26o FRINGILLID^ : FINCHES. 



ing in one instance nested in a broken jar. Birds 

 habitually give themselves more freedom of choice in 

 such matters than the ornithologists are usually dis- 

 posed to allow them ; and it is only in the cases of the 

 commonest species, whose tastes and habits are best 

 known to us, that we fully appreciate this fact, as well 

 as one other, equally true, that different individuals of 

 the same species may be very skilful or comparatively 

 bungling in their architecture. I have occasionally 

 been surprised at some things of this sort, which a 

 barefooted boy has taken quite as a matter of course — 

 and not that I knew more, but less, than the urchin 

 did, about "the tricks and the manners " of the me- 

 lodious feathered artisan. 



BLACK SNOW-BIRD. 



JUNCO HIEMALIS {L.) Scl. 



Chars. Male : Blackish-ash ; below, abruptly pure white from the 

 breast backward ; two or three outer tail-feathers white ; bill 

 white, usually with a pink flush and dark tip. Female, young, 

 and most winter specimens : The slate-color impure, being gray- 

 ish, or even decidedly brownish ; inner secondaries edged with 

 chestnut ; color of bill more or less obscured. Length, about 

 6.50 ; extent, 9.50 ; wing and tail, each, 2.75-3.00. 



The Black Snow-bird is one which can scarcely 

 fail to interest alike the amateur and the scientific 

 ornithologist. The former sees about his door, at 

 times when bird-life offers comparaUvely little variety, 

 a troop of active, hardy little creatures, in neat and 

 becoming atdre, begging of his bounty while they 

 challenge the winter ; and the latter finds in this spe- 



