1921 BIRDS OF MONTANA 127 



242. Junco hyemalis montanus Kitlgway 



JIONTANA JuNCO 



A conimou sunuiier resident of the mountaius of northwestern Montana, 

 east of the edge of the prairie region. A migrant in southwestern Montana, and 

 perhaps found in winter in the lower mountain valleys west of tiie di',nde. Occurs 

 rarely in migrations in the eastern part of the state : One talcn at Miles City, 

 October 5, 1919 (Hedges, ilS). This is the common breeding .junco in the aorth- 

 ern half of the mountainous section of the state. The exact limits of its breed- 

 ing range are not completely worked out, but it breeds at Tobacco Plains, Sum- 



ni^Wii^i. . 



Si%ll 



iKmi 



Pig. 28. Montana Junco on nest. 

 Photo by A. D. DuBois. 



Belton; May, 1914. 



mit, St. Mary's Lake and Columbia Falls (Ridgway, 1898, p. 319), and I have 

 found it in the breeding season in Teton and northern Lewis and Clark counties, 

 in the Glacier National Park, and at Flathead Lake (1916c, p, 86). The south- 

 ern limit of its lireeding range is apparently at about the line of the Nortiicrn 

 Pacific Railroad between Helena and Missoula. What form of .iunco breeds in 

 the Snowy Mountains and other ranges to the eastward is still in tpiestion (Sillo- 

 v^'ay, 1903a, p. 57), but there seems reason to think it should be mcarnsi and not 

 )ihjntaniif;. It is possible, however, that the two forms are distinct species, as at 



