BIRDS OF THE CAMBRIDGE REGION. 281 



widely different tastes and habits. It shuns the haunts of man and frequents 

 remote, sohtary places where its wild, ringing song is in perfect keeping with 

 the immediate surroundings. At its seasons of migration I have occasionally seen 

 it in Cambridge — once (on April 11, 1875) in our garden — but I have never 

 known it to breed within the city limits nor, indeed, anywhere in the more 

 eastern parts of Belmont or of Watertown. Along the elevated ridge that 

 extends from Arlington to Waverley and in the hill country still further to the 

 westward it has always been common as far back as my recollection goes. Its 

 favorite haunts in this region are rocky pastures studded with clusters of red 

 cedars and barberry bushes and thickly sprinkled with patches of ground 

 junipers. These 'cedar pastures,' as we term them, are among the most beau- 

 tiful and picturesque places which our region affords, and to those who really 

 care for them they offer, perhaps, no attraction greater than that of the song of 

 the Field Sparrow. Many of the birds linger here through the summer and 

 autumn, but at the latter season they also frequent weedy fields and brush- 

 grown roadsides in company with Chipping, Vesper, and Song Sparrows. All 

 four species sometimes nest in close proximity to one another in ' cedar pas- 

 tures' which contain wide stretches of open ground and also bushy hollows. 



Mr. Richard S. Eustis has reported ^ finding a Field Sparrow at Arlington 

 Heights on February 14, 1902,- and there is an extralimital record by Mr. 

 Bradford Torrey^ of another which was seen in Wellesley on December 19, 

 1892, and again, in the same place, on January 8, 1893. 



167. Junco hyemalis (Linn.). 

 Slate-colored Junco. Junco. Snowbird. 



Abundant tran.sient visitor, and rather common winter resident. 



seasonal occurrence. 



September 12, 1870, "arrived," Fresh Pond Swamps, W. Brewster. 



September 20 — April 20. 

 May 5, 1893, flock of eight seen, Arlington, W. Faxon. 



Juncos, in flocks containing from six or eight to fifteen or twenty birds 



' R. S. Eustis, Auk, XIX, 1903, 204. 



2 This bird was again seen by Mr. Eustis in the same place on March 14 of the same year. 



^ B. Torrey, Auk, X, 1893, 205. 



