NORTHERN SLATE-COLORED JUNCO 1037 



from a white-throated sparrow, but if so it did not sound enough 

 hke that bird for me to think it was such." 



In notes she sent Mr. Bent, Mrs. Lawrence comments on "the 

 lovely tinkling chorus by the j uncos in early spring, as if a myriad 

 of woodland sprites were shaking little beUs in an intensive competi- 

 tion," and she syllabizes three variations of the junco song as follows: 

 tilililililUi, tililili-tililili, and tuituituitililili. She also describes a "con- 

 versational subsong" between members of a pair heard before and 

 dming the egg-laying period as "a rough zreet, zreet, zreet followed 

 by a lengthy sotto-voce warbling." E. H. Eaton (1914) quotes 

 Bicknell's description of this as "a whispering warble usually much 

 broken but not without sweetness and sometimes continuing inter- 

 mittently for many minutes," and which Florence Merriam calls "low, 

 sweet, and as unpretentious and cheery as the friendly bird himself." 

 Mrs. Lawrence also sent Mr. Bent the following variations she 

 detected in the junco's call notes in different situations: 



Location: a, simple tit-tit-tit 



Alarm 1 : an explosive tchet, tchet 



Alarm 2 : bzzz, bzzzz 



Scolding : a smacking tack, tack, tack 



Fighting: tuit, tuit, interspersed with a twanging note and 



a variety of smacking and buzzing notes 



Feeding: A throaty tulut, tulut seems to serve as a call to 



come together. 

 Behavior. — Juncos usually progress on the ground by hopping in 

 fall and winter, but occasionally run in short spurts when chasing a 

 rival or to capture moving food. During the nesting season they 

 may also hop, but more often one sees them walking with short, 

 mincing steps, moving along not unlike a mouse. 



F. H. Allen wrote Mr. Bent: "The juncos scratch for food, though 

 not so often nor as vigorously as the fox sparrows do. They scratch 

 by hopping forward and then back with both feet at once. When a 

 thin layer of snow lies on the ground, a bird will scratch away a 

 roughly circular hole 3 or 4 inches in diameter to get at the grain 

 underneath. 



"On the whole they are rather scrappy when feeding together and 

 with other birds. Individuals vary in pugnacity, and sometimes 

 females at a winter feeding station will drive off males. On Mar. 3, 

 1942 in West Roxbury, Mass., a male junco feeding on our lawn 

 with a few other juncos and a number of EngUsh sparrows kept his 

 white outer tail-feathers showing conspicuously for at least 5 minutes. 

 He held the tail motionless without flicldng. As the crowd thinned 

 the white on one side was concealed for a time, and then when he 

 was left alone that of the other side disappeared too. It looked as 



