1921 



BIRDS OF MONTANA 



127 



242. Junco hyemalis montanus Ridgway 



Montana Junco 



A common summer resident of the mountains of northwestern Montana, 

 east of the edge of the prairie region. A migrant in southwestern Montana, and 

 perhaps found in winter in the lower mountain valleys west of tlie divide. Occurs 

 rarely in migrations in the eastern part of the state: One tnk'_m at ^Miles City, 

 October 5, 1919 (Hedges, MS). This is the common breeding junco in the north- 

 ern half of the mountainous section of the state. Tlie exact limits of its breed- 

 ing range are not completely worked out, but it breeds at Tobacco Plains, Sum- 



Fig. 28. Montana Junco on nest. 

 Photo by A. D. DuBois. 



Belton; May, 1914. 



mit, St. Mary's Lake and Columbia Falls (Ridgway, 1898, p. 319), and I have 

 found it in the breeding season jn Teton and northern Lewis and Clark counties, 

 in the Glacier National Park, and at Flathead Lake (1916c, p. 86). The south- 

 ern limit of its breeding range is apparently at about the line of the Nortlicrn 

 Pacific Railroad between Helena and Missoula. What form of junco breeds in 

 the Snowy Mountains and other ranges to the eastward is still in question (Sillo- 

 way, 1903a, p. 57), but there seems reason to think it should be tnearnsi and not 

 hhjiilanus. It is possible, however, that the two forms are distinct species, as at 



