514 MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 
of Detroit it generally appears in numbers from the north about the 15th 
of October, and he has seen them as late as May 7 (1889) in the spring, 
but the middle of April generally sees the departure of the bulk. While 
with us it is rarely seen singly, and even when nesting, at least at the 
north, several nests are likely to be found in the same vicinity. 
It gets almost its whole food from the ground, where it searches for 
seeds of various kinds, and scratches among the fallen leaves and grass 
in search of seeds and insect larvee and pupx. While it frequents the 
open fields and pastures during migration, it is much more apt to be found 
in numbers about the borders and corners of fields, along the edges of 
woods, and in brushy or weedy ravines where its favorite food is abundant. 
It seems to be very fond of searching the ground in the shade of large trees, 
and in the semi darkness of such places the white tail-feathers are quite 
conspicuous as it flits back and forth. 
Nests are found most often in June, but eggs are laid in May, June and 
July, and it seems certain that two broods are reared each season. The 
nest is placed on the ground invariably, so far as we know, and is often 
more or less hidden beneath a fallen log, a tuft of grass or a heap of brush. 
It consists of grasses and various fibrous materials which form a compact, 
snug and deeply hollowed receptacle for the eggs. These are three to 
five, nearly white, speckled with reddish brown, and average .76 by .58 
inches. 
Its ordinary song is a prolonged, clear trill, which apparently is the 
repetition of a single note, but which is much more musical than the song 
of the Chipping Sparrow which it somewhat resembles. Mr. Bicknell 
says it has also a “faint, whispering warble, usually much broken, but not 
without sweetness, and sometimes continuing intermittently for many 
minutes. It seems to slip into this very readily from a simple chirping, 
and is always the song with which the species begins the season. I have 
heard both of its songs in October and November.” 
An impression ‘is current among country people in Michigan, as else- 
where, that the Blue Snowbird changes in the summer into a ‘Ground 
Bird” or sparrow, which changes again in the fall into a slate-blue winter 
bird. Of course this belief has no foundation in fact. In reality the 
seasonal changes of plumage in the Junco are much slighter than in 
most other birds of the group. It is perhaps a little browner or grayer 
in winter and the slate becomes a little blacker and the white a little purer 
during the nesting season. 
TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 
Adult male: Entire upper parts slate-gray, darker on the head, usually almost black 
on the forehead, often with a brownish gloss on the middle of the back; sides of head, throat, 
breast and sides slate-colored, like the back but a little lighter, or ash-gray on sides and 
flanks; belly and under tail-coverts pure white; wings and tail dark slate-gray, the former 
without any trace of bars, the latter with the two outer pairs of feathers pure white, and the 
next pair partly so; bill light pinkish or, flesh-color; iris brown. Adult female: Very 
similar to male, but the slate-color of upper parts never so dark, and always washed with 
brownish on the back and usually with rusty on edges of tertiaries; sides often strongly 
tinged with light pinkish brown. Young: At first entirely streaked above and below; 
above with brownish and black or slate, below with blackish and brown on a whitish ground. 
Later, the streaks are lost and the young resemble the females, but are much browner, 
te often showing two rusty bars, and the secondaries and tertiaries edged with buff 
or brown. 
Length 6 to 7 inches; wing 2.98 to 3.25; tail 2.60 to 2.90; culmen .46 to .51. 
Note.—For accounts of other species of Junco, said to occur in Michigan, see Appendix. 
