1076 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 23 7 iakt 2 



to breed ^^^tll aikeni." Breeding ranges of the two species are quite 

 possibly separated by no more than 20 miles in this area and Miller 

 considers it remarkable that more hybridization does not occur. He 

 says: "Here are two forms, each representative of an extreme modi- 

 fication of a distinct rassenkreis, that remain peculiarly apart, con- 

 sidering their migratory habit, when in close proximity geographically 

 in the breeding season." 



Hybridization between J. 0. mearnsi and J. c. caniceps is discussed 

 under the gi*ay-headed junco, p. 1120. 



Food. — The food of this race is apparently similar to that of other 

 juncos. One sees them picking up weed seeds or plant seeds, or one 

 presumes so from watching the birds feeding along roadsides or 

 borders of trails, in neglected mountain cabin gardens, cemeteries, and 

 the like. During breeding season I have seen pairs with young 

 bring various small worms or insects, but have not identified the food 

 further. 



M. P. Skinner (1920) says that in the spring in Yellowstone the 

 pink-sided Oregon juncos pick up grain and weed seed on bare slopes 

 and go about barns with Cassin's finches for dropped oats. As the 

 automobile has not eliminated the horse from Yellowstone and num- 

 bers of them are kept for packing into roadless areas or to rent as 

 saddle horses, this observation of Skumer's should stUl be true. 



Behavior.— M. P. Skinner (1920) mites: 



Our Juncos are very quick, sprightly and restless in their ways, hopping about 

 on the ground and keeping up an almost continual cheeping in loud tones, except 

 when busy with pareutial duties or flitting through the pines with a flash of the 

 white feathers in their tails. On the ground they move along with quick little 

 jerks of the wings and tail at each hop. Sometimes they scuttle out of the road 

 and under the nearby trees at one's approach. Usually, though, they are very 

 tame and can be observed at close range * * *. They are quite fearless of the 

 Red-tail and Swainson hawks, even when those big birds are screaming in the 

 same tree within a few feet of them. 



Pink-sided Juncos are very sociable little birds, associating in spring and fall 

 with Mountain Chickadees, Nuthatches, Tree Sparrows, and with their cousins, 

 the Intermediate [now called J. 0. montanus] Juncos, in the evergreens. At 

 other times they may be seen with Pine Siskins, White-crowned Sparrows, Chip- 

 ping Sparrows, Kinglets, Audubon Warblers and Townsend Solitaires. They 

 are often with the Robins and Bluebirds, with Vesper Sparrows in spring on the 

 sage flats, and even with Horned Larks and Leucostictes on the bare spots. * * * 

 The Pink-sided Junco usually progresses by a series of short flights from tree to 

 tree, or from bush to bush. The flight has a peculiar, halting catch to it, due, 

 no doubt, to the short and fast moving wings. 



Hawking for insects has been observed in this race. M. French 

 GUman (1935) saw a pink-sided Oregon junco, at Death Valley, Inyo 

 County, Calif., "jump several times into the air and catch insects." 

 This behavior has also been observed in oreganus and thurberi. 



