1912] Swarth: Birds and Mammals from Vancouver Island 59 



to be distinguished, either by coloration or size, from comparable 

 specimens from California. 



Junco oreganus oreganus (Townsend) 

 Oregon Junco 



Juncos were found in abundance at every point visited, except 

 Nootka Sound, where none was seen. That they occur here, too, 

 however, is evident from the description given by Captain Cook 

 (1784, p. 297) of a finch seen at this point in April. 1778. Full- 

 grown juvenals were taken at Errington the last week in May; 

 and at Beaver Creek in June, they were in evidence everywhere. 

 Juncos were fairly common in the Golden Eagle Basin in July, 

 frequenting the willow thickets and underbrush in the compara- 

 tively open "Basin," though but seldom seen in the dense woods 

 of the canons below. A number were seen on Mount Douglas 

 (4200 feet), July 14, and a nest was found containing four eggs. 

 It was just off the ground, in a mass of heather, and completely 

 hidden in the vegetation. 



Juneos were abundant at Errington throughout September, 

 gathered in Large flocks, composed principally of young birds, 

 which by this time had assumed the first winter plumage. 



The breeding junco of Vancouver Island has been referred to 

 ./. o. shufeldti (see Ridgway, 1901, p. 285), but I cannot with 

 certainty distinguish our series (sixty-one specimens — nos. 16041- 

 16101) from breeding birds of J. oreganus oreganus taken in 

 southern Alaska. Selected Alaskan specimens have the brown 

 and vinaeeous areas somewhat more richly colored than any of the 

 Vancouver Island birds, and certain of the latter have those areas 

 less rufescent than any of the Alaska birds, but many specimens 

 in the two series are quite indistinguishable. Furthermore. Sep- 

 tember birds from Alaska and from Vancouver Island, in fresh 

 fall plumage, Unworn and unfaded, are precisely alike. It may 

 be argued that birds taken on Vancouver Island in September 

 might have migrated from points farther north, but there is an 

 adult male in the series (no. 16091, Great Central Lake, August 

 24, 1910), in the midst of the molt, and obviously not a migrant, 

 which is acquiring a plumage as dark as fall examples of 

 oreganus from Alaska. 



