FRINGILLID^E — THE FINCHES. 583 



Their food is small berries, seeds of grasses and small plants, insects, 

 and lar\'a?. They seek the latter on the gi'ound, and in the winter are said 

 to frequent the poultry-yards, and avail themselves of the services of the 

 fowls in turning up the earth. On the ground they hop about in a peculiar 

 manner, apparently without moving their feet. At night and during storms 

 they shelter themselves in the thick branches of evergreens, and also in 

 stacks of hay and piles of brushwood. 



During the winter the Snowbird appears to be rather more numerous in 

 the Middle and Southern States than in New England. In the former they 

 appear late in October, at first on the borders of woods, searching ibr food 

 among the fallen and decaying leaves. Later in the season, as the weather 

 becomes colder, and the snow deprives them of this means of feeding, 

 they resort to the roadsides and feed on the seeds of the taller weeds, 

 and to the farm-houses and farm-yards, 'and even enter within the limits of 

 large cities, where they become very tame and familiar. They are much 

 exposed to attacks from several kinds of Hawks, and the apparent timidity 

 they evince at certain times and places is due to their apprehensions of 

 this danger. The sudden rustle of the wings of a harmless fowl will cause 

 the whole Hock to take at once to flight, returning as soon as their alarm is 

 found to be needless, but repeated again and again when tlie same dreaded 

 sounds are heard. 



Neither Wilson, Nuttall, nor Audubon appear to have ever met with the 

 nests or eggs of this bird, though the first met with them breeding both 

 among the Alleghanies, in Virginia, and the highlands of Pennsylvania and 

 New York. In Otsego County, in the latter State, JMr. Edward Appleton 

 was the first to discover and identify their nest and eggs, as cited by jVIr. 

 Audubon in the third volume of his Birds of America. They w^ere found 

 in considerable numbers in tlie town of Otsego. Their nests were on 

 the ground in sheltered positions, some of them with covered entrances. 

 Their complement of eggs was four. One of their nests was sent me, and 

 was characteristic of all I have since seen, having an external diameter of 

 four and a half inches and a depth of two. The cavity was deep and capa- 

 cious for the bird. The base and periphery of the nest were made of slender 

 strips of bark, coarse straws, fine roots, and horsehair, lined with fine mosses 

 and the fur of smaller animals. The eggs were of a rounded-oval shape ; 

 their ground-color is a creamy yellowish-white, marked with spots and 

 blotches of a reddish-brown confluent around the larger portion of tlie egg, 

 but rarely covering either end. They measure .75 by .60 of an inch, not 

 varying in size from those of J. orcyonus. 



