126 STOEIES OF BIRD LIFE 



And so it is that when the autumn days come, and the 

 nights grow frosty, when the leaves are red and gold on 

 all the trees, and the flocks of cedar waxwings come to feed 

 on the berries of the black gum and the mistletoe, I look 

 for the first snowbirds to appear along the borders of the 

 woodland. 



It is usually near to November when we first see them in 

 central Carolina. This year I went into the woods and 

 fields looking for the snowbirds, as is my custom, on Octo- 

 ber fifteenth, and continued to go each day thereafter until 

 they came. It was not until the evening of the twenty- 

 eighth that I was rewarded for my watchfulness. While 

 returning home a little before sundown, four birds flew up 

 from among the weeds at the roadside where they had been 

 feeding, and perched in some cedars near by. They posi- 

 tively refused a closer inspection and my inquisitiveness 

 soon caused them to fly away. By the glimpse I had, and 

 by their notes, I knew them to be snowbirds, the first of the 

 season. They were of the species called eastern snow- 

 bird, or Junco liy emails. Two days later others were seen, 

 and by the time a week elapsed they had become abundant. 



During the winter they are one of the most character- 

 istic and abundant species of birds which inhabit our 

 dooryards and fields and woods. They keep together in 

 flocks, sometimes fifty or a hundred being seen at a time. 



