130 STORIES OF BIED LIFE 



time outside my window, although the day was cold and 

 a heavy mist was falling. 



The Junco is found over the greater part of North 

 America east of the Eocky Mountains. In the southern 

 part of its range it comes only as a winter visitor. In the 

 mountains of Virginia and the Carolinas it is a resident 

 the entire year. And so when the warmth of summer 

 comes, the snowbirds of all the Southland retire to the 

 North, except those which go up into the higher moun- 

 tains to nest. Visit the Junco in his summer home and 

 you will find his lodge a simple little nest of grass and 

 rootlets hid away in a low bush, or in some snug spot on 

 the ground ; and if the season be early you may find in it 

 four or five brown-spotted eggs. Here too you may hear 

 his singing ; and his short trill of early spring has now a 

 deeper, sweeter tone. 



There is a picture which will long linger in my mind, of 

 a pair of snowbirds and their nest, up on the side of 

 Grandrather mountain. When we saw it the morning sun 

 was flooding the Blue Ridge in a blaze of golden light. 

 Down the slopes and into the valleys its foremost rays were 

 darting, jewelling in their courses a thousand dewdrops 

 on every tree and rock. Grand and beautiful were the 

 surroundings ; as fresh did the world seem as if just from 

 the Creator's hand. On the eastern side of this mountain, 



