246 University of California Publications in Zoology ['Vol. 24 



The adult male of connectens is very similar to hyemalis. At first 

 glance, in the field, there was no doubt in my mind that hyemalis 

 was the form encountered. Comparison with eastern birds, however, 

 shows certain appreciable differences. Connectens is darker colored 

 throughout, and, compared with the more uniformly slaty hued 

 hyemalis, is seen to possess a blackish head, quite sharply defined at a 

 line above the shoulders. Beneath, in connectens, the outline of the 

 black breast is convex against the white belly, forming a sharp angle 

 where it joins the gray sides. In eastern hyemalis the slaty breast 

 and sides usually form a concave outline against the white belly. In 

 most cases, a specimen of connectens viewed laterally is seen to possess 

 a black head pattern above and below, just about as in Junco oreganus, 

 though, of course, more obscurely indicated than in that species. These 

 distinctions, as just detailed, would not amount to very much in a 

 single bird, perhaps, but viewed in mass effect, with specimens of the 

 three forms arranged in parallel rows, the differences are readily 

 noticeable. The black-headed appearance of the male is a feature that 

 is conspicuous in the live bird. 



The female of connectens is, as a rule, more nearly like the female 

 of a subspecies of the black-headed Junco oreganus group than like 

 female hyemalis. The sides are more or less tinged with pink (often 

 quite strongly so), and the back with brownish. The blackish head is 

 sharply defined against the back and against the pink sides and white 

 belly. Two among the fifteen females from Telegraph Creek and 

 Glenora have no pink on the sides, though with brown on the back. 

 These two birds are most nearly like hyemalis. Of the others it is safe 

 to say that not one would be ascribed to hyemalis if taken in its winter 

 home, with nothing but the appearance of the bird as a guide to its 

 specific identity. There are certain winter specimens of Junco ore- 

 ganus shufeldti at hand from southern Arizona, that, so far as color 

 and markings are concerned, are indistinguishable from some Stikine 

 River females. Arizona specimens of shufeldti, however, are distinctly 

 longer winged. 



Thus there is here a race in which the male bears a strong resem- 

 blance to one specific group {Junco hyemaUs), and the female to an- 

 other {Junco oreganus), this race occurring at a point where the 

 boundaries of the two species mentioned come close together. Different 

 authorities take different views regarding the relationship of the two 

 forms, hyemalis and oreganus. In the A. 0. U. Check-List of North 

 American Birds (1910, p. 266) they are treated as two subspecies of 



