JUNCO CINEREUS VAR. CANICEPS. 143 



cow's and horse's hair was also used in the lining." It contained three 

 eggs, measuring 0,74 by 0.60, bluish-white, with blackish and brown 

 spots of various sizes thickly sprinkled on the larger end. 



My own experience with this bird has been only in tbe winter time. 

 I found it extremely abundant in the mountains of Arizona, from the 

 middle of October until the middle of April; and loiterers reijiained 

 until May. I judge that it breeds in the neighboring higher mountains, 

 as the San Francisco and Bill Williams. In habits, it seemed the 

 counterpart of the familiar eastern bird. During pleasant, open weather, 

 it used to keep in the recesses of the woods and shrubbery, but in snow- 

 storms, and during severe weather, when seeds were scarce and hard to 

 find, it would come trooping about our tents, and especially around the 

 stock corrals, gleaning a subsistence from the waste grain that dropped 

 from the feed-troughs of our horses. Under such circumstances it was 

 sometimes emboldened even to enter a vacant tent : and I caught sev- 

 eral alive by scattering some bread crumbs iu a small "A"-tent stand- 

 ing near mine, the flap of which was flxed so it could be pulled down 

 with a string. Its ordinary note is a soft chirp, which I could not dis- 

 tinguish from that of the common Snow-bird ; in the spring, just before 

 leaving for its breeding-grounds, it has a rather pleasing song, also like 

 that of its eastern relative. 



JUNCO' CINEEEUS var. OANIGEPS, (Woodh.) Ooues. 

 Gray-headed Snow-bird. 



b. caniceps.* 



StTuthus caniceps, Woodh., Pr. Phila. Acad, vi, 1852, 202 (New Mexico and Texas). — 



Woodh., Sitgr. Eep. 1653, 8o, p]. 3. 

 Junco caniceps, Bd., B. N. A. 1858, 468, pi. 72, fig. 1. — Ha-td., Rep. 1862, 167.— Cottes, 



Pr. Phila. Acad. 1866, 85.— Coop., B. Cal. i, 1870, 201.— Allex, Bull. M. C. Z. 



iii, 1872, 177.— Aiken, Pr. Boat. Soc. 1872, -200 (Wyoming).— Gkay, Hand-list, 



No. 7370.— B. B. & R., N. A. B. i, 1874, 587, pi. 26, f. 3. 

 Junco cinereus var. caniceps, CouES, Key, 1872, 141. 

 Junco lujemalis var. caniceps, Ridgw., Am. Nat. vii, 1873, 613 (critical). 

 Junco dorsalls, Henry, Pr. PhiJa. Acad. 5, 1853, 117 (New Mexico). — Bd., B. N. A. 1853, 



468, pi. 28, fig. 1 (tending to characteristics of ctnereiis proper). 

 Juneo annectens, Bd., in Coop. B. Cal. i, 1870, 564 (intermediate between caniceps and, 



oregonus ; probably a hybrid). 



Sab. — Middle Province (Southern Rocky Mountain region), United States. North 

 to the Black Hills and Laramie Peak. 



Lieutenant WaiTen's Expedition. — 8960-61, Laramie Peak. 



Not obtained by Captain Raynolds' Expedition. 



As observed in my late work, the descent with modification of all the described 

 forms of Junco from a common stock, is undoubted if not unquestionable, although the 

 diversion has become so great that it would be scarcely expedient to consider them all 

 as a single species. The various forms may be reduced to three, hyenialis, oregonus, and 

 caniceps, with their varieties. The first of these has no pinkish-rufous on the sides below, 

 and in full plumage the dark parts are nearly un iform blackish-plumbeous ; the adult 

 female is grayer, even brownish, especially on the inner quills, and the young of the 

 first autumn and winter are extensively brownish. Oregonus has an opaque, blackish 

 head, and fore-parts sharply contrasted with reddish of the back, and the white of the 



* The synonymy of a. cinereus, is: Fringilla cinerea, Sw., Phil. Mag. i, 1827, 435. — 

 Junco cinereHS, Cab., Mus. Hein. 1850, 134.— Bd., B. N. A. 1858, 465.- ScL., P. Z. S. 1856, 

 306 ; 1857, 7 ; 1858, 304 ; 1859, 365.— SuJiiCH., Mem. Bost. Soc. i, 1869, 551 (alpine re- 

 gion of Vera Cruz, 2,000 to 3,500 metres, abundant and characteristic). — Junco phaio- 

 notus, Wagl., Isis, 1831, 526. — "Fringilla rafidorsis," Light. Hab : Mexico. In this 

 form the rusty-red extends over the upper surface of the wings, and the bill is black 

 and yellow. An allied form is J. aliicola, Salv., P. Z. S. 1863, l^rf) ; Ibis, 1866, 193, from 

 the mountains of Guatemala. It is the J. ligeniaUs var. alticola of Riugw., ?, c. 



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