OF NEW ENGLAND. 223 



morning in spring, it is the music which the Fox Sparrows 

 produce at that season, and it is well worth the effort of early 



XVII. JUNCO 



(A) HYEMALIS. Snow-bird. 13 



(InfMassachusetts, common from September until May ; in 

 winter, for the most part, only present with the snow, or just 

 before storms.) 



(a). 6-6^ inches long. Outer tail-feathers, always pure 

 white. In full plumage, slaty-black, with the breast and belly 

 abruptly white. Often, especially in winter-specimens or the 

 females, the black and white of the under parts are shaded 

 into one another, and all the black is less pure, with brown edg- 

 ings on the wings (and back), or is even replaced by a rich, 

 warm, dark brown, which also tints the breast and sides. 



(b). The nest is built on the ground (often near roadsides), 

 sometimes on a stump or log, and rarely in a bush or low ever- 

 green. Four or five eggs are laid about the first of June 

 among the White Mountains, and often others in July. These 

 average '80X*60 of an inch, and vary from pale grayish- white, 

 marked thickly and delicately, but very faintly, with lilac, to 

 bluish or greenish-white, spotted and blotched, chiefly about 

 the crown, with reddish-brown, umber, and often purplish. 

 The nest may be found both in woods and pasture-land, differ- 

 ing from those of the various warblers in being much larger 

 and sometimes coarser. 



(c). The Snow-birds spend the summer in the woodland of 

 the White Mountains, and other parts of northern New Eng- 

 land (occasionally in the highlands of Western Massachus- 

 etts?), but in the autumn pass with regularity to the southward 

 of their summer-range. They are common in winter from New 

 Hampshire to Florida, and near Boston occur so early as the 

 latter part of September, and so late as the middle of May. 



73 Often called the Black or Blue Snow-bird in distinction from the Snow Bunt- 

 ing, or " White Snow-bird." 



