of what is presumed to have been this species was seen
by Mr. Ridgway, on the 5th of January, in the outskirts of Virginia
City, Nevada. The flock was flitting restlessly over the snow in the
manner of the _Plectrophanes_.
Nothing has been ascertained, so far as we are now informed, as to its
nest, eggs, or general distribution during the breeding-season.
Mr. J. K. Lord states that he met with a flock of these rare and
beautiful birds on the summit of the Cascade Mountains. It was late in
October, and he observed a flock of nine or ten birds pecking along
the ground, and feeding somewhat in the manner of Larks. Puzzled to
know what birds they could be at such an altitude so late in the year,
he fired among them and secured three, a female and two males in fine
plumage. (Perhaps var. _littoralis_.)
In July of the following summer, on the summit of the Rocky Mountains,
near the Kootanie Pass, he again saw these birds feeding on the
ground. He shot several, but they were all young birds of the year. It
is therefore rendered probable that these Finches breed on the Cascade
and Rocky Mountains, in both at about the same altitude, or seven
thousand feet, coming into the lowlands during the winter, as it is
not likely that they could endure the cold of the summits, or find
there a sufficiency of food, the winter being very severe, and the
snow three feet, or more in depth.
Mr. Charles N. Holden, a promising young ornithologist of Chicago, who
observed these birds among the Black Hills, near Sherman, at an
altitude of eight thousand feet above the sea, has furnished me with
interesting observations in regard to them. He informs me that he did
not meet with these birds there in summer. They came in small flocks
in the coldest part of winter. Their food consisted of small seeds and
insects. In some instances he found the crops so distended with seeds
as to distort their shape. They become very fat, and are excellent
eating. In one specimen, a young male, the plumage was almost black,
as described at the beginning of this article. These birds were quite
numerous, and nearly forty specimens were secured. He was not able to
learn anything in reference to their breeding-places. Except by
dissection, he found it difficult to distinguish between a young male
of the first year and a female.
If the specimen referred to in the foot-note at the beginning of this
article as collected by Mr. Allen on Mount Lincoln be really this
species, an important advance in its history will have been reached,
showing that their summers are spent in the high mountain summits, and
that the rest of the year is passed lower down on the plains.
Leucosticte tephrocotis, var. campestris, BAIRD.