294 NOTES ON NEW ENGLAND BIRDS 



on the hillside below the Dutch house. They are flit- 

 ting along one at a time, their feet commonly sunk in 

 the snow, uttering occasionally a low sweet warble and 

 seemingly as happy there, and with this wintry prospect 

 before them for the night and several months to come, 

 as any man by his fireside. One occasionally hops or 

 flies toward another, and the latter suddenly jerks away 

 from him. They are reaching or hopping up to the fine 

 grass, or oftener picking the seeds from the snow. At 

 length the whole ten have collected within a space a 

 dozen feet square, but soon after, being alarmed, they 

 utter a different and less musical chirp and flit away 

 into an apple tree. 



March 20, 1858. A. M. — By river. 



The tree sparrow is perhaps the sweetest and most 

 melodious warbler at present and for some days. It is 

 peculiar, too, for singing in concert along the hedge- 

 rows, much like a canary, especially in the mornings. 

 Very clear, sweet, melodious notes, between a twitter 

 and a warble, of which it is hard to catch the strain, 

 for you commonly hear many at once. 



Dec. 17, 1859. I see on the pure white snow what 

 looks like dust for half a dozen inches under a twig. 

 Looking closely, I find that the twig is hardback and 

 the dust its slender, light-brown, chaffy-looking seed, 

 which falls still in copious showers, dusting the snow, 

 when I jar it ; and here are the tracks of a sparrow * 

 which has jarred the twig and picked the minute seeds 

 a long time, making quite a hole in the snow. The seeds 

 are so fine that it must have got more snow than seed at 

 ^ [Very likely the tree sparrow, which feeds largely on weed seeds.] 



