MEXICAN (YELLOW-EYED) JTJNCO 1131 



bright yellow of the adult bird. * * * The juvenile plumage is shed in August, 

 at the same time that the adults are undergoing their post-nuptial moult; speci- 

 mens secured on September 2 being hardly distinguishable from adults, and with 

 but a few faint spots remaining on the breast, sides of the head, and scapulars. 

 The scapulars seem to retain the juvenile markings the longest * * *. An adult 

 male taken September 2, has not quite completed the moult, some of the rectrices 

 having not yet acquired their growth; and is practically indistinguishable from 

 specimens taken in February, the principal ditference being in the softer more 

 blended appearance of the plumngo. 



/bo(f.— According to J. T. Marshall (1957): 



This junco feeds on the ground on seeds, other vegetable matter, and insects 

 (seven stomachs, insects in summer-taken specimens only). Quantities of gravel 

 also are ingested. A few instances were recorded of feeding above ground: 

 in foliage of Holodisctis thickets; in foliage of Douglas firs; a family reaching from 

 the ground to pluck flowers and pendant fruits from a small milkweed; one bird 

 cHmbing into twigs of an oak and reaching up to pick something off the trunk 

 bark; another bird climbing up a tall grass stem imtil the stem bent over. This 

 last bird was later seen chewing a portion of the flower of this grass. On the 

 ground these yellow-e5'ed juncos shuffle, the feet moving alternately, over the 

 leaves, as they pick up food. They also run with long true hops after moving 

 insects, which they catch, pound, and swallow, 



Mexican Juncos can scratch their way down through thick leaf litter under 

 bushes; they also scratch to find seeds in gravel and among pine needles. It 

 looks as though each scratch is initiated by rocking forward to take the weight 

 off the feet, with the head up while the feet are advanced. Then the feet are 

 simultaneously scraped backward, kicking out gravel and catching the body 

 again as the head end tilts down — a convenient position for picking up the seed. 

 The feet are far apart and kept close to the surface of the ground. 



The Mexican Junco is a resident of numerous Forest Service picnic grounds 

 in pine-oak of the Arizona mountains, where it becomes very tame, taking crumbs 

 from the table and feeding its young in camp. At one camp a jiuico repeatedly 

 picked up and chewed the edge of a large piece of newspaper. Apparently food 

 or salt was smeared on the paper. 



Voice. — An early reference to this is W. E. D. Scott's (1885b) 

 observation that "The male has an exceedingly pleasant song, not 

 unlike that of Pipilo maculatus megalonyx, which bird he also emulates, 

 perching on some prominent dead twig or limb, often at a very con- 

 siderable height, whence his notes are heard perhaps most frequently 

 just after sunrise." A recent summary is in PhiUips et al. (1964) : 

 "Its varied song is usually in three parts of contrasting pitch and 

 rhythm. Each male has several song patterns in his repertoire, but 

 the observer soon learns to recognize them all as belonging to this 

 species by their sweet, thin quality suggestive of a w^ood warbler." 

 Miller (1955a) notes of this subspecies: "The birds were usually 

 detected by their weak alarm note which is softer and less blunt than 

 in northern species of the genus. Also the songs were typical of 

 phaeonotiis, never consisting of a simple trill but of a multiple trill 

 usually of two or three segments of different pitch and rhythm." 

 Brandt (1951) comments: "Generally the Arizona Junco is not in the 



