OREGOX JUNCO 1059 



(46-23936) banded in immature plimiage on August 1 had the black- 

 headed adidt pliuuage in 28 daj-s on August 28. The third bird, 

 banded as an immature (46-23945) on August 14, had most of its 

 adult plumage in just 22 days on September 5. From these data it 

 seems probable that juncos attain their adult plumage in 2 or 3 

 months after hatching." 



A. H. Miller (1941b) writes: 



The annual molt of juncos is the only one of any importance. The prenuptial 

 molt is nearly obsolete and eflfects no material change in appearance. The post- 

 ju venal, or first fall molt, is incomplete; primaries, secondaries, and greater 

 primary coverts are not replaced, and the tail usually is not molted at this time. 

 Juvenal wing and tail feathers carried through the first year are indistinguishable 

 from those of birds a year or more old. The body plumage of the fall immatures 

 in a number of races is different in average coloration from that of adults. But 

 no absolute differentiation has been revealed — a situation also true of sexual 

 dimorphism. 



As stated above, on the average females have the hood lighter in 

 color. In the three races being discussed here, the difference is 

 usually apparent. Brownish overcast of the head is common in all 

 races (somewhat less so in thurheri than in the other two) ; it is to be 

 looked for most often in young and females. Miller agrees with E, 

 Mayr (1933) that the brownish overcast can be "properly viewed as a 

 retarded phase of plumage." White wing spotting is a rare variant. 

 Other odd color patterns occur, especially about the hood, and Miller 

 says of this in montanus: "They appear to be due to incomplete molts 

 with retention of some feathers of a pre\4ous retarded plumage." 



A number of albino Oregon juncos are on record. Louis B. Bishop 

 (1905) writes: 



A beautiful, albinistic, male junco was collected at Witch Creek [California] on 

 Nov. 10, 1904, in company with a typical female Thurber's junco * * *. The 

 bill, tarsi, toes, and nails are pinkish white; forehead, lores, infra-orbital region, chin, 

 lower breast, abdomen, wings and tail, white; the wings and tail slightly mottled 

 with ashy; a slight pinkish suffusion on the sides and the greater wing-coverts; 

 and the rest of the plumage, including the throat, and entire upper parts, blackish 

 slate or slate-color, edged with grayish white. In coloring, therefore, this bird is 

 nearer hyemalis than to thurheri. 



Bishop also took a female at Witch Creek, Dec. 14, 1903, that had the 

 chin and part of the throat grayish white. 



S. G. Jewett and Ira N. Gabrielson (1929) write: "On December 

 8, 1924, a perfect albino junco was killed on Sauvies Island [near 

 Portland, Oregon] and brought to the State Game Commission." 

 R. C. McGregor (1900b) collected an Oregon junco having a narrow 

 collar of white about the neck at Saint Helena, Calif., January 1899 

 which he classified as Junco hyemalis oregonvs, though to just what race 

 it would now be referred cannot be determined. A. W. Anthony (1886) 



