THE SNOWFLAKE. 99 
but a bubonic plague scare operates very effectually to reduce their numbers. 
No doubt there will be English Sparrows in cities as long as there are brick- 
bats, but a clear recognition of their detestable qualities should lead every 
sensible person to deny them victuals and shelter. The House Sparrow is no 
longer exterminable, but he may be, must be kept within bounds. 
No. 36. 
SNOWFLAKE. 
A. O. U. No. 534. Plectrophenax nivalis (Linn.) 
Synonym.—Swnow Bunrvine. 
Description.—Adult male in summer: Pure white save for bill, feet, middle 
of back, scapulars, bastard wing, the end half of primaries and inner secondaries, 
and the middle tail-feathers, which are black. Female in summer: Similar, but 
upperparts streaked all over with black, and the black wings largely replaced 
by fuscous. Adults in winter: Entire upperparts overcast with browns—rusty 
or seal brown—clear on crown, grayish and mottled with dusky centers of 
feathers on back, scapulars, etc.; also rusty ear-patches, and a rusty collar, with 
faint rusty wash on sides. The black of wing and tail-feathers is less pure 
(fuscous in the female) and edged with white or tawny. Length 6.50-7.00 
(165.1-177.8) ; wing 4.12 (104.6) ; tail 2.54 (64.5); bill .40 (10.2). 
Recognition Marks.—Sparrow size; conspicuously and uniquely white, with 
blacks and browns above. 
Nesting.—Does not breed in Washington. “Nest: on the ground in the 
sphagnum and tussocks of Arctic regions, of a great quantity of grass and moss, 
lined profusely with feathers. Eggs: 4-6, very variable in size and color, about 
.go x .65 (22.9 x 16.5), white or whitish, speckled, veined, blotched, and marbled 
with deep browns and neutral tints” (Coues.). 
General Range.—‘‘Northern parts of the northern hemisphere, breeding in 
the Arctic regions; in North America south in winter into the northern United 
States, irregularly to Georgia, southern Illinois, Kansas and Oregon.” 
Range in Washington.—East-side, of regular occurrence in open country ; 
casual west of the Cascades. 
Migrations.—Nov. 4, 1899 (Yakima County). March 17, 1896 (Okanogan 
County). 
Authorities.—[“Snow Bunting,” Johnson, Rep. Gov. W. T. 1884 (1885), 
22,| Dawson, Auk, XIV. 1897, 178. T. Dt. D2. B. E. 
Specimens.—(U. of W.) Prov. B. E. P. 
I WELL remember my first meeting with this prince of storm waifs, 
the Snowflake. It was in Chelan County on a chilly day in December. A 
distant-faring, feathered stranger had tempted me across a bleak pasture, 
when all at once a fluttering snowdrift, contrary to Nature’s wont, rose from 
