188 Trans. Acad. Sci. of St. Louis. 



does the number of wintering individuals. In hard winters when 

 the snow is deep and hard they are driven to the farmyards for 

 food and shelter; but for this protection many would perish by 

 cold or starvation, especially in regions where their former ref- 

 uge, the forests, no longer exist. Spring migration from the 

 south begins often as early as the last week of February, cer- 

 tainly by the tenth of March, and is at its height .from the middle 

 to the last of the month, when most old birds are gone and mainly 

 young ones are present mostly in silent flocks. These, too, pass 

 on during the first half of April and stragglers only are left in the 

 latter part of the month. In some years, when spring was 

 exceptionally late or cold, individuals have been seen at St. 

 Louis in May and as late as May 24 and May 29, 1882, but 

 as a rule the dates of '^ Juncos last seen" range from April 10 to 

 30 all over the state. 



An exceptionally late date is reported by Mr. E. S. Woodruff, 

 who took a Junco at Grandin, Carter Co., May 21, 1907, saying: 

 "But this can be explained by the fact that he was a diseased 

 bird infested by parasitic worms. His stomach was distended 

 to twice the normal size and was just one solid mass of trans- 

 parent worms, 3 inches or more long, filling up every bit of space 

 around the organs and intestines." Last Junco in 1907 at St. 

 Louis was seen May 4. 



567b. Junco hyemalis connectens Coues. Shufeldt's Junco. 



Junco hyemalis shufeldti. 



Geog. Dist. — Rocky Mountain region, west in the mountains 

 of the Great Basin to eastern California; in winter to Arizona, 

 New Mexico, Texas and northern Mexico. Accidental in Ne- 

 braska, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Massachusetts and Mary- 

 land, but with difficulty distinguished from Montana Junco, 

 Junco montanus, which in winter also straggles eastward from 

 its breeding grounds in Montana, Idaho and northward to 

 Alberta. 



This subspecies is entered in our list as of probable occurrence 

 on the strength of a specimen taken by Mr. Wm. E. Praeger 

 near Keokuk, la., December 16, 1892, from a flock of common 

 Juncos. It may be not an uncommon, perhaps regular, winter 

 visitant to some parts of Missouri, particularly the western, 

 and collectors should pay special attention to the identifi- 

 cation of Juncos. 



