SPARROWS AND FINCHES 61 



These arc birds of the roadside and pasture, 

 common in summer throughout the Eastern 

 States. I have found them much more numerous 

 in the valleys of the Willowemoc and Neversink 

 in the Catskills than in Maine. They winter in 

 Central America. The nest of dead leaves, grass 

 and plant fibre is placed in the fork of a bush or 

 limb of a tree near the ground. The eggs are 

 bluish white. In size the Indigo Bunting is a 

 trifle smaller than the Song Sparrow. 



"Their coats are dappled white and brown 

 Like fields in winter weather, 

 But on the azure sky they float 

 Like snowflakes knit together.'* 



Thus sang Mr. Burroughs of the Snow Bunt- 

 ing or Snowflake, as it is so fittingly named, a 

 visitor that is always associated with snow- 

 drifts and winter weather. Down out of the 

 cheerless sky they swing, lighting in the weed 

 patches that still show above the drifts where 

 they feed as merrily as though this were their 

 choice of temperature. In fact one easily believes 

 they have a real aversion to warmth, for no 

 sooner is the breath of spring felt than away they 

 go to their summer haunts in the far north, 

 well up in the Arctic regions where they nest on 

 the ground. 



This is distinctly a bird of the open country 

 and rarely does one see them in a tree except 

 at night or ^during a severe storm, when they 

 seek shelter in the woods. They are ground 

 dwellers, where they are well protected by their 

 coloring. As they run about on the snow some 



