FRINGILLID.E: FINCHES, BUNTINGS, SPARROWS. 431 



average less white on tail ; rather smaller ; average about at the lesser of the above dimensions: 

 sometimes only 5.75— 9.25 — 2.75. ^^, in winter: Resembling 9 in summer. Young of the 

 year : General color rather brown than slate, with conspicuous bay edgings of inner seconda- 

 ries ; bill much obscured with dusky. The brown overcast is a general shading, not of par- 

 ticular areas, and not pinkish. Young before first moult: Entirely streaked and spotted, like 

 most very young Sparrows. Upper parts streaked with blackish and rusty-brown ; secondaries 

 and wing-coverts conspicuously edged with the latter. Under parts streaked or speckled with 

 dusky and ochrey brown, on all fore parts and sides ; belly and crissum soiled whitish. Bill 

 dusky, paler below. Eastern N. Amer., N. W. to Alaska, W. to the Rocky Mts. and spar- 

 ingly even to Utah, Washington, California, and Arizona; still chiefly Eastern. One of our 

 most abundant and familiar winter birds, in flocks in shrubbery, from October to April. Re- 

 tires to high latitudes or altitudes to breed. Nests in mountains of the Middle and some of the 

 Northern States, and down to sea level from limits of Canadian fauna in Maine; winters most 

 numerously from Massachusetts southward to the Gulf of Mexico; a cheery bright little bird, 

 coming fearlessly to the threshold and window-sill in bad weather. Its snapping note is better 

 known than is the pleasant song with which it takes leave in spring. Nest on ground; eggs 

 4-(j, white, sprinkled with reddish and darker brown dots, about 0.80 X 0.60. 

 J. li. carolinen'sis. (Lat. of Carolina.) Carolina Snowbird. Brewster's Junco. 

 Tliis is the form which breeds in the southern Alleghany region. I have found it abundant 

 in summer in the mountains of Virginia and North Carolina, where its usual nesting-place is 

 in the cut banks of roadsides, just under the overhanging fringe of weeds and grass. The 

 ascribed characters are not very tangible, but the bird can be distinguished at gunshot range 

 from typi(!al hiemalis by one who is familiar with both. I hesitated to accept it in former edi- 

 tions of the Key, but have since seen reason to modify my opinion. See Brewster, Auk, 

 Jan. 1886, p. ]08; Key, 4th ed. 1890, p. 900; A. 0. U. List, 2d ed. 1895, No. 567 e. 

 J. h. connec'tens. (Lat. cownecicMS, connecting ; co«, with; «ecto, I join.) Hybrid Snow- 

 bird. Rocky Mountain Junco. Possessing in varying degree characters of hiemalis and 

 oregonus; rufous back of latter and ashy sides of former, or, oftener, ashy back of former and 

 jiink sides of latter; coloration less vivid, with less contrast between the blackish, reddish, 

 and white parts; head and neck with a somewhat mottled appearance; "sides slaty rufous"; 

 wing little over and tail little under 3.00 ; tarsus 0.73; bill 0.43. This form shades on the one 

 Ijand into hiemalis, on the other into oregonus, but more generally resembles the latter. Rocky 

 Mt. region of the U. S. and adjoining British provinces ; W. in the Great Basin to California ; 

 S. in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and adjoining portions of Mexico; straggUng E. to Michi- 

 gan, Illinois, Maryland, and Massachusetts. This form, which I named and characterized in 

 the 2d ed. of the Key, 1884, p. 378, is the one afterward named J. h. shiifeldti by Mr. H. K. 

 Coale, Auk, Oct. 1887, p. 330 ; A. 0. U. List, 2d ed. 1895, No. 567 h. This fact was inad- 

 vertently overlooked both by the Committee and by myself in preparing the new List, but the 

 oversight has since been rectified: see Coues, Auk, Jan. 1897, p. 94; A. 0. U. Suppl. List, 

 iV)id. ]). 128, No. 567 6; since then my connectens has been again renamed J. montanus by 

 Mr. Ridgway, Auk, Oct. 1898, p. 321 ; A. 0. U. Suppl. List, Auk, Jan. 1899, p. 119, No. 

 .567. 1, by error. 



J. h. ore'sonus. (Lat. of the Oregon River. Fig. 287.) Oregon Snowbird. J. K. 

 Townsend's Junco. Head and neck all around and fore breast sooty-black, ending sharply 

 against white with a rounded outline convex backward ; middle of back dull reddish-brown j 

 feathers of wings much edged with the same; below from fore breast abruptly wiiite, tinged on 

 sides with pale reddish-brown — a peculiar "pinkish" shade. Bill white, black-tipped. In 

 9 and young the black is obscured by brownish, but the typical form may always be distin- 

 guished by an evident contrast in color between interscapulars and head, and fulvous or pinkish 

 wash on sides. The seasonal and sexual changes of plumage are parallel with those of hiemalis. 



