JUNCO HIEMALIS : BLACK SNOW-BIRD. 



26l 



cies one whose summer resorts define the Canadian 

 Fauna with precision. Prof. Verrill makes the Snow- 

 bird prominent in the limitation of this geographical 

 area ; and the very great southward extension of the 

 range of the species in the breeding season, along the 

 tops of mountains, is one of the clearest illustrations 

 of reciprocity between altitude and latitude. At sea- 

 level in New England, the bird nestles regularly as 

 far south at least as Scarborough and Cape Elizabeth 

 in Maine (Bull. Nutt. Club, iv, 1879, P- IO 7)- ^ ls 

 known to breed abundantly in Massachusetts in the 

 elevated portions of Berkshire County a fact attested 

 by repeated records which it is needless to cite ; and 

 it has been found nesting thence southward, on moun- 

 tain-tops, into the Southern States. Wherever this 

 occurrence is observed, the locality may be considered 

 Canadian in faunal character, even though it be an 

 isolated oasis in Alleghanian or Carolinian surround- 

 ings. Such circumstances, the knowledge of which 

 has not long been in our possession, explain the sud- 

 denness with which Snow-birds are wont to appear 

 in the fall, in the Southern and Middle as well as 

 parts of the Eastern States, as harbingers of storm or 

 cold weather. No long migration from the North is 

 implied by such appearances ; for the birds have only 

 to fly down from the nearest mountain-tops where they 

 had their summer "castles in the air." 



A more erroneous record of the Snow-bird could 

 scarcely be given than is expressed in Dr. Brewer's 

 statement that the bird is a winter visitant in South- 

 ern, and a resident in Northern New England. It is 

 chiefly a summer visitant in the latter, whence for the 

 most part it withdraws in winter, few spending the 



