BIRDS OF NEW YORK 313 



familiarly into the garden and dooryard to feed on waste crumbs, weed 

 seeds and whatever insects it can pick up among the grass and shrubbery. 

 They nearly always travel in scattered companies, sometimes as many as 

 40 or 50 birds being seen on the lawn at the same time, and though not 

 strictly gregarious the little company keeps together. When one is dis- 

 turbed it flies off with a smack of alarm which, together with its flashing 

 white tail feathers, act as signals to warn and direct the brotherhood. 



When quarreling, especially when fighting on the wing, they utter a 

 curious mellow note sounding like the whistled syllables pu-pn-pu. While 

 feeding, the members of the company keep up a merry twittering note. 

 The flight is rather jerky, although they do not pump their tails so decidedly 

 as the Song sparrow in flight, but at nearly every wing stroke the white 

 tail feathers flash, making an easy recognition mark for the species. 



These little sparrows do an immense amount of good by destroying 

 countless weed seeds during the fall, winter and spring months, and also 

 by feeding on many dormant insects which might do harm in the summer. 



For a summer home the Junco prefers damp woodland. The north 

 woods of spruce and balsam, with moist moss on the ground, are most to 

 his liking. Whatever pairs I have found nesting in western New York 

 have been in damp gulleys, swamps and cool shaded hillsides. The nest 

 has usually been placed on a mossy bank or among overhanging ferns and 

 other woodland plants. The materials of the nest are stalks of grass, bits 

 of bark, rootlets, mosses, and a lining of finer grass, leaves, bits of moss 

 and long hair. The eggs are 4 or 5 in number, of a white or pinkish white 

 ground color, more or less speckled and blotched with rufous brown and 

 obscure lilac shell markings, tending to form a wreath near the larger end 

 of the egg, rather broadly ovate in shape, and measuring about .76 by .60 

 inches in dimensions. 



Besides its various call notes and notes of alarm, the Junco has at 

 least two distinct songs, one a simple trill which is to be compared to the 

 song of the Chipping sparrow, though carrying much farther and, to my 

 ear, more melodious in quality. The other song is described by Bicknell 



