202 
ZOOLOGY. 
bounded anteriorly by a short black line from the eye to the black of the forehead ; this yellow spot, however, reduced to a few 
feathers in spring dress. Interscapular region, with the feathers, streaked with dark brown, suffused with dark rufous ex¬ 
ternally. Two narrow white bands on the wings. 
Length, about 7 to 7.50 inches ; extent, 9.75 to 10.12 ; wing, 3.30. 
Hab .—Pacific coast from Russian America to southern California ; Black Hills of Rocky Mountains.? 
The large and handsome golden-crowned sparrow seems to be only a straggler in the forest 
regions west of the Cascade mountains, and, like other California birds, probably migrates more 
abundantly to the open plains eastward of them. I saw them but once near Puget Sound on 
the 10th of May, when they were probably migrating. Though I looked for them carefully 
during two months after that, I could find no more.—C. 
This species resembles much, in habit and size, the last. It is also generally very fat —too 
fat , frequently, for skinning nicely. Audubon, in his Synopsis, says that the species is rare. 
This is not the case either in the vicinity of Fort Dalles or Fort Steilacoom, in both of which 
places it is in summer quite abundant. 
The measurements of two specimens obtained by me at Fort Steilacoom are much larger than 
those given in Audubon’s Synopsis. Another specimen, (No. 90,) killed in May, 1854, at Fort 
Steilacoom, measured 10.50 in extent, and weighed exactly one ounce.—S. 
JUNCO OREGONUS, Sclater. 
Oregon Snow Bird. 
Fringilla oregona, Townsend, J. A. N. Sc. VII, 1837, 188.— Ib. Narrative, 1839,345.— Audubon, Orn. Biog. 
V, 1839, 68; pi. 398. 
Struthus oregonus, Bon. List, 1838.— Ib. Consp. 1850, 475.— Newberry, Zool. Cal. & Or. Route ; Rep. P. R. 
R. IV, iv, 1857, 88. 
Niphoea oregona, Audubon, Synopsis, 1839, 107.— Ib. Birds Amer. Ill, 1841, 91; pi. 168.— Cab. Mus. Hein. 
1851,134. 
Junco oregonus, Sclater, Pr. Zool. Soc. 1857, 7. — Baird, Gen. Rep. Birds, 466. 
Fringilla hudsonia, Licht Beit. Faun. Cal. in Abh. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, for 1838, 1839, 424. (Not F. hudsonia, 
Forster.) 
Sp. Ch. —Head and neck all round sooty black ; this color extending to the upper part of the breast, but not along the sides 
under the wings. Interscapular region of the back and exposed surface of the wings dark rufous brown. A lighter tint of 
the same on the sides of breast and belly. Rump brownish ash. Outer^two tail feathers white ; the third with only an ob¬ 
scure streak of white. Length, about 6 inches ; extent, 9 ; wing, 3.00. Iris brown ; bill pale pink in winter ; legs light brown. 
Hab. —Pacific coast of the United States to the eastern side of the Rocky mountains. Stragglers as far east as Fort Leaven¬ 
worth in winter and Great Bend of Missouri. 
The Oregon snow bird is a common species throughout the Territory, especially in winter, 
when it comes about houses and farms, with exactly the same habits as the common Atlantic 
species. In summer I have only seen it about Puget Sound, where it builds. I never could 
discover its nest, which is built in the forest, and on the ground, according to Nuttall. I 
noticed fledged young as early as May 24. At this season they are not gregarious, and frequent 
principally the edges of woods, having much the habits of the sparrows. —C. 
Extremely abundant throughout Washington and Oregon Territories, where it takes the same 
position as the J. hyernalis does in the eastern States. An individual obtained by me at Fort 
Steilacoom weighed exactly three drachms.—S. 
