SONG-BIRDS. Snowflake 



Breeds : In the Ai'ctic regions. 



Nest: Thickly lined with feathers set in a tussock. 



Eggs : 4-6, variable in size and colour, whitisli speckled with neutral 

 tints. 



Bange : Northern parts of the Northern Hemisphere. In North 

 America, south in winter into the northern United States, irreg- 

 ularly to Georgia, southern Illinois, and Kansas. 



A bird well named, for the Snowflake, hurried from the 

 north by fierce winds and w^eather, comes to ns out of the 

 snow-clouds. Travelling in great flocks, which are de- 

 scribed as numbering sometimes a thousand, they settle 

 down upon the old fields and upland meadows, subsisting 

 upon various seeds. Their winter plumage, by which we 

 alone know them, is exquisitely soft and beautiful, and the 

 birds themselves have a w^onderfully mild and spiritual 

 expression as if they had come from an unknown region, 

 and craved a little food and shelter, but conscious that Avhile 

 here they are the veriest birds of passage. 



Though a native of Arctic latitudes. Snow-flakes, belated 

 on their return migration, have been knowai to breed in the 

 Northern States. In July, 1831, Audubon found a couple 

 nesting in the White Mountains, and Dr. J. A. Allen notes 

 a pair as breeding near Springfield, Mass. In its home it is 

 said to have a cheerful inspiriting song, but here we only 

 know its Sparrow-like call note. 



The Snow-flake is very capricious in its visits, as are, in 

 fact, all the winter birds along the Connecticut shore of the 

 Sound. An easterly wind prevailing for several days drives 

 them two or three miles inland behind the Greenfield ridge 

 of hills. During the snowy winter of 1893-94 not a single 

 flock appeared, though the weather was evenly cold and 

 marked by northeasterly storms. On February 15, 1894, 

 — one of the only days of the season when there was suffi- 

 cient snow for sleighing, a day with heavy, drifting clouds 

 and wind gusts which scattered the loose snow so suddenly 

 that it was driven with the sharpness of sand, — I drove for 

 several miles along the road that separates the shore and 

 marshes from cultivation, and "was rew^arded by seeing Gulls, 



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