JUNCO H YEMALIS. 
. 93 
JUNCO HYEMALIS. 
Black Snowbird. 
Junco hyemalis Sclater, Pro. Zool. Soc., 1857, 7. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Sr. Ch. Form, quite robust. Tongue, fleshy, not very horny at tip, which is provided with short, terminal, hair-like 
fibers. Sternum, as given under generic characters. Bill, quite sharp. 
Color. Adult male in summer. Upper portion of body, including wings and tail, neck, breast and sides, slaty-black, 
darkest anteriorly. Belly, abdomen, flanks, under tail coverts, under wing coverts and extreme outer edges of primaries, 
white. Four outer tail feathers are always white and two others are more or less so colored. Bill, pinkish, darker at tip 
and base of upper mandible. Feet, brown. 
Female in spring. Similar to the spring male but having the slaty-black overwashed with rufous. Only two outer 
tail feathers are wholly white. 
Adult in winter and Young. Adult males in winter show more or less rufous, while the females are more highly ting¬ 
ed with it than in the spring. The young are well washed with rufous for the first year and the white of the tail is much 
less extended. 
Nestlings. Are thickly streaked, above and below, with dusky, when they present a peculiar appearance 
OBSERVATIONS. 
Specimens, of the same age and sex, vary considerably in amount of rufous, especially above. The extension of the 
white on the tail is also variable, but I never saw more than four feat here wholly white; a specimen, however, now before 
me, has the next pair nearly immaculate, there being only a basal spot cn the inner webs and a very small terminal one on 
the outer. This specimen is also remarkable as being the only one which I ever examined from the East that had any in¬ 
dication of wing bare; in this case there are two which are quite distinct. This bird is very dark in color and altogether 
somewhat resembles l ‘Aikenii.” 
The present species may be distinguished by the dark sides and absence of any decidedly red dorsal patch, such as is to 
be seen in Oregonus and allied species. Distributed, in summer, throughout Northern New England, Canada, and along 
the highlands and mountain ranges of Eastern United States, at least as far south as Virginia. Winters from the Atlantic 
to the Rocky Mountains between the latitudes of Florida and Massachusetts. 
DIMENSIONS. 
Average measurements of twenty eight specimens. Length, 625; stretch, 9*80; wing, 3 - 00; tail, 2 - 60; bill, *42; tarsus, 
•75. Longest specimen, 7 - 00; greatest extent of wing, 10 - 00; longest wing, 3‘ 15; tail, 2 - 75; bill, '50; tarsus, '80. Smallest 
specimen, 6'00; stretch, 9*50; wing, 2-80; tail, 2'50; bill, ’40; tarsus, '70. ' 
DESCRIPTION OF NESTS AND EGGS. 
Nests, placed on the ground. Composed of fine grasses and lined with the same material. Dimensions; external di¬ 
ameter, 4'00, internal, 3'00. External depth, 2'00, internal, l - 00. 
Eggs, four or five in number, oval in form, varying from white to bluish-white in color, spotted with reddish-brown and 
• lilac. Dimensions, from '70 x '55 to "75 x - 60. 
HABITS. 
On December 31, 1876, I was standing on tbe deck of the yacht Nina, sailing down 
Calibogue Sound, before a fine breeze. We moved swiftly pasta point of land, which 
shut out a view to the eastward, then the open ocean came into sight, and, in the dis¬ 
tance, just to the southward, I recognized Tybee Light at the mouth of the Savannah 
River. Nearer, to the right of where the Sound opens into the sea, lay Daufuskie Island. 
It was covered with an exuberant growth of trees, mainly palmettos and live oaks, which 
formed a wall of verdure, against which the white tower of the range beacon stood out in 
strong relief; while the keeper’s dwelling peeped out from among the green foliage. The 
whole was fronted by a clean sandy beach, which rose abruptly from the sparkling water, 
forming a neat foreground for one of the prettiest pictures that I had ever seen. Sweeping 
