TREE SPARROW 295 



each peck. But they probably look large to its uiicro- 

 scopic eyes. I see, when I jar it, that a meadow-sweet 

 close by has quite similar, but larger, seeds. This the 

 reason, then, that these plants rise so high above the 

 snow and retain their seed, dispersing it on the least jar 

 over each successive layer of snow beneath them ; or it 

 is carried to a distance by the wind. What abundance 

 and what variety in the diet of these small granivorous 

 birds, while I find only a few nuts still ! These stiff weeds 

 which no snow can break down hold their provender. 

 What the cereals are to men, these are to the sparrows. 

 The only threshing they require is that the birds fly 

 against their spikes or stalks. A little further I see the 

 seed-box ( ?) (^Ludwigid) full of still smaller, yellowish 

 seeds. And on the ridge north is the track of a partridge 

 amid the shrubs. It has hopped up to the low clusters of 

 smooth sumach berries, sprinkled the snow with them, 

 and eaten all but a few. Also, here only, or where it has 

 evidently jarred them down — whether intentionally or 

 not, I am not sure — are the large oval seeds of the stiff- 

 stalked lespedeza, which I suspect it ate, with the sumach 

 berries. There is much solid food in them. When the 

 snow is deep the birds could easily pick the latter out 

 of the heads as they stand on the snow. 



Dec. 31, 1859. There is a great deal of hemlock scales 

 scattered over the recent snow (at the Hemlocks), evi- 

 dently by birds on the trees, and the wind has blown 

 them southeast, — scales, seeds, and cones, — and I see 

 the tracks of small birds that have apparently picked 

 the seeds from the snow also. It may have been done by 

 goldfinches. I see a tree sparrow hopping close by, and 



