The Gray-headed Junco 



belonging to a species whose other members are notorious wanderers. 

 There must be something very attractive about the coasts of Monterey! 

 Those whose opinions coincide with that expressed by pinosus should feel 

 greatly flattered. No doubt they do; and we shall look to them or to some 

 gifted member of the Santa Cruz tribe to prepare a life history of the Point 

 Pinos Junco which shall be worth while. All that an outsider may know, 

 so far, is that the subspecies is just appreciably different in appearance. 

 No differences in song or nesting or winter behavior have yet been 

 described, but such doubtless exist. 



No. 52 



Gray-headed Junco 



A. O. U. No. 570b. Junco caniceps (Woodhouse). 



Description. — Adult (sexes alike): Head and neck all around, chest and rump, 

 neutral gray, darker above, lighter below, shading on breast and sides into dull white 

 or buffy white of remaining underparts; lores and area about base of bill narrowly 

 black; back walnut-brown; wings chiefly fuscous; the coverts gray; the outer web of 

 scapulars tinged with brown; two outer pairs of rectrices entirely and third pair largely 

 white. Bill pinkish in life (drying pale brown); irides brown; tarsus pale brown, 

 feet darker. Length about 161. 3 (6.35); wing 84.6 (3.33); tail 66.6 (2.62); bill 10.9 

 (.47); tarsus 20.6 (.81). Females smaller. 



Recognition Marks. — Sparrow size; foreparts definitely gray, and back warm 

 reddish brown; underparts shaded without abrupt contrast. 



Nesting. — Does not breed in California. Nest and eggs not certainly dis- 

 tinguishable from those of preceding species. 



General Range. — The northernmost form of an allied group which includes 

 J. phaeonotus: breeds in Utah and southern Wyoming, south to northern NewMexico; 

 winters at lower levels to northern Mexico and casually to southern California. 



Occurrence in California. — Three records: Pasadena, Oct. 26, 1894 (Grinnell); 

 Julia, San Diego County, common, Nov. 18 to Dec. 3, 1906 (A. P. Smith); Oak Glen, 

 San Bernardino Mts., March 4, 1922 (A. J. van Rossem). 



Authorities. — Grinnell, Pasadena Acad. Sci. Pub., no. ii., 1898, p. 38 (Pasadena, 

 Oct. 26, 1894); Trippe, in Coues' Birds of the Northwest, 1874, p. 144 (Colorado; 

 habits, song, etc.); A. P. Smith, Condor, vol. ix., 1907, p. 199 (Julian); Rockwell and 

 Wetmore, Auk, vol. xxxi., 1914, p. 325, fig. (Colorado; habits, nest and eggs); Dwight, 

 Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., vol. xxxviii., 1918, p. 299, col. pi. (distr., variation, crit.); 

 Dickey, Condor, vol. xxiv., 1922, p. 137 (San Bernardino Mts.). 



THE GRAY-HEADED JUNCO is an invader from the central 

 Rocky Mountains and from the lesser ranges of Utah and Nevada. His 

 mistake in wintering in California is more noticeable than that of Junco 



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