Blnl-Life In Lohm(lo,\ ^2"^ 



eii sliado of })lumay;e, with the dark and white enlors plainly 

 fiuarked. Tliere was very little yelJow alxnit the head and eye 

 ■luul of some twenty specimens none at all on the wing shoal- 

 •ders. I sliot, one day, four of these birds, none of which had 

 :a particle o'' yellow u]>on them anywhere that I could distin- 

 guish ; a small tuft of white feathers at the base of the ]>ri- 

 mary coverts of the shoulder give the appearance of a white 

 ■edging in the place ot the usual yellow. The birds w^ere ali 

 remarkably full in coloration, and decided in plumage ; the 

 white very clear, the dark inverted arrow points (][uite distinct, 

 as were also the grayish and buif edgings everywhere. One 

 specimen alone had the buffy suffusion covering the breast> 

 I cannot say that the rule holds good constantly, but in some 

 thirty specimens t\w male had the yellow on the wing shoul- 

 -der, while the female and young-of-the-year of either sex had 

 M'hite in that place. The flight of this little fellow is short, 

 quick, and irregular ; he is wonderfully spry and will appear 

 and disappear so quickly that you can scarcely follow him ; 

 then he is so cunning that when once he has made up his mind 

 to play at hide-and-seek with you you might as well give up 

 attempting to deceive him, for you will utterly fail in ninety- 

 nine cases out of every hundred. He will greet you with a 

 few chirps of surprise from the summit of some ridge of rocks, 

 drop behind them, and appear so suddenly and unexpectedly 

 in some place rods away that you will think it is another bird. 

 Its ordinary notes are a few faint chirps, but at times, especi- 

 ally in early Spring or at night and morning, it will greet you 

 with such a volume of song as to hold you entranced for many 

 minutes at a time. It sometimes, at dusk, imitates somewhat 

 the habits of the sandpipers, and feeds on and among the kelp 

 along the shore in company with them, though I never saw 

 more than two or three together at such a time in one place. 



SNOW BIRD 



Junco hyemalis. — (L.) ScL. 



With regard to this species I am in great doubt as to just 



