VESPER SPARROW; BAY-WING 285 



so much in a week as these birds in a day. They hardly 

 notice me as they come on. Indeed, the flock, flyinj^ 

 about as high as my head, divides, and half passes 

 on each side of me. Thus they sport over these broad 

 meadows of ice this pleasant winter day. The spiders lie 

 torpid and plain to see on the snow, and if it is they 

 that they are after they never know what kills them. 



Jan. 3, 1860. Saw four snow buntings by the railroad 

 causeway, just this side the cut, quite tame. They arose 

 and alighted on the rail fence as we went by. Very 

 stout for their length. Look very pretty when they fly 

 and reveal the clear white space on their wings next the 

 body, — white between the blacks. They were busily 

 eating the seed of the piper grass on the embankment 

 there, and it was strewn over the snow by them like oats 

 in a stable. Melvin speaks of seeing flocks of them on 

 the river meadows in the fall, when they are of a dififer- 

 ent color. 



\^See also under Vesper Sparrow, below; General 

 and Miscellaneous, p. 431.] 



VESPER SPARROW ; GRASS FINCH ; BAY- WING 



Jan. 1, 1854. The white-in-tails, or grass finches, 

 linger pretty late, flitting in flocks before, but they come 

 so near winter only as the white in their tail indicates. 

 They let it come near enough to whiten their tails, per- 

 chance, and they are off. The snow buntings and the 

 tree sparrows are the true spirits of the snow-storm ; 

 they are the animated beings that ride upon it and have 

 their life in it. 



July 15, 1854. I hear a bay-wing on the wall near 



