944 Rural School Leaflet. 



and looking up saw a flucter of wings against the glass. We hastened 

 to open the window and in flew a little bird. 



Just the color of the night, he was, without a streak or spot except 

 for a little apron of white extending from his breast backward. Even 

 his throat and breast were slaty black. When he flew from the window 

 to the bookcase, however, he showed us that his outer tail feathers were 

 as white as his breast. It was a Junco, Some people call him snow- 

 bird, but there is another bird which has that name so we will call this 

 one a Junco. 



Why had the little Junco come to our window, where had he been, 

 and where was he going? I wish he could have spoken for I am sure he 

 could have told us many interesting adventures. He would probably 

 have told us that winter was coming and with it heavy snows in the 

 north which cover up a.V the weeds and seeds upon which he depends 

 for food. That he was traveling toward the south where the snows are 

 not so deep and some of the w^eeds remain above all winter. Like his 

 other brothers, he was afraid to travel during the day when his 

 enemies, the hawks, are hunting, so was flying with many others at 

 night. On clear nights, he had flown very high but on this night, it 

 was so cloudy that he had come close to earth to be able to follow the 

 landscape. 



The Junco could have told us how, in the spring, he had journeyed 

 northward far up into a Canadian woods where he had found a place 

 beneath a tangle of brush to build his nest and rear his family. How 

 with the oncoming of cold weather he had started southward where he 

 knew he could find plenty of food. 



This bird is most abundant in New York State during the spring 

 months of March and April, and again in the fall during October and 

 November when he is traveling to and from his nesting ground. But 

 if the snows do not become too deep, he stays with us all winter, feeding 

 about our doorsteps and along our fence rows. Oftentimes he travels 

 in company with the tree sparrow, and a little careful search will reveal 

 them in most any weedy spot that is sheltered from the wind. The 

 Junco can easily be distinguished by his blackish color, the tree sparrow 

 being brown. 



When you find a flock of them, watch them as they feed and learn 

 what kind of food they prefer. A single Junco destroys more weeds than 

 any number of boys because he takes them in the seed and thus all of 

 our Junior Naturalists are saved a great deal of work. 



