FAMILY Pring/llldas. 



tones of a vesper hymn. It is the Field Sparrow, and 

 possibly he is singing who shall say that he is not? 



" Softly now the light of day 

 Fades upon my sight away." 



Junco The Junco is a winter visitor who prolongs 



Snowbird hig Bt in the 1^^ Mountain district 

 Junco hyemalis 



L. 6.25 inches untl1 the end of spring. He may be 

 October ist to seen on Mt. Washington on the first of 

 May aoth September, and in Campton as late as tin- 

 end of May. He is a bird of stylish appearance and 

 good form. Head, neck, and back Payne's gra 

 deep bluish slate-gray ; this color extends over the chest ; 

 below it there is a clear white ; the sides are gra\ i.-h : 

 there are no wing-bars ; tail a gray -brown, the two outer 

 feathers white like those of the Vesper Sparrow, and the 

 adjoining feathers partly white. Female similarly col- 

 ored but lighter in tone. Nest of grasses, moss, and root- 

 lets, loosely interwoven, and placed on the ground (or 

 near it) in some brushwood or upturned tree-roots. Egg 

 white, speckled with madder or red-brown. The range 

 of this bird is from northern New York and New Eng- 

 land northward, and southward along the Alleghany 

 Mountains to Virginia. It winters throughout the east- 

 ern United States, as far southward as Georgia and 

 possibly the Gulf States. 



The Junco's song is a metallic or glass-like tinkle. His 

 is a performance similar to that of the Chippy, but decided- 

 ly more musical, a voice with a sweet, clear tone rippling 

 along in interrupted trills not the warble which some 

 authors claim confined to an interval of a minor second 

 or a minor third : 



Vivace Thrice Sva 



Minor Second Minor Third. 



His call is a short, sharp tsip. He flies south as the 



winter arrives, not to escape its cold winds and driving 



snows, but to secure food. The Junco is eminently social, 



always flying in flocks and seldom separating into small 



108 



