THE PINK-SIDED JUNCO. 



{Junco annectens.) 



Their sweet disposition and cheerful 

 actions, rather than their song and bril- 

 hant colors, make the j uncos attractive. 

 These poetical birds appeal to those who 

 love Nature, especially in the grey of fall 

 and winter. Of the slate-colored junco 

 or snowbird the poet as written : 



Then 'mid snowdrifts white, 

 Though the trees are bare, 

 Comes the snowbird, bold 

 In the Winter's cold, 

 Quick and round and bright, 

 Light he steps across the snow. 

 Cares he not for winds that blow. 



Though the sifting snow be drifting 

 Through the air. 



The juncos are birds of the mountain 

 forests and are driven to the lower al- 

 titudes and warmer climates by the se- 

 vere snows of the mountain regions. 

 Except during the nesting season, they 

 are decidedly gregarious birds and will 

 be seen in flocks varying from a dozen 

 or more to several hundred individuals. 

 Always active, they seem to be constantly 

 moving, either in search of food or in 

 happy play. They chase each other on 

 the ground or in flight, uttering a short 

 note at frequent intervals. "In their 

 homes you find them more interesting 

 than when in flocks, because they are 

 now leading individual lives, but they 

 are still the same trustful, gentle birds, 

 ready to come into camp or to let you 

 examine their nests." During the colder 

 seasons, their food consists of the seeds 

 of weeds and grasses and the crumbs 

 found in the doorvards. In the summer 



time, however, they destroy a large num- 

 ber of adult insects and their larvae and 

 eggs. Not infrequently they scratch 

 among the dead leaves of the forest in 

 their search for food. When feeding or 

 resting in flocks, a slight disturbance 

 will cause them to fly, twittering away to 

 some sheltering foliage near by. It will 

 not be long, however, before confidence 

 returns and these social birds will again 

 be feeding upon the ground or they may 

 unite in singing a "sunny, pleasing war- 

 ble." 



The Pink-sided J""co passes the sum- 

 mer season in the Rocky Mountain 

 region of Idaho and Montana, where it 

 makes a home among the pines. It has 

 been found at an elevation of nearly ten 

 thousand feet. Mr. Davie describes a 

 nest that was found at an elevation of 

 eight thousand feet. He says this "nest 

 was under a shelving stone, in a little 

 hollow dug out by the parents. It was 

 rather large and compactly built, com- 

 posed of coarse, dry grasses and with an 

 inner lining of fine yellow straw and 

 hair of the mountain sheep." It is said 

 that this Junco, when sitting, is very 

 tame and will seldom make a greater 

 demonstration than to utter a quiet note 

 of complaint. 



At the approach of winter, these birds 

 retreat before the icy storms of the 

 mountains and the snows that cover the 

 source of their food to the milder cli- 

 mate of Arizona, New Mexico and 

 Northern Mexico. 



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