336 HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 



and her fostered chickens, they roost together in a 

 close ring or company, by the mere edge of some 

 sheltering weed or tuft of grass on the dry and gravelly 

 ground ; and, thickly and warmly clad, they abide the 

 frost and the storm with hardy indifference. They 

 fly rather high and loose, in scattered companies, and 

 follow no regular time of migration, but move onward 

 only as their present resources begin to fail. They 

 are usually fat, esteemed as food, and are frequently 

 seen exposed for sale in our markets. Their diet, as 

 usual, consists of various kinds of seeds which still 

 remain on the grass and weeds they frequent, and 

 they swallow a considerable portion of gravel to assist 

 their digestion. They also collect the eggs and larvae 

 of insects when they fall in their way. 



The Snow Bunting (Emberiza nivalis), and the 

 Red-winged Blackbird or Troopial (Icterus phoeni- 

 ceus^ are found in various parts of California. 



The Red-winged Troopial in summer inhabits the 

 whole of North America from Nova Scotia to Mexico, 

 and is found in the interior from the 53d degree across 

 the whole continent to the shores of the Pacific and 

 along the coast as far as California. They are migra 

 tory north of Maryland, but pass the winter and sum 

 mer in great numbers in all the southern States, 

 frequenting chiefly the settlements and rice and corn 

 fields, towards the sea-coast, where they move about 

 like blackening clouds, rising suddenly at times with 

 a noise like thunder, and exhibiting amidst the broad 

 shadows of their funeral plumage, the bright flashing 

 of the vermilion with which their wings are so singu 

 larly decorated. After whirling and waving a little 

 distance, like the starling, they descend as a torrent, 

 and darkening the branches of the trees by their num- 



