= THE OREGON JUNCO. 
Young: ‘Top of head and hind-neck grayish brown streaked with dusky, back 
and scapulars warmer brown streaked with black; throat, chest, sides and flanks 
pale buffy brown streaked with blackish; otherwise as in adult. Length of adult 
males about 6.35 (161.3); wing 2.95 (75); tail 2.56 (65); bill .43 (11); tarsus 
83 (21). Females smaller. 
Recognition Marks.—Sparrow size; black of head and throat contrasting 
with white of breast; white lateral tail-feathers; head black as compared with 
J. hyemalis ; back reddish brown as compared with J. 0. shufeldti. 
Nesting.—Nest: on ground at base of small bush or under fallen branch, 
sometimes in open wood or set into brushy hillside, of dead grasses and weed 
stems, scantily lined, or not, with hair; dimensions 2% inches wide by 1% inches 
deep inside. Eggs: 2-5, usually 4, varying in ground color from pure white to 
pinkish white or pale blue, spotted or freckled and blotched with light reddish 
brown or brownish black, with occasional light cloudings of lavender; long oval 
to short ovate; variable in size, 80x .60 (20.3 x 15.2) to .73x.56 (18.5 x 14.2). 
Season: fourth week in April to first week in July or August according to alti- 
tude; two or three broods. 
General Range.—Pacific Coast district; in summer from southern British 
Columbia north to Yakutat Bay, Alaska; in winter south irregularly to California 
(Santa Cruz and San Mateo counties), straggling across the Cascade-Sierras 
into interior. 
Range in Washington.—Formerly summer resident, now chiefly migrant 
and winter resident west of the Cascades; winter resident and migrant east of 
Cascades. 
Authorities.—? Townsend, Journ. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila. VII., 1837, 188 (part). 
Junco oreganus Sclater, Baird, Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv. IX., 1858, 467. T. C&S. Lt. 
IR IDE, Uo, Isis IDEs Iie, IB, 
Specimens.—U. of W. P?. Prov. B. 
IN speaking of Juncoes it is necessary to distinguish between the rufous- 
backed bird of winter, the Oregon Junco proper, and the brownish-gray- 
backed bird of summer, the Shufeldt Junco. A dozen years ago oreganus 
was supposed to be the common breeding bird of Puget Sound and the 
neighboring foothills, altho Shufeldt’s was well known in the more open 
situations. Latterly, however, there has not been any authentic account of 
the nesting of the red-backed bird within the State. 1903 witnessed its last 
appearance as a summer bird, and that only in the highlands. Recent speci- 
mens taken during the breeding season at places so remote from each other 
as the prairies of Pierce County, the banks of the Pend d’Oreille in Stevens 
County, and the High Cascades in Whatcom County, have all proven to be 
J. 0. shufeldti. 
The fact appears to be that we have detected a Washingtonian instance 
of that northward trend of species clearly recognizable in the East, but 
obscured to our vision heretofore in the West by reason of varied conditions 
and insufficient data. The theory is that the birds are still following the 
retreat of the glacial ice. We know that the glacial ice-sheet, now confined 
