A gray, slate-colored field of oats invited her steps, and across this stretch she saw a long yellow slope of barley, where the men were cutting.

At the carry-man's camp I saw many little birds, brownish and yellowish, with some white tail-feathers, hopping on the wood-pile, in company with the slate-colored snow-bird, (Fringilla hiemalis,) but more familiar than they.

Adj. gray, grey; iron-gray, dun, drab, dingy, leaden, livid, somber, sad, pearly, russet, roan; calcareous, limy, favillous^; silver, silvery, silvered; ashen, ashy; cinereous^, cineritious^; grizzly, grizzled; slate-colored, stone-colored, mouse-colored, ash-colored; cool.

El Marques, a sprightly dog, and a great slate-colored cat, took possession of my legs, and begged for a share of every mouthful I took, while old Mateo sat beside me, rejoicing in the flavor of a Gibraltar cigar which I gave him.

From the southwest billowy masses of slate-colored clouds came rolling on, obscuring the sunlit landscape beneath with an effect of lights turned down on a stage.

Their black and gray slate-colored bodies lay inert in folds, as if they had gathered for a night's good slumber, and not until Raiere, with unerring aim thrust the great spear, with its half-dozen points of iron, into one of them, did the others scatter in a mad swim for safety.

=The Two Thieves= A lady, they called her Miss Mouse, In a slate-colored dress, like a Quaker, Once lived in a snug little house, Of which she herself was the maker.

CHAPTER XIII A VANISHING DIPLOMAT Ned turned to the Captain as the men in slate-colored robes lifted their hands after the manner of fake mystics the world over.

As soon as the door was closed the alleged priest threw aside his slate-colored robe, snatched a wig and beard from his head and face, and stood forth a handsome man, dressed in the costume of a modern Englishman or American.

They differ entirely from the Buntings in their appearance, the latter being called White Snow-Birds, to distinguish them from the others, which are slate-colored.

Gray below, more slate-colored on the breast, with a pure white throat, which is bounded by little black streaks.

THE SLATE-COLORED JUNCO (THE SNOWBIRD) "Here we have a northern winter birdor, at least, one that we associate with winter and call the Snowbird; for everybody sees him on his autumn and winter travels, and knows his Sparrow-like call-note, while his summer home is so far north or so high on mountains that few visit him in the tangled woodlands where he sings a pretty trilling song to his mate.

[Illustration: Slate-Colored Junco.]

" The Slate-colored Junco Length about six inches.

Upper parts slate-colored, with black head, wings, and tail; a white band at the end of the tail, and a flaming orange spot on the crown.

Slate-colored Junco Jun'co hiema'lis.