378 SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS. —PASSEBES — OSCINES. 
slate-color less intense, overlaid with brown (not reddish), sometimes quite brown ; edging of 
inner secondaries rusty-brown ; average less white on the tail ; rather smaller ; average about 
at the lesser of the above dimensions: sometimes only 5.75 — 9.25 — 2.75. ^ ^ ,m winter: 
Resembling the 9 summer. Young of the year : The general color rather brown than 
slate, with conspicuous bay edgings of inner secondaries; bill much obscured with dusky. 
The brown overcast, it should be observed, is a general shading, not of particular areas, and 
not pinkish. Young before first moult : Entirely streaked and spotted, like most very young 
sparrows. Upper parts streaked with blackish and rusty-brown, the secondaries and wing 
Under parts streaked or speckled wdth dusky 
and ochrey brown, on aU the fore parts and 
sides, the belly and crissum soiled whitish. Bill 
dusky, paler below. Eastern N. Amer., N. W. 
to Alaska, W. to the Rocky Mts. and even 
Utah and Washington Territories ; still chiefly 
Eastern. One of our most abundant and familiar 
winter birds, in flocks in the shrubbery, from 
October to April. Retires to high latitudes or 
altitudes to breed. Nests in mountains of the 
Middle and some of the Southern States, as Vir- 
ginia and North Carolina, and down to sea level 
from the limits of the Canadian fauna in Maine ; 
winters anywhere in the U. S., most numerousl}'' 
from Massachusetts southward ; a cheery bright 
little bird, coming fearlessly to the threshold 
and window-sill in bad M^eather. Its snapping 
note is better known than is the pleasant song 
with which it takes leave in the spring. Nest 
on the ground ; eggs 4-6, wdiite, sprinkled 
Fig. 236.-Eastern Siiow-Bird. (Sheppard del. with reddish and darker brown dots, about 
Nichols sc.) 0.80 X 0.60. 
262. J. h. ai'keni. (To C. E. Aiken, of Colorado.) White-winged Black Snow-bird. Like 
the last : the wings crossed with two white bars formed by the tips of the greater and middle 
coverts; and sometimes white edging of the inner secondaries. Rather large. Mts. of Colorado. • 
262a. J. h. connec'tens. (Lat. connectens, connecting; con, with, necto, I join.) Hybrid Snow- 
bird. Possessing in varying degree the characters of hiemalis and oregonus; rufous back of 
the latter and ashy sides of the former, or, oftener, the ashy back of the former and pink sides 
of the latter ; occurring wherever the breeding range of the two comes together, and elsewhere 
during the migration. 
263. J. h. ore'gonus. (Lat. of the Oregon River.) Oregon Snow-bird. Head and neck all round 
and fore breast sooty-black, ending sharply against white with a rounded outline convex back- 
ward ; middle of back dull reddish-brown, and feathers of the wings much edged with the 
same ; below from the fore breast abruptly white, tinged on the sides M'ith pale reddish-brown 
— a peculiar " pinkish " shade. Bill white, black-tipped. In the 9 and young the black is 
obscured by brownish, but the typical form may always be distinguished by an evident contrast 
in color between the interscapulars and head, and the fulvous or pinkish wash on the sides. 
The season and sexual changes of plumage are parallel with those of hiemalis. A specimen 
examined by me has imperfect white wing-bars, like aikeni. Rocky Mts. to the Pacific ; as 
abundant there as hiemalis is with us, and thence straggling eastward ; has occurred in Massa- 
chusetts ; N. to Alaska. In the U. S. it is less obviously migratory than hiemalis, owing to 
the broken mountainous regions it inhabits. 
coverts conspicuously edged with the latter. 
