752 MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 
Adult male in summer: Top and sides of head deep black, relieved by a broad white 
stripe behind eye, a narrow white stripe along middle portion of ear-coverts, and a white 
malar stripe, much widest posteriorly; hind neck and entire lower parts deep ochraceous- 
buff, the first streaked with dusky; anterior lesser wing-coverts deep black, posterior 
ones pure white, forming a conspicuous bar, widest above. Adult male in winter: Black 
of head entirely replaced by streaked brownish, the throat and chest also more or less 
streaked with dusky; otherwise much as in summer, but middle and greater wing-coverts 
distinctly tipped with white. Adult female in summer: Much like winter male, but 
smaller, paler, grayer, without deep black or pure white on lesser wing-coverts; in winter 
similar but more buffy. 
Male: Length 6.40 to 6.50 inches; wing 3.60 to 3.70. Female: Length about 5.50 
to 6 inches; wing 3.45 to 3.60 (Ridgway). 
Montana Junco. Junco hyemalis montanus Ridgw. (567f) 
Similar to the common Junco (hyemalis), but with the sides more or 
less pinkish brown. Not to be identified, however, by any but the expert 
with abundance of material for comparison. 
Distribution.—Northern Rocky Mountains. Breeds in Canadian Zone 
from southern Alberta south to northern Idaho and northwestern Montana; 
in winter south to Arizona, Texas and northern Mexico. East casually 
to Kansas, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts and Maryland. 
In Dr. Miles’ list of Michigan birds (1860) the ‘Oregon Snowbird” 
was included on the authority of Prof. Fox who, according to Miles, took 
two at Grosse Isle, Wayne county, Mich. In the autumn of 1878, Dr. 
H. A. Atkins of Locke, Ingham county, says he shot two Oregon Juncos 
and saw perhaps twelve or fifteen in all. He says they were first noticed 
October 11 and last seen October 30. Neither Prof. Fox’s specimens nor 
Dr. Atkins’ specimens are to be found now, and so far as can be learned 
not one of them was ever examined by a critical ornithologist. It is not 
improbable that they were merely rather unusual specimens of the common 
Junco (hyemalis), yet it is possible that they belonged to one of the forms 
now recognized as subspecies and variously named, oregonus, annectens, 
shufeldti, and montanus. In the absence of actual specimens it is a waste 
of time to speculate on the matter. In Ridgway’s ‘Birds of North and 
Middle America” (Bull. 50 U. $8. Narional Museum, Part I, p. 290) the 
specimens mentioned above by Dr. Atkins are recorded under Junco 
montanus, Ridgw. 
Gray-headed Junco. Junco phzonotus caniceps (Woodh.). (570b) 
November 19, 1878, Dr. H. A. Atkins of Locke, Ingham County, Mich., 
wrote Dr. J. A. Allen “I took alive October 22, a fine specimen of the 
Chestnut-backed Snowbird, found in a flock of common Snowbirds.” 
In the Ornithologist and Oologist, Vol. IX, p. 81, July 1884, Dr. Atkins 
gives the following particulars of this capture: ‘It was taken alive from 
weeds in which it had become entangled * * * placed under a sieve 
in the barn until I could give it better quarters, but while feeding it the 
next morning it succeeded in getting away from me.” It seems altogether 
probable that this record is based on a mistaken identification. Since 
it was examined under circumstances which did not admit of careful 
measurement and comparison with other specimens it is not likely that 
a correct identification could be made. This species according to Ridgway 
belongs to the “Rocky Mountain district, breeding from Fort Bridger 
southward.” In his “Birds of North and Middle America” Part I, 1901, 
