Junco 123 



leaves and earth rubbish after his vigorous 

 manner. 



From Virginia southward, the people know 

 the fox sparrow only as a winter resident. Be- 

 fore he leaves them in the spring, he begins to 

 practise the clear, rich, ringing song, which 

 fairly startles one with pleasure the first time 

 it is heard. 



JUNCO 

 Called also: Slate-coloured Snow-bird 



When the skies are leaden and the first 

 flurries of snow warn us that winter is near, 

 flocks of j uncos, that reflect the leaden skies on 

 their backs, and the grayish- white snow on their 

 breasts, come from the North to spend the 

 winter. A few enter New England as early as 

 September, but by Thanksgiving increased 

 numbers are foraging for their dinner among 

 the roadside thickets, in the furrows of 

 ploughed fields, on the ground near evergreens, 

 about the barn-yard and even at the dog's plate 

 beyond the kitchen door. 



Notice how abruptly the slate gray colour of 

 the junco 's mantle ends in a straight line across 

 his light breast, and how, when he flies away, 

 the white feathers on either side of his tail serve 

 as signals to his friends to follow. Such signals 



