378 



SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS. —PASSEBES— OSCINES. 



slate-color less intense, overlaid with brown (not reddish), sometimes quite brown; edging of 

 inner secondaries rusty-brown ; average less white on the tail ; ratlier smaller ; average about 

 at the lesser of the above dimensions: sometimes only 5.75 — 9.25 — 2.75. (J 9 , in winter: 

 Eesembling the 9 in summer. Young of the year : The general color rather brown than 

 slate, with conspicuous bay edgings of inner secondaries ; bill much obscured with dusky. 

 The brown overcast, it should be observed, is a general shading, not of particular areas, and 

 not jiinkish. Young before first moult : Entirely streaked and spotted, like most very young 

 sparrows. Upper parts streaked with blackish and rusty-brown, the secondaries and wing 



coverts conspicuously edged with the latter. 



-Eastern Snow-Bird. (Sbeppard del. 



Under parts streaked or speckled with dusky 

 and ochrey brown, on all tlie fore parts and 

 sides, the beUy and ciissum soUed whitish. Bill 

 dusky, paler below. Eastern N. Amer., N. W. 

 to Alaska, W. to the Eocky Mts. and even 

 Utah and Washington Territories ; still chiefly 

 Eastern. One of our most abundant and famOiar 

 winter birds, in flocks in the shrubbery, from 

 October to April. Eetires to high latitudes or 

 altitudes to breed. Nests in mountains of the 

 Middle and some of the Southern States, as Vir- 

 ginia and North CaroUna, and down to sea level 

 from the limits of the Canadian fauna in Maine ; 

 winters anywhere in the U. S., most numerously 

 fr(.im Massachusetts southward ; a cheery bright 

 httle bird, coming fearlessly to the threshold 

 and window-sill in bad weather. Its snapping 

 note is better known than is the pleasant song 

 with which it takes leave in the spring. Nest 

 on the ground ; eggs 4-6, white, sprinkled 

 with reddish and darker brown dots, about 

 O.SO X 0.60. 



White-winged Black Snow-bird. Like 



Flo. 236.- 

 Nichols sc.) 



262. J. h. al'keni. (To C. E. Aiken, of Colorado.) 

 the last : the wings crossed with two white bars formed by the tips of the greater and middle 

 coverts ; and sometimes white edging of the inner secondaries. Eather large. Mts. of Colorado. 



263a. J. h, connec'tens. (Lat. connedens, ccmnecting ; cmi, with, necto, I join.) Hybrid Snow- 

 bird. Possessing in varying degree the characters of hiemalis and oregonus; rufous back of 

 the latter and ashy sides of the former, or, oftener, the ashy back of the former and pink sides 

 of tlie latter ; occurring wherever the breeding range of the two comes together, and elsewhere 

 during the migration. 



263. J. h. ore'gonus. (Lat. of the Oregon Elver.) Oregon Snow-bird. Head and neck all round 

 and fore breast sooty-black, ending sharply against white with a rouuded outline convex back- 

 ward ; middle of back dull reddish-brown, and feathers of the wings much edged with the 

 same ; below from the fore breast abruptly white, tinged on the sides with pale reddish-brown 

 — a peculiar " pinkish " shade. Bill white, black-tipped. In the ? and young the black is 

 obscured by brownish, but the typical form may always be distinguished by an evident contrast 

 in color between the interscapulars and head, and the fulvous or pinkish wash on the sides. 

 The season and sexual changes of plumage are parallel with those of hiemalis. A specimen 

 examined by me has imperfect white wing-bars, like aikeni. Eocky Mts. to the Pacific; as 

 abundant there as hiemalis is with us, and thence straggling eastward ; has occurred in Massa- 

 chusetts ; N. to Alaska. In the U. S. it is less obviously migratory than hiemalis, owing to 

 the broken mountainous regions it inhabits. 



