times a thousand are seen in the old fields and meadows. It is
unusual, though it has been known to breed in the Northern States. In
July, 1831, Audubon found it nesting in the White Mountains, and Dr.
J. A. Allen notes a pair as breeding near Springfield, Mass. The
Arctic regions are its nesting place however, and these birds were
probably belated on their return migration. The Snowflake and
Shorelark are so much alike in habits, that the two species
occasionally associate. Ernest E. Thompson says: "Apparently the
Snowflakes get but little to eat, but in reality they always find
enough to keep them in health and spirits, and are as fat as butter
balls. In the mid-winter, in the far north, when the thermometer
showed thirty degrees below zero, and the chill blizzard was blowing
on the plains, I have seen this brave little bird gleefully chasing
his fellows, and pouring out, as he flew, his sweet voluble song with
as much spirit as ever Skylark has in the sunniest days of June."

[Illustration: From col. F. M. Woodruff.
JUNCO.
Copyrighted by Nature Study Pub. Co., 1897, Chicago.]

THE SLATE-COLORED JUNCO.

Black snowbird, in most of the United States and in Ontario, where it
is a common resident, and White Bill, are names more often applied to
this species of Sparrow than the one of Junco, by which it is known to
ornithologists. It nests in the mountains of northern Pennsylvania,
New York, and New England, and is a resident throughout the year in
northeastern Ohio, and in Michigan. In all probability, the Snowbird
does not breed, even occasionally, anywhere within the limits of the
state of Illinois, though individuals may in very rare instances be
found several weeks after others have departed for the north, these
having probably received some injury which prevents their migration.
Prof. Forbes refers to such an instance, which came under his own
observation. He saw on a tree in the edge of a wood, in the southern
part of the state, an adult specimen of the Junco, and only one,
which, he says, astonished him.

Mr. William L. Kells states that in Ontario this Junco selects a
variety of places for nesting sites, such as the upturned roots of
trees, crevices in banks, under the sides of logs and stumps, a cavity
under broken sod, or in the shelter of grass or other vegetation. The
nest is made of dry grasses, warmly and smoothly lined with hair. The
bird generally begins to nes