1924] Swarth: Birds and Mammals of the Skeena River Region 355 



Junco hyemalis connectens Coues. Cassiar Junco 



There _ were a few of this species breeding in Kispiox Valley, 

 twenty-three miles north of Hazelton, the extreme southern limit of 

 the breeding range. Junco oreganu-s shufeldti was the common species, 

 present in large numbers, but at least two pairs of connectens were 

 observed, and they were evidently nesting. An adult male (no. 24318) 

 was taken on June 22, and an adult female (no. 42314) with a juvenile 

 (no. 42315) on July 9. 



I expected to find connectens appearing in numbers at the begin- 

 ning of the fall migration, but the slate-colored juncos that were 

 collected at that time are nearly all like typical hyemalis rather than 

 like our Stikine River series of connectens (see Swarth, 1922, p. 243). 

 One specimen (no. 42326), an immature male taken in Kispiox Valley, 

 September 13, does appear to be connectens. The female of that form 

 frequently is so much like female shufeldti in appearance that the two 

 are distinguished in life with difficulty, which may be one reason why 

 specimens were not taken. 



Junco oreganus shufeldti Coale. Shufeldt Junco 



Abundant nearly everywhere. On May 26, at Hazelton, a nest was 

 found with eggs just hatching; on June 6 the first young were seen 

 flying about. On July 19 a nest was found, just finished but with 

 no eggs as yet, an unusually late date. On Nine-mile Mountain 

 (July 21 to August 13) a great many jimcos were seen, mostly spotted 

 young, frequenting the open slopes and basins immediately above 

 timber line. By the first week in September the molt had been accom- 

 plished by most of the jnncos and they were then gathered in fiocks 

 of from ten to twenty birds. They were present, though, in diminished 

 numbers, when I left, the last week in September. 



Fifty-four specimens collected (nos. 42327-42380) : eight breeding 

 adults (seven males and one female), seventeen in juvenal plumage 

 or undergoing the post- juvenal molt, three adult males and one adult 

 female in winter plumage, and tM-elve males and thirteen females in 

 immature (first winter'! plumage. 



This series from the Hazelton region may be taken as representa- 

 tive of conditions at the northwestern limit of the subspecies shufeldti. 

 Breeding birds show a tendency toward Junco hyemalis connectens, 

 of the country immediately to the northward, exhibited mostly in the 

 grayer dorsum. The flocks of birds in fresh faJl plumage yielded no 



