282 NOTES ON NEW ENGLAND BIRDS 



Jan. 6, 1859. Near Nut Meadow Brook, on the Jimmy 

 Miles road, I see a flock of snow buntings. They are 

 feeding exclusively on . . . Roman wormwood. Their 

 tracks where they sink in the snow are very long, i. e., 

 have a very long heel, thus : 



or sometimes almost in a single straight line. They made 

 notes when they went, — sharp, rippling, like a vibrat- 

 ing spring. They had run about to every such such \_sic\^ 

 leaving distinct tracks raying from and to them, while 

 the snow immediately about the weed was so tracked and 

 pecked where the seeds fell that no track was distinct. 











And much more tracked up 



March 3, 1859. Going by the solidago oak ^ at Clam- 

 shell Hill bank, I heard a faint rippling note and, look- 

 ing up, saw about fifteen snow buntings sitting in the 

 top of the oak, all with their breasts toward me, — 

 sitting so still and quite white, seen against the white 

 cloudy sky, they did not look like birds but the ghosts 

 of birds, and their boldness, allowing me to come quite 

 ^ [A particular tree bo named by Thoreau.] 



