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166 THE CONDOR Vol. XXII _ 
The Pink-sided Junco is our common breeding junco; others (as montanus 
and connectens) pass through on migration. Our Juncos are very quick, 
sprightly and restless in their ways, hopping about on the ground and keeping 
up an almost continual cheeping in loud tones, except when busy with parental 
duties or flitting through the pines with a flash of the white feathers in their 
tails. On the ground they move along with quick little jerks of the wings and 
tail at each hop. Sometimes they scuttle out of the road and under the nearby 
trees at one’s approach. Usually, though, they are very tame and ean be ob- 
served at close range, sometimes remaining unconcerned within ten feet of one. 
They even come hopping into our tents and they may stay for some time; 
at our camp at the Canyon, they were hopping contentedly about most of the 
time. They are quite fearless of the Red-tail and Swainson hawks, even when 
those big birds are screaming in the same tree within a few feet of them. 
Pink-sided Juncos are very sociable little birds, associating in spring and 
fall with Mountain Chickadees, Nuthatches, Tree Sparrows, and with their 
cousins, the Intermediate Juncos, in the evergreens. At other times they may 
be seen with Pine Siskins, White-crowned Sparrows, Chipping Sparrows, King- 
lets, Audubon Warblers and Townsend Solitaires. They are often with the 
Robins and Bluebirds, with Vesper Sparrows in spring on the sage flats, and 
even with Horned Larks and Leucostictes on the bare spots. In October they 
accompany many other species to the barns, for the oats that are dropped 
there. I have seen a Northern Shrike catch one or two during the spring be- 
fore the shrikes go north. The Pink-sided Junco usually progresses by a series 
of short flights from tree to tree, or from bush to bush. The flight has a 
peculiar, halting catch to it, due, no doubt, to the short and fast moving wings. 
These are enthusiastic little songsters from about April 14 to July 30, with 
the height of the song season about the first of May. They commence at an 
early hour, sometimes before 5 A. M. On cold, wet mornings they are the first 
species to start the chorus. The song is a tingling little warble uttered perhaps, 
from a quaking asp, eighteen feet or so from the ground, or from a lodgepole 
pine or a fir: Ting’le, ting’le, ting’le, rapidly repeated about six times. The 
singer perches like a song sparrow, with head thrown back and chest out, but 
keeping quite motionless. Rain does not stop their singing, but the songs go 
on as cheerily as ever. I have never observed them singing while in flight, but 
I have seen a bird begin singing just as soon as it alighted. They were singing 
at an altitude of 8500 feet on April 16, and at 8800 feet on June 11, where there 
was from one to three feet of snow all about. I have had them come about 
camp when I was cooking, especially in September and October, chirping most 
sociably. Such eall-notes are usually low-pitched, but once at least, one came 
flying into a lodgepole pine under which | was packing, and made such a 
racket I thought it was a squirrel. 3 
When the Juncos first arrive in the spring they appear at low elevations — 
but soon move higher. Even so, they are often so early that they have to seek — 
shelter about barns and other buildings. In March they are seen generally on 
the bare spots of ground under limber pines and Douglas firs. Sometimes they 
seek a roost under some convenient shed, and they even find their way into 
basements of houses, where they may be unable to find their way out again. 
The late storms of spring catch the Juncos, but they are adept at seeking shel- 
ter about the barns, under sheds, and in potato cellars; after the cold they are 
bright.and lively, but not chirping much, and very busy hunting for possible 
