THE WINTER BIRDS. 279 



considers them more numerous than any other species 

 on the American continent, swarming in multitudes over 

 all the country down to the borders of the Gulf of 

 Mexico. It is a marvel to him, therefore, that no part 

 of these immense hosts should remain in the summer to 

 breed at a latitude below that of 45° or 50°, except in 

 the high mountain-ranges. They have many of the habits 

 of the common Hairbird, which is by some of our coun- 

 trymen supposed to be the same species, changed in ap- 

 pearance by the winter. Like the Hairbird, they assemble 

 round our houses and barns, picking up seeds or crumbs 

 of bread and other fragments of food. 



They differ entirely from the Buntings, which, for dis- 

 tinction, are called White Snowbirds. They are quite 

 equal to them in their power of enduring the cold and 

 in sustaining the force of a tempest. During a snow- 

 storm they may often be seen sporting as it w^ere in the 

 very whirlpool of driving snows, and alighting upon the 

 tall wxeds and sedges, and eagerly gathering their pro- 

 ducts. The Hempbird will sometimes join their parties, 

 and his cheerful and well-known twitter may be heard, 

 as he hurriedly flits from one bush to another, hunting 

 for the seeds of goldenrods and asters. The cause of the 

 migration of these birds from their native north is not 

 probably the severe cold of those regions, but the deep 

 snows that bury up their cereal stores at an early season. 

 They live upon seeds ; hence tlieir forages are made chiefly 

 in tilled lands, where weeds afford them an abundant har- 

 vest. The negligence of the tiller of the soil is therefore 

 a great gain to the small birds, by leaving a supply of 

 seeds in the annual grasses, that grow thriftily with his 

 crops. 



Early in the spring the little Blue Snowbirds again 

 appear, but are not so familiar as in the beginning of 

 winter. They are often seen in a thicket in companies. 



