218 CITIZEN BIBB 



" Running lightly over uneven hummocks of grass 

 are plump, roly-poly, black-and-white birds, with soft 

 musical voices and the gentlest possible manners. They 

 may have already brought out one brood in thick, deep 

 grassy nests, well lined with rabbit fur or Snow Owl 

 feathers, that they know so well how to tuck under 

 a protecting ledge of rock or bunch of grass. Now 

 and then a male Snowflake will take a little flight and 

 sing as merrily as his cousin the Goldfinch, but he never 

 stays long away from the ground where seeds are to be 

 found. 



" The white feathers of these birds are as soft as 

 their friend the snow, of Avhich they seem a part. They 

 have more wliite about them than any other color, and 

 this snowy plumage marks them distinctly from all 

 their Sparrow cousins. After the moult, when a Avarm 

 brown hue veils the white feathers, and the short 

 northern summer has ended, the birds flock together 

 for their travels. When they will visit us no one can 

 say ; they come and go, as if driven by the wind. 



" A soft clinging December snowstorm begins, and 

 suddenly you will wonder at a cloud of brown, snow- 

 edged leaves that settle on a bare spot in the road, then 

 whirl up and, clearing the high fence, drop into the 

 shelter of the barnyard. 



" ' How very strange,' 3'ou will say ; ' these leaves 

 act as if they were bewitched.' You look again, and 

 rub your eyes ; for these same whirling winter leaves 

 are now walking about the yard, picking up grass-seed 

 and grain under the very nose of the cross old rooster 

 himself ! Then you discover that tliey are not leaves 

 at all, but plump little birds who, if they could speak, 



