AMEFdCAN ORNITHOLOGY. 201 



blasts of Winter. They usually do not appear along the northern bor- 

 ders of civilization until well aloug in November and are found in the 

 northern tier of states at intervals during December, January and Feb- 

 ruary. During exceptionally severe winters they are sometimes found 

 as far south as Georgia and Kansas. 



Like the White-winged Crossbills, they are birds of very uncertain 

 occurance and where they are common during one season not a single 

 flock may be seen the next. They are met with on open side hills and 

 meadows where they feed upon seeds of the numerous weeds whose 

 heads penetrate the crust of the snow. While very restless and apt to 

 take wing at any instant and without cause, they are not exceptionally 

 timid and are usually not alarmed by the presence of mankind. It is a 

 beautiful sight to watch a large flock foraging upon their snowy table, 

 some of them swaying on the tops of the slender stalks while the ma- 

 jority stand upon the snow, no whiter than their own coat, and reach 

 all the seeds that their short stature will permit and then pull the head 

 of the weed over toward them and gather in the rest. Ever and anon, 

 apparently startled by a sudden gust or flurry of the light snow the 

 whole flock will rise as if with one Impulse and immediately settle 

 down a few feet farther on. I have approached to within ten feet of a 

 flock when busy gaining their apparently meagre fare without alarming 

 them. They are usually silent while feeding but have a peculiar and 

 distinctive whistle when on the wing. They rise very suddenly, fly in a 

 compact body and change the course of their flig-it very often and spas- 

 modically as though they knew not whither they were going and as 

 often as not they will return and alight at the very spot that they had 

 just left. 



By the end of February, these flocks which number from a dozen in- 

 dividuals to, sometimes, thousands commence to disappear from their 

 winter quarters and but few bands of them are left in March. They 

 migrate northward beyond the limit of trees and to islands in the Arctic 

 Ocean, where, undisturbed by man they lay their eggs and rear their 

 young. 



Snowflakes change their plumage twice during each year. During 

 the fall moult the feathers are shed gradually and new ones grow to 

 take their places but in the spring the change is by abrasion, that is the 

 edges of the feathers wear away or fall off. If you examine asDCcimen 

 in the winter plumage you will see that the bases of all the back 

 feathers are black and that only the tips are white or rusty, while those 

 on the top and sides of head and breast have white bases and brownish 

 tips. By the wearing away of these edges the entire head, neck and 

 underparts become snowy white while the back and part of the wings 



