42 WAKE-ROBIN 



founded by careless observers. Both warble in the 

 same cheerful strain, but the latter more continu- 

 ously and rapidly. The red-eye is a larger, slimmer 

 bird, with a faint bluish crown, and a light line 

 over the eye. His movements are peculiar. You 

 may see him hopping among the limbs, exploring 

 the under side of the leaves, peering to the right 

 and left, now flitting a few feet, now hopping as 

 many, and warbling incessantly, occasionally in a 

 subdued tone, which sounds from a very indefinite 

 distance. When he has found a worm to his liking, 

 he turns lengthwise of the limb and bruises its head 

 with his beak before devouring it. 



As I enter the woods the slate-colored snowbird 

 starts up before me and chirps sharply. His protest 

 when thus disturbed is almost metallic in its sharp- 

 ness. He breeds here, and is not esteemed a snow- 

 bird at all, as he disappears at the near approach 

 of winter, and returns again in spring, like the 

 song sparrow, and is not in any way associated with 

 the cold and the snow. So different are the habits 

 of birds in different localities. Even the crow does 

 not whiter here, and is seldom seen after December 

 or before March. 



The snowbird, or "black chipping-bird, " as it 

 is known among the farmers, is the finest architect 

 of any of the ground-builders known to me. The 

 site of its nest is usually some low bank by the 

 roadside, near a wood. In a slight excavation, 

 with a partially concealed entrance, the exquisite 

 structure is placed. Horse and cow hair are plen- 



