WILD LIFE OF ORCHARD AND FIELD 



succumb as the less inured songsters from the 

 South. 



The favorite among our winter birds, perhaps 

 because the most domestic, taking the place of 

 England's robin - red - breast, is the slate - colored 

 snow-bird, which is one of the finches. It comes 

 to us with the first frosts, and stays until the wake- 

 robin and spring-beauty bloom. Even then some 

 of them do not go far away to spend the summer, 

 for they breed in the heights behind the Delaware 

 Water Gap, and also in the Catskills. The main 

 body, nevertheless, go to Canada and Labrador. 

 In the Rocky Mountains I have seen them many 

 times in midsummer as far south as the latitude 

 of Cincinnati ; but there the Canada jay also breeds, 

 although in the East its nest is never found — 

 great altitude in the West affording the same 

 climate which eastward is only to be attained at 

 high latitudes. 



The nest of the snow-bird is placed on the ground 

 among the moss, or under the protection of the 

 root of a tree, and is built of grass, weed stalks, 

 and various fibres. The eggs are whitish, sprinkled 

 with pale chocolate and dark reddish - brown. 

 Several species besides our Junco hyemalis are 

 found in the mountainous parts of the West and 



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