IO4 THE BIRDS ABOUT Us. 



spotted with rufous. So late as the fifteenth of August I have seen 

 them feeding their young that were scarcely able to fly." 



So far, so good ; but he did not follow the bird up 

 very closely, or he would have seen how very abun- 

 dant they are in localities that suit them, i.e., in the 

 Middle States, and that a considerable proportion 

 do not migrate at all. When, as sometimes happens, 

 we have no winter at all, these birds make their fa- 

 vorite haunts as lively in January as ever they do in 

 June. 



Another strictly migratory sparrow, and a very 

 prince among the tribe, is the large, beautiful Foxie 

 Finch. They come to the Middle States in October 

 and generally pass on southward, but occasionally 

 some remain. I know that in mild winters this is 

 true. At such times the little flocks are skulkers, 

 and have to be started up by throwing a stick into 

 the thicket, when they rise with quite a whirring of 

 the wings and twitter musically. Their single cheep 

 has a bell-like ring that fits well with the bright, crisp 

 air of a frosty October morning, and when a dozen 

 sound this note together the effect is very pleasing. 

 Their favorite haunts in autumn, and, indeed, also in 

 spring, are the old weed-tangled worm-fences, with 

 here and there a tree towering above it. The trees 

 do not figure in their history in October, but in 

 March, when they are northward bound for their far 

 Canadian homes, they are in an anticipatory frame 

 of mind, and often going well up towards the tops 

 of the trees, they sing an exultant song that is posi- 

 tively charming. William Brewster admirably de- 

 scribes it as a 



