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314 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 
slightly emarginate and rounded; feathers rather narrow, oval at the end; no streaks 
on the head or body; color above uniform on the head, back, or rump, separately or 
on all together; beliy white; outer tail feathers white. 
The essential characters of this genus are, the middle toe rather shorter than the 
short tarsus; the lateral toes slightly unequal, the outer reaching the base of 
the middle claw; the tail a little shorter than the wings, slightly emarginate. In 
Junco cinereus the claws are longer; the lower mandible a little lower than the 
upper; the species have the upper parts ashy or plumbeous, the belly and lateral 
tail feathers white. 
JUNCO HYEMALIS. — Sclater. 
The Snowbird. 
Fringilla hyemalis, Linneus. Syst. Nat., I. (10th ed., 1758) 183. Aud. Orn. Biog., 
I. (1831) 72; V. 505. 
Junco hyemalis, Sclater. Pr. Zool. Soc. (1857), 7 
Fringilla nivalis. Wils., I. (1810) 129. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Everywhere of a grayish or dark ashy-black, deepest anteriorly; the middle ot 
the breast behind and of the belly, the under tail coverts, and first and second exter- 
nal tail feathers, white; the third tail feather white, margined with black. 
Length, six and twenty-five one-hundredths inches; wing, about three inches. 
This AEE and well-known little species is an abun 
: dant inhabitant of New Eng- 
land. Inthe spring it migrates 
from the southern districts, 
where it spends the winter, to 
the northern sections, and late 
in fall returns to its winter 
home. <A few pairs breed in 
Massachusetts on the Holyoke 
Mountains, and in New Hamp- 
shire on the White Mountains: 
but the great numbers pass to 
the northern districts to spend 
S+ the summer; and near the Um- 
bagog lakes, and north to the 
Eo ania, uiper fiz: Canada frontier, it is the most 
oe Oren Be. common species. I have been 
so fortunate as to find a number of the nests: some had eggs 
as early as the last week in May, and others as late as the 
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