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Sept (To Nov Mch to Apl)

20 to Nov. 25; Mch. 20 to Apl. 20.

Nest, of grasses, moss, and rootlets, lined with fine grasses and long hairs, on or near the ground. Eggs, four to five, white or bluish white, finely and evenly speckled or spotted, sometimes heavily blotched, at the larger end with rufous-brown, 76 x 58.

When the snow begins to fly you will look out some gray morning to find a flock of small, plump, slate-colored birds hopping about the dooryard, picking up what they can find, or sitting in the bushes with an air of contentment that it is pleasant to see.

Coming, as they do, when most of the home birds have left for the south, they bring their own welcome, and soon seem like old friends. But if you would really know your gentle winter visitors, you must go back into the woods when summer comes and find them in their own homes.

Look for them in a tangle of fallen tree-tops, logs, and upturned roots. A pair I once surprised in such a place at first sat and chirped at me-with bills full of food-but soon they were flying freely back and forth to the upturned root where they had hidden their nest. I noticed with surprise that their gray plumage toned in so well with the dark earth that they were hard to see. The sharp horizontal line across the breast where the gray turns abruptly to white added to the disguise, the straight line breaking the round form of the bird. The 'tsip of the Junco is unmistakable and more often heard than FINCHES, SPARROWS, ETC. his song, but he has both a trill and a low, sweet song as unpretentious and cheery as the friendly bird himself.