SPARROWS 425 



Genus J UNCO Wagler. 



567. Junco hy emails (hinn.^. Slate-colored Junco; Black 

 Snowbird; White Bill. 



Plumage of adult male : throat and breast grayish slate ; upper parts gray- 

 ish slate, washed with grayish brown ; outer two or three tail feathers white, 

 others fuscous ; belly white ; sides grayish. Plumage of adult female : said 

 in the manuals to be browner above and paler on throat and breast, but as 

 far as I have observed these distinctions fail and the sexes are indistinguish- 

 able by plumage. Immature plumage : back, throat and breast streaked with 

 dull black, otherwise very similar to adults. Bill always flesh colored or 

 dusky pinkish buff in old and young respectively. Wing 3.00 ; culmen 0.46 ; 

 tarsus 0.82 ; tail 2.78. 



Geog. Dist. — North America, more general east of the Rocky Mountains; 

 breeding from the higher Alleghany and Catskill Mountains, Maine and 

 northern Minnesota northward ; wintering from Maine to the Gulf States. 



County Records. — Androscoggin ; abundant migrant, rare summer resident, 

 (Johnson). Aroostook; common summer resident, (Knight). Cumberland; 

 common summer resident, (Mead) ; abundant transient, uncommon summer 

 resident, occasionally found through the winter (Brown, C. B. P. p. 24) ; 

 breeding quite comiuonly on Little John's Island, Falmouth, in August, 1897, 

 (Norton, J. M. 0. S. 1904, p. 54). Franklin; common resident, (Swain). 

 Hancock ; common summer resident, a few winter along the coast, (Knight). 

 Kennebec; abundant, (Gardiner Branch). Knox; resident, (Rackliff). Ox- 

 ford; common breeder, (Nash). Penobscot; abundant migrant, common 

 summer resident, not rare in suitable spots through the winter, (Knight). 

 Piscataquis; common, breeds, (Homer). Sagadahoc; (Spratt). Somerset; 

 common migrant, possibly summer resident, (Morrell) ; common summer 

 resident of the northern wilds, (Knight). Waldo ; common summer resident, 

 (Knight). Washington; very abundant summer resident, (Boardman). 

 York ; common migrant, a nest found in 1882, (Adams) ; confined to high- 

 lands near East Parsonsfield in 1900, (Norton, J. M. O. S. 1904, p. 54). 



The tide of migration ranges with this species about from 

 March twelfth to April third near Bangor, when hun- 

 dreds, yes thousands, are often seen in flocks, scratching among 

 the bushes and dead leaves in the woods and pastures and 

 bushy thickets or perched on the trees, all doing their very 

 best to make a noise. The result is a confused medley of 

 sounds varying from the " chick-a-sit " uttered by some as they 

 fly with opened tail showing the white outer feathers, while 

 others cry " chit " or " chit-chit " and the males are tuning up 



