FAMILY Fringillidz. 
tones of a vesper hymn. It is the Field Sparrow, ana 
possibly he is singing—who shall say that he is not? 
*‘ Softly now the light of day 
Fades upon my sight away.” 
Junco The Junco isa winter visitor who prolongs 
Snowbird —_— his stay in the White Mountain district 
Junco hyemalis 2 s 
L.6.25inches Until the end of spring. He may be 
October istto seen on Mt. Washington on the first of 
May 20th September, and in Campton as late as the 
end of May. He isa bird of stylish appearance and 
good form. Head, neck, and back Payne’s gray, or a 
deep bluish slate-gray ; this color extends over the chest; - 
below it there is a clear white; the sides are grayish; 
there are no wing-bars ; tail a gray-brown, the two outer 
feathers white like those of the Vesper Sparrow, and the 
adjoining feathers partly white. Female similarly col- 
ored but lighterintone. Nest of grasses, moss, and root- 
lets, loosely interwoven, and placed on the ground (or 
near it) in some brushwood or upturned tree-roots. Egg 
white, speckled with madder or red-brown, The range 
of this bird is from northern New York and New Eng: 
land northward, and southward along the Alleghany 
Mountains to Virginia. It winters throughout the east. 
ern United States, as far southward as Georgia and 
possibly the Gulf States. 
The Junco’s song is a metallic or Jolneeiee tinkle. His 
is a performance similar to that of the Chippy, but decided- 
ly more musical, a voice with a sweet, clear tone rippling 
along in interrupted trills—not the warble which some 
authors claim—confined to an interval of a minor second 
or a minor third: 
parece Dike Svea 
EN Second Minor Third. 
His call is a short, sharp tsip. He flies south as the 
winter arrives, not to escape its cold winds and driving 
snows, but to secure food. The Junco is eminently social, 
always flying in flocks and seldom separating into small 
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