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1924] Swarth: Birds and Mammals of the Skeena River Region — 355

Junco hyemalis connectens Coues. Cassiar Junco

There were a few of this species breeding in Kispiox Valley,
twenty-three miles north of Hazelton, the extreme southern limit of
the breeding range. Junco oreganus shufeldti was the common species,
present in large numbers, but at least two pairs of connectens were
observed, and they were evidently nesting. An adult male (no. 24313)
was taken on June 22, and an adult female (no. 42314) with a juvenile
(no. 42315) on July 9.

TI expected to find connectens appearing in numbers at the begin-
ning of the fall migration, but the slate-colored juncos that were
collected at that time are nearly all like typical hyemalis rather than
like our Stikine River series of connectens (see Swarth, 1922, p. 243).
One specimen (no. 42326), an immature male taken in Kispiox Valley,
September 13, does appear to be connectens. The female of that form
frequently is so much like female shufeldti in appearance that the two
are distinguished in life with difficulty, which may be one reason why
specimens were not taken.

Junco oreganus shufeldti Coale. Shufeldt Junco

Abundant nearly everywhere. On May 26, at Hazelton, a nest was
found with eges just hatching; on June 6 the first young were seen
fying about. On July 19 a nest was found, just finished but with
no eggs as vet, an unusually late date. On Nine-mile Mountain
(July 21 to August 13) a great many juncos were seen, mostly spotted
young, frequenting the open slopes and basins immediately above
timber line. By the first week in September the molt had been accom-
plished by most of the jnneos and they were then gathered in flocks
of from ten to twenty birds. They were present, though in diminished
numbers, when I left, the last week in September.

Fifty-four specimens collected (nos. 42327-42380) : eight breeding
adults (seven males and one female), seventeen in juvenal plumage
or undergoing the post-juvenal molt, three adult males and one adult
female in winter plumage, and twelve males and thirteen females in
immature (first winter) plumage.

This series from the Hazelton rezion may be taken as representa-
tive of conditions at the northwestern limit of the subspecies shufeldtt.
Breeding birds show a tendency toward Junco hyemalis connectens,
of the country immediately to the northward, exhibited mostly in the
grayer dorsum. The flocks of birds in fresh fall plumage yielded no

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Sears

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