CHAPTER LII. 



December 17 December 23. 



THE JUNCO. 



Order Passeres. Suborder Oscines. 



Family Fringillidae. Genus Junco. 



Species Junco hyemalis. 



Length 6.00 to 7.00; wing, 3.15 to 3.65 ; tail, 3.00 to 3.29. 

 Migration North, April 1-30; south, September 2o-October 20. 



"On twinkling wings they eddy past 



At home amid the drifting, 

 Or seek the hills and weedy fields 



Where fast the snow is sifting. 

 Their coats are dappled white and brown 



Like fields in winter weather, 

 But, on the azure sky they float 

 Like snowflakes knit together." 



The j uncos belong to the family Fringillidae and are full 

 cousins of the sparrow. Fifteen species, having a habitation 

 in North America, have been listed. Most of them are birds 

 of the far northern and northwestern parts of the continent. 

 The slate-colored junco, junco hyemalis, sometimes called the 

 slate-colored snowbird and snowbird, is a migrant whose range 

 extends from the Gulf States northward to Labrador, and 

 western shores of Hudson Bay, and through the interior to the 

 Arctic coast and westward to the valleys of the Yukon and. 

 Kowak rivers in Alaska. The Rocky Mountains seem to be its 

 western limit. When it comes south its presence is usually an- 



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