GRAY-IIEADED JUNCO 1115 



(1936) reports: "On one occasion both adults were observed carrying 

 millet [from a trapping and feeding station] to young fifteen feet 

 above the ground in a pine tree." William H. Belile (1943) says of 

 caniceps in southwestern Utah: "Their diet seemed largely insectiv- 

 orous while feeding young, for nearly every individual shot had the 

 mouth and throat filled with bodies of moths, measuring worms, or 

 larval insect forms." Louise Hering (1948) in her Black Forest, 

 Colo., study noted young caniceps bemg fed "moths and worms" 

 obtained from kinnikinnick. At a Colorado caniceps nest at timber- 

 line in July, I watched both parents bringing the young small grass- 

 hoppers. 



In the White Mountains of Arizona, F. G. Watson (MS.) noted 

 of dorsalis seen daUy about a cabin at 9,400 feet elevation in July 

 1936, that "they feed on crumbs and grain * * *," and A. 11. Phillips 

 (MS.) on Oct. 20, 1936, mentions one (of two or three) eating dandehon 

 {Taraxacum) seeds. F. M. Bailey (1928) says of flocks of caniceps 

 driven to lower elevations in the GaUinas Mountains of central New 

 Mexico by an early October snowstorm: "They were everywhere but 

 especially abundant in the weed patches on the edge of the scrub oak 

 thickets into which they flew when flushed, and the stomachs of two 

 taken were full of seeds, including a large per cent of pigweed." 

 Edward R. Warren (1910a) quotes John W. Frey, from central 

 Colorado, regarding caniceps: "Thousands of these birds wintered 

 here [1908-9] on the tumbleweed seed." I have observed wintering 

 caniceps in Colorado eating the seed of an abundant species of cheat 

 grass {Bromus sp.). According to D. I. Rasmussen (1941), who 

 observed mixed winter flocks of Oregon and gray-headed j uncos on 

 the Kaibab Plateau, in northern Arizona: "They are active on the 

 ground, and their food consists of all available plant seeds, grasses, 

 herbs and shrubs." 



E. D. McKee (1934) noted wintering J uncos at Grand Canyon 

 eating seeds of the pinons {Pinus ediUis and P. monophylla) : "When 

 cracked nuts are put out it has been found, strangely enough, that 

 natural seed-eaters such as j uncos and chipping sparrows actually 

 prefer them to various types of grain and that robins hold them in 

 equal esteem mth their much-loved raisins. Even bluebirds. Cedar 

 Waxwings, and Cassin's Purple Finches ^\^ll eat them with relish." 

 At the South Rim of the Canyon, Oct. 20, 1948, L. Schellbach (MS.) 

 "observed 2 [dorsalis] distinctly pecking open piny on pine nuts and 

 extracting the nut meat * * *." On a Colorado mountain top at 

 11,300 feet F. V. Hebard and A. W. Gardner (1954) observed a flock 

 of caniceps in early April feeding with red and white-winged cross- 

 bills, pine siskins and pine grosbeaks, in Engelmann spruce and limber 

 pine, where "spruce seeds were the main soiu"ce of food." 



