THE PERCHING BIRDS. lot 



wandered over a pretty high hill in North Carolina, and 

 found many snow-birds about the bushes lining the 

 rough mountain road. They appeared to be all sing- 

 ing, and made a ringing clatter that drowned other 

 bird-voices deeper in the woods. Singling out sepa- 

 rate birds, I heard two long-drawn and clearly-uttered 

 notes that preceded the twitter, and if it had been 

 in November and at my Jersey home, I should have 

 translated it as " Snow's coming, 'tis, 'tis, 'tis" But 

 here there was no sign of winter. The ground was 

 pink with blooming arbutus, the air heavy with odor 

 and the hum of bees. I was told these snow-birds 

 remained all summer, and their singing meant 

 " Spring's coming," and not the approach of a snow- 

 storm. Occasionally, since then, I have heard in 

 midwinter a song of this bird that was even of fuller 

 volume. 



In the Song-sparrow we have a resident species 

 in the Middle States, but one that is migratory in 

 the northern parts of the country; as, for instance, 

 when " it arrives at St. John, New Brunswick, during 

 the second week in April in immense flocks, and is 

 usually accompanied by similar flocks of Robins and 

 Juncos (snow-birds)." I would that we could speak 

 of " immense flocks" of these birds here in the Mid- 

 dle States. Abundant, widely spread, and a feature 

 of the whole year, and yet there was never enough 

 of them. Unfortunately, too, the English sparrow 

 has in a great measure driven them away from our 

 town and the immediate surroundings of our country 

 houses. I always associate the song-sparrow with a 

 gooseberry-hedge, a dilapidated, lichen-coated paling, 

 9* 



