12 OUR SOUTHERN BIRDS 



The Junco's beak is like that of the Field 

 Sparrow, broad and pinkish. There are two 

 white feathers in the tail which form a bright V 

 as the bird flits before yon into the nnderbrnsh. 



Many other small winter birds consort with 

 Juncos in the friendliest way; yon may see them 

 with Wrens, Song-sparrows, Titmice, Golden- 

 crowned Kinglets, and Blnebirds, with perhaps 

 a Nuthatch or a Downy Woodpecker, feeding all 

 together in your dooryard, if you will take pains 

 to spread a meal for them and keep cats at a 

 distance. When you have finished with your 

 walnuts, hickory nuts, or pecans, if you will 

 throw the hulls out on the ground instead of 

 burning them, you will find that all these birds 

 and also the Cardinal will enjoy the waste bits 

 of kernel which their sharp beaks can pick out. 



All winter long the Juncos are among our 

 most plentiful and familiar birds; but with the 

 warmth of March's sprouting days they "begin 

 to drift northward, to nest in Canada and the 

 extreme northern states, and we see no more 

 of them until next October. But there is in 

 the higher ranges of the southern Alleghenies a 

 Carolina Junco, somewhat larger than the snow- 

 bird and gray all over, who remains a resident 

 through the year. If you go to the mountains 

 for the summer, perhaps you will see him among 

 the rhododendron. 



