and it seems to frequent such places where almost impenetrable thickets of rhododendron^ 

 and mountain laurels or kalmias^ azaleas and andromedas are overshadowed by tall 

 spruces and high rocky ridges. Nowhere do rhododendrons and kalmias, when in bloom, 

 make such a glorious display as in the southern AUeghanies, where many of them are 

 found approaching twenty feet in height. On many of the ridges the flame-colored 

 azalea* flaunts its gorgeous flowers. They are of every shade, from light lemon-yellow 

 to the most brilUant fire-red, making a great contrast to the. pretty delicate rosy-pink 

 flowers oi Azalea nudiffora,vfhich grows among them. Both the azaleas and the mountain 

 laurel are abundant throughout the woodlands of these mountains. The lily of the 

 valley is everywhere under our feet. This is the breeding place of the Carolina 'Junco. 

 "About Highlands," says Mr. Wm. Brewster, "it was seen everywhere; flitting along 

 the snake fences that border the fields and roads, twittering shyly in the depths of the 

 'laurel' swamps, flirting unexpectedly from beneath the oaks in the open woodlands, 

 and on the grassy, wind-swept mountain summits, hopping fearlessly among our horses 

 or peering curiously at their riders. On the Black Mountain it was decidedly the com- 

 monest bird, ranging from an elevation of about 4,300 feet to the very top of Mitchell's 

 High Peak. It was here found quite as numerously in the hardwood forests below 

 5,000 feet as among the spruces and balsams above that altitude. The mountain people 

 call it 'Snowbird,' and say it spends the winter in the lower and more sheltered valleys, 

 returning to the mountain sides as soon as spring begins. Thus it is doubtless a local 

 and essentially resident form." 



Mr. Geo. B. Sennett found the bird breeding in spring and summer, 1886, in the 

 same locality at an elevation of 3,000 to 6,300 feet. At the last-named altitude, on the 

 summit of Roan Mountain, he found it exceedingly abundant, outnumbering at this 

 point all other species combined. "In July, on Roan Mountain," writes Mr. Sennett, 

 "I found both fresh-laid eggs and young in all stages ; whenever the almost constantly 

 present and low-hanging clouds would lift for an "hour or so, I could deviate from the 

 main road and find a Junco's nest. My experience told me that the first brood was 

 generally four, but often three, while the second brood was three, and rarely four. I 

 found the birds nesting on the ground in all sorts of places, — in the open among 

 the grass hummocks, along the edge of a cow-path, among the rhododendrons, or 

 myrtle* tussocks (which look so much like the heather of Scotland), under the balsams, 

 or under the deciduous trees of a lower altitude. Two nests, one of which was five and 

 the other three feet from the ground, were found in balsam trees * ; and I found one nest 

 at an altitude of two feet, in the roots of an overturned tree." 



Oregon Junco, /unco hyemalis oregonus Ridgw. The Oregon Snowbird represents 

 the species in western North America, breeding along the Pacific coast region from the 

 mountains of California northward to Sitka, Alaska. In its habits it is the exact coun- 

 terpart of the Eastern Snowbird. Mr. Ridgway found it in summer an inhabitant of 

 the pine woods of the mountains, but in winter descending to the lowlands, and enter- 

 ing the towns and gardens in the same way as the eastern species. In Oregon and 



I Rhododendron maximum, R, punctatam, and R. Catawbiease, » Kalmia latifolia. a Azalea cahndutacea. 

 I Abies Praseri. 



* Probably L,eiopbyllam buxifolium, Sand Myrtle. N 



