This species was observed by Mr. Aiken in Colorado Territory for about three weeks following March 20, after which they were seen no more.
It breeds more or less abundantly in the northern and eastern portions of Maine. About Calais and in all the islands of the Bay of Fundy, and throughout New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, I found this by far the most common and familiar species, especially at Pictou, where it abounded in the gardens, in repeated instances coming within the outbuildings to build its nests. In a woodshed connected with the dwelling of Mr. Dawson, my attention was called to the nests of several of these birds, built within reach of the hand, and in places where the family were passing and repassing throughout the day. In Pictou they were generally called the Bluebird by the common people. On my ride from Halifax to Pictou, I also found these birds breeding by the roadside, often under the shelter of a projecting bank, in the manner of the Passerculus savanna. I afterward found them nesting in similar situations among the White Mountains, the roadsides seeming to be a favorite situation. In habits and notes, at Pictou, they reminded me of the common Spizella socialis, but were, if anything, more fearless and confiding, coming into the room where the family were at their meals, and only flying away when they had secured a crumb of sufficient size.
In Western Massachusetts they breed in all parts of the range of Green Mountains, from Blandford to North Adams. They appear about Springfield in October and November, and are for a while abundant, and are then gone until March, when they return in full song, and remain numerous into April, and less common until into May. In the eastern part of the State they are found from October to late in May, with some irregularity and in varying numbers. Mr. Audubon did not meet with any on the coast of Labrador, and Dr. Coues did not find them so abundant as he expected, and did not observe any until the latter part of July, at which time the young were already hatched, and they were associated in small companies. They kept entirely in the thick woods, and seemed rather timid.
Their food is small berries, seeds of grasses and small plants, insects, and larvæ. They seek the latter on the ground, and in the winter are said to frequent the poultry-yards, and avail themselves of the services of the fowls in turning up the earth. On the ground they hop about in a peculiar manner, apparently without moving their feet. At night and during storms they shelter themselves in the thick branches of evergreens, and also in stacks of hay and piles of brushwood.
During the winter the Snowbird appears to be rather more numerous in the Middle and Southern States than in New England. In the former they appear late in October, at first on the borders of woods, searching for food among the fallen and decaying leaves. Later in the season, as the weather becomes colder, and the snow deprives them of this means of feeding, they resort to the roadsides and feed on the seeds of the taller weeds, and to the farm-houses and farm-yards, and even enter within the limits of large cities, where they become very tame and familiar. They are much exposed to attacks from several kinds of Hawks, and the apparent timidity they evince at certain times and places is due to their apprehensions of this danger. The sudden rustle of the wings of a harmless fowl will cause the whole flock to take at once to flight, returning as soon as their alarm is found to be needless, but repeated again and again when the same dreaded sounds are heard.
Neither Wilson, Nuttall, nor Audubon appear to have ever met with the nests or eggs of this bird, though the first met with them breeding both among the Alleghanies, in Virginia, and the highlands of Pennsylvania and New York. In Otsego County, in the latter State, Mr. Edward Appleton was the first to discover and identify their nest and eggs, as cited by Mr. Audubon in the third volume of his Birds of America. They were found in considerable numbers in the town of Otsego. Their nests were on the ground in sheltered positions, some of them with covered entrances. Their complement of eggs was four. One of their nests was sent me, and was characteristic of all I have since seen, having an external diameter of four and a half inches and a depth of two. The cavity was deep and capacious for the bird. The base and periphery of the nest were made of slender strips of bark, coarse straws, fine roots, and horsehair, lined with fine mosses and the fur of smaller animals. The eggs were of a rounded-oval shape; their ground-color is a creamy yellowish-white, marked with spots and blotches of a reddish-brown confluent around the larger portion of the egg, but rarely covering either end. They measure .75 by .60 of an inch, not varying in size from those of J. oregonus.
Junco hyemalis, var. aikeni, Ridgway.
WHITE-WINGED SNOWBIRD.
Sp. Char. Generally similar to J. hyemalis, but considerably larger, with more robust bill; two white bands on the wing, and three, instead of two, outer tail-feathers entirely white. No. 61,302 ♂, El Paso Co., Colorado, December 11, 1871, C. E. Aiken: Head, neck, jugulum, and entire upper parts clear ash; the back with a bluish tinge; the lores, quills, and tail-feathers darker; middle and secondary wing-coverts rather broadly tipped with white, forming two conspicuous bands. Lower part of the breast, abdomen, and crissum pure white, the anterior outline against the ash of the jugulum convex; sides tinged with ash. Three lateral tail-feathers entirely white, the third, however, with a narrow streak of dusky on the terminal third of the outer web; the next feather mostly plumbeous, with the basal fourth of the outer web, and the terminal half of the inner, along the shaft, white. Wing, 3.40; tail, 3.20; culmen, .50; depth of bill at base, .30; tarsus, .80.
Hab. El Paso County, Colorado.