PINK-SIDED OREGON JUNCO 1075 



nest. The adults were unafraid and continued to feed their young 

 in the nest. 



A. A. Saunders (1910b) tells about hunting for junco nests in 

 Jefferson County, Mont. He says "a pair of Pink-sided juncos 

 * * * appeared, scolded me, flew about my hed and finally followed 

 me out of the swamp where I had searcht in vain for nest or young. 

 Later I found another spot where a pair of Juncos evidently had a 

 nest or young and where I past several evenings in succession. I 

 searcht this spot for three evenings before I finally found a single 

 young bird. This bird was well feathered but unable to fly and I 

 almost steppt on it before I found it. When I caught it and it 

 called in distress the parents became fairly frantic and flew at my 

 hed, and fluttered in front of me almost within reach." 



M. P. Skinner (1920) reports a female fluttering away with a pre- 

 tended broken wing when he discovered her nest with newly hatched 

 j^oung. 



Plumages. — Richard R. Graber (1955) describes the juvenal plum- 

 age of J. 0. meamsi as foUows: "Forehead, crown, and nape gray, pro- 

 fusely streaked with black. Back cinnamon broun, marked with 

 heavy black streaks. Rump and upper tail coverts buffy gray, 

 obscm'ely streaked ^^ith black. Outer pak of rectrices white, second 

 from outer largely white. Others black, narrowly edged with gi'ay. 

 Remiges black, primaries and secondaries light gray-edged. Tertials 

 edged broadly with dull pink. Lesser coverts gray, medians (black- 

 tipped) buffy white. Greater coverts edged with buff, tipped with 

 buffy white. Two obscure buffy white %\ing bars. Lores black. 

 Sides of head gray, rather obscurely spotted with black. Chin and 

 throat grayish-white spotted and streaked with black. Chest, sides, 

 and flanks tinged with buff, streaked ^\ith black. BeUy and crissum 

 white, unmarked. Leg feathers gray and white." 



Iris is broANTi ; biU, flesh colored; feet, red-bro^^^l. 



Hybridization and inter gradation. — The pink-sided Oregon junco, 

 now the race meamsi, and the race montanus, formerly called Montana 

 junco, meet and intergrade along a more or less north-south line from 

 the Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho northward. Miller (1941b) says: 

 "The meeting * * * occurs in a region where there are no barriers to 

 distribution. At least in Idaho and in parts of Montana they meet 

 in areas of nearly continuous forest habitat. There is more discon- 

 tinuity ^\dthin the range of meamsi in northeastern Idaho than in the 

 region of principal intergradation." 



Hybridization between the pink-sided race of the Oregon junco and 

 the white-winged junco (Junco aikeni) is rare although known. A. H. 

 MiUer (1941b) says "occasional meamsi wander eastward from their 

 breeding range in the Big Horn Mountains of Montana and Wyoming 



