GROSBEAKS, FINCHES, SPARROWS: Family Fringillidae [567] 



written about it. Peck (1911 a) found it common in northern Malheur, 

 Walker (i^iyb) listed it from central Oregon, Willett (1919) considered 

 it common at Malheur Lake, and we listed the Portland straggler in our 

 Birds of the Portland Area (Jewett and Gabrielson 192.9). These are all the 

 references to it in Oregon ornithological literature. 



Our own notes show that we have found it regularly and abundantly 

 in Lake, Morrow, and Harney Counties the counties containing the 

 great sagebrush areas of Oregon, where one knowing the bird would 

 expect to find it and less commonly in Malheur, Deschutes, Klamath, 

 Wasco, Jefferson, Crook, and Umatilla Counties, with the one straggler 

 to Multnomah referred to above. It arrives in March and remains until 

 October (earliest date, March 17; latest, October 2.0, both Lake County). 

 More continuous observation will undoubtedly reveal it in other eastern 

 Oregon counties. 



Slate-colored Junco: 



Junco hyemalis hyemalis (Linnaeus) 



DESCRIPTION. "Adults: Whole body, except white belly, dark slaty gray, often blackish 

 on head in male and washed with brownish in immature male and female, when the 

 sides are also washed with pinkish brown; two pairs of outer tail feathers white; bill 

 in life pinkish white or flesh-color. Young in first plumage: streaked on brown upper 

 parts, and buffy white under parts, wings with brownish band. Male: length (skins) 

 5.44-6.2.3, wing 3.01-3.14, tail 1.49-1.80, bill .40-. 46. Female: length (skins) 5.2.2.- 

 6.10, wing 1.78-3.08, tail 2.. 45-2.. 64, bill .39-. 46." (Bailey) Nest: On the ground 

 or close to it, composed of dried grass and rootlets and lined with similar material. 

 Eggs: 4 or 5, white to buffy, speckled with brown. 



DISTRIBUTION. General: Breeds from northern Alaska, Mackenzie, Manitoba, and 

 central Quebec south to southern Yukon, Alberta, Minnesota, Michigan, and 

 Pennsylvania. Winters south to Gulf coast. In Oregon: Appears as irregular fall 

 migrant or winter resident mostly in eastern Oregon but occasionally in western 

 part of State. 



THE FIRST RECORD of the Slate-colored Junco in Oregon is that of Wood- 

 cock (1901), who saw one, November 2.3, 1899, at Corvallis and collected 

 a specimen there, January 13, 1900. There is a skin now in the Jewett 

 collection taken at Netarts by Mrs. R. C. Nielson in the winter of 1916, 

 and Gabrielson has one taken at Portland, January i, 192.8, which was 

 recorded in our Birds of the Portland Area (Jewett and Gabrielson 192.9) as 

 Cassiar Junco (/. h. connectens*), a form no longer recognized in the A. O. U. 

 Check-List. These are the only specimens available from the area west 

 of the Cascades. In eastern Oregon we have found these j uncos much 

 more frequently. Jewett (191 6a) recorded the first one from Miller's 

 Ranch, near the mouth of the Deschutes River, April 12., 1915, and we 

 now have additional skins from the following localities: La Grande, 

 Nyssa, Ontario, Hart Mountain, Klamath Falls, Maupin, Little Summit 



