JVNCO 



221 



Junco ; Slate-colored Snowbird : Junco hyemalis. 



Adult male, upper parts, throat, and breast slate-gray ; belly and 

 outer tail featliers white. Adult female, similar, but duller 

 gray. Length, about (5^ inches. 



GEOGRArHic Distribution : Eastern North America ; breeds 

 from Minnesota and the mountains of New York and New 

 England northward, and southward along the summits of the 

 Alleghanies to Virginia ; winters southward to the Gulf states. 



About Thanksgiving time, in northern New 

 York, flocks of wandering Crossbills sometimes 

 drop in upon us, and 

 then, too, as we are shut 

 indoors, we think more 

 of the companies of gray 

 and white Snowbirds 

 that come to our door- 

 steps for their share of 

 our feast. They should 

 receive it from generous 



Fig. 138. 

 Junco. 



hands, for as winter comes 

 on they are not the least 

 of the blessings for which we have to be thankful. 

 Like the White-throated Sparrows, they are num- 

 bered with the birds whose feeding habits enable 

 them to go in sociable flocks, for they are birds 

 of catholic taste. In addition to their insect diet, 

 which covers a large supply of ants, cutworms, 

 weevils, leaf -eating beetles, and grasshoppers, they 

 also eat the seeds of such weeds as pigweed, chick- 

 weed, knot-grass and foxtail, besides a great deal 



