20 



BIRDS OF AMERICA 



dusky. Adult Female in Winter: Similar to sum- 

 mer female, but upper parts stained with rusty brown, 

 especially on crown, ear region, and sides of chest, 

 and margins to feathers of back, etc., paler, broader, 

 and more buffy or buffy grayish ; bill, yellowish. 

 Young: Head, neck, back, shoulders, and rump, 

 brownish gray tinged with olive, the back streaked 

 with dusky ; front under parts paler gray than upper 

 parts, the chest and sides of breast usually very faintly 

 streaked with dusky ; under parts of body, mainly 

 white, usually tinged with pale olive-yellowisli : wings 

 and tail, much as in winter adults. 



Nest and Eggs. — Nest : On the ground in grassy 

 tussocks ; a large, well built structure, exteriorly com- 

 posed of dried grass, moss woven into thick walls, the 



small, deep center thickly feathered. Eggs : 4 to 6, 

 white or pale greenish white, spotted with raw umber 

 and lavender. 



Distribution. — Northern parts of Europe, .i^sia, and 

 North America ; breeding in arctic and subarctic 

 districts ; in North America breeding on the barren- 

 ground or tundra region from northern Labrador to 

 ."Maska, north and east of the coast ranges, and north 

 to islands of Arctic Ocean (at least to latitude 82°) ; 

 m winter south to more northern United States, irregu- 

 larly to District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, southern 

 Ohio, southern Indiana, Kansas, Colorado, northern 

 California, and eastern Oregon; casually to the Ber- 

 mudas : south in .'\sia to northern Japan and 

 China. 



When the polar explorers have pushed far 

 beyond the Eskimo villages and out into the 

 wastes where the musk-ox and blue fox live, 

 there they find the Snow Bunting or Snowflake 



the first sign of advancing spring will send 



theni on their long flights far across Canada to 



areas little known and to some not yet explored. 



While flying, the members of the flock keep up 



^^- 



TimM. by R. L Brasher 



SNOW BUNTING (J nat. size) 

 A hardy and beautiful winter visitor from the aorthland 



in his nesting home, .\cross the ])olar islands 

 along the northern shore of Alaska and only as 

 far south as the bleak and inhospitable shores of 

 Hudson's Bay, these birds may be found in the 

 breeding season. Only in the depth of winter 

 do they drift on down into the northern United 

 States to haunt the snow-swept hillsides of the 

 farms, and the bleak and stormy shores of New 

 England at their bleakest and stormiest season. 

 They are so much whiter than other Sparrows 

 that they seem indeed like animated gusts of 

 arctic weather as they pass along over the 

 ground, the rear birds drifting on over to the 

 front of the advancing ranks. Many a person 

 muffled to the eyes in a cold winter's sleigh ride 

 has seen the Snowflakes feeding cheerily and by 

 choice out in the bitter biting zero weather of 

 wind-swept fields. Sometimes, indeed, they will 

 straggle far south, even to the Gulf coast, but 



a tinkling whistle, a note that has been likened to 

 the syllable tec repeated at intervals by the 

 various members of the flock ; when disturbed, 

 they utter a harsh hccz-hccz. What sweet, 

 weird song they sing to the sunrise of the morn- 

 ing of the six-months arctic day, the explorers 

 have yet to tell us. Dr. Elliott Coues gives an 

 interesting account of these birds at Fort Ran- 

 dall on the Missouri River, some distance above 

 Yankton (Birds of the Nortlncest.) The Snow- 

 flakes "reached Fort Randall November 15. 

 after a severe cold snap with a light snow-fall, 

 and as I write (January), great numbers are 

 swirling over the ground around and in the 

 fort. They keep pretty closely in flocks num- 

 bering from a dozen or so to several hundred, 

 and, though they spread over the ground a good 

 deal in running about after seeds, they fly com- 

 pactly, and wheel all together. In their evolu- 



