BIRD BIOGRAPHIES 



known, except that it makes a feather-lined nest on the 

 ground, in which it rears four or five young on a diet 

 which probably consists principally of insects. After the 

 breeding season, however, a buffy brown comes mixed 

 with the black and white, and the birds assume a more 

 sparrowlike aspect. They migrate southward with the 

 first severe cold weather, some of them coming as far south 

 as the northern half of the United States, where their ap- 

 pearance is regarded as a sure sign that winter has begun in 

 earnest. Often a flock of a thousand will come with a 

 blizzard, the thermometer registering 30° to 40° below 

 zero; and in their circling, swirling flight, as they are 

 borne along by the blast, they might well be mistaken at a 

 distance for veritable snowflakes. They settle in the open 

 fields and along railroad tracks, where they secure some 

 food from hayseed, grain that has sifted out of the grain 

 cars, and seeds of weeds that grow along the tracks. Here 

 they remain until April, when, in obedience to the migrat- 

 ing instinct, they journey north to nest on the treeless 

 plains of the arctic regions. 



"The snowflake diff"ers from many other winter spar- 

 rows, such as the tree sparrow, junco, and white-throated 

 sparrow, in that its flocks act more nearly as units, the 

 alarm of a single member causing the whole flock to whirl 

 up into the air and be off". A further difference may be 

 noted in its strictly terrestrial habits. When not flying, it 

 is almost invariably found on the ground; and when it 

 does happen to alight in a tree, awkward wobblings betray 

 its discomfort. Where the feeding conditions are favor- 

 able, immense flocks of snowflakes may be seen apparentlji 

 rolling like a cloud across the land, this curious effect be- 



[32] 



