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Several other birds were seen at this time, and many flying-fish fell into the ships. Next day there came a rabo de junco and an alcatraz from the westwards, and many sparrows were seen. About sunrise on Sunday the seventh of October, some signs of land appeared to the westwards, but being imperfect no person would mention the circumstance.
The sharp chirps of juncos are heard before the ice begins to form, and they stay with us all winter. We have called the junco a snowbird, but this name should really be confined to a black and white bunting which comes south only with a mid-winter's rush of snowflakes.
You know I am sometimes called the Snowbird." Peter nodded. "So I have heard," said he, "though I think that name really belongs to Snowflake the Snow Bunting." "Quite right, Peter, quite right," replied Slaty. "I much prefer my own name of Junco. My, these seeds are good!" All the time he was busily picking up seeds so tiny that Peter didn't even see them.
The vesper sparrow nests upon the ground in the open fields, but the junco chooses a mossy bank or tussock by the roadside, or in the woods, and constructs a very artistic nest of dry grass and hair which is so well hidden that the passer-by seldom detects it.
A rabo de junco likewise flew past; the currents for some of the last days were not so regular as before, but changed with the tide, and the weeds were not nearly so abundant.
The junco family, in their snug cave among the roots, so interesting to us but now, might all fly away; the oven-bird, in the little hollow beside the path, might finish her lace-lined domicile, and the shy tanager conclude to occupy the nest on the living arch from which we had frightened her, all without our being there to see.
One winter, during four or five weeks of severe weather, several of our winter birds were pensioners upon my bounty, three blue jays, two downy woodpeckers, three chickadees, and one kinglet, and later a snowbird junco appeared. I fastened pieces of suet and marrow-bones upon the tree in front of my window, then, as I sat at my desk, watched the birds at their free lunch.
Prairie Hen, 40; Mourning Dove, 2; Cooper's Hawk, 2; Red-tailed Hawk, 1; Red-shouldered Hawk, 1; American Rough-legged Hawk, 5; American Sparrow Hawk, 1; Short-eared Owl, 3; Screech Owl, 1; Northern Downy Woodpecker, 5; Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, 2; Northern Flicker, 2; Horned Lark, 60; Prairie Horned Lark, 30; Blue Jay, 15; Bronzed Crackle, 2; Lapland Longspur, 4; Tree Sparrow, 200; Junco, 100; Song Sparrow, 8; Swamp Sparrow, 2; Cardinal, 16; Brown Creeper, 1; White-breasted Nuthatch, 10; Red-breasted Nuthatch, 4; Tufted Titmouse, 30; Chickadee, 24; Golden-crowned Kinglet, 4.
A week later, after we had called as usual one morning and found the house empty, he brought his pretty snow-birdlings in their tidy striped bibs up to the grove at the back door, where we often heard his sharp trilling little song, and saw him working like some bigger papas to keep the dear clamorous mouths filled. The Junco neighborhood was a populous part of our calling district.
Friday the twenty-first another alcatraz and a rabo de junco were seen, and vast quantities of weeds as far as the eye could carry towards the north.
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