BIRD TRAITS. 207 



is more pleasant than the rustle of corn leaves 

 and the sheen of grain undulating in the breeze. 

 He is slow, persistent, graminivorous. 



Against him in the bird creation I set the 

 sparrow. The sparrows, buntings, and finches 

 love the sunshine. They are interested in the 

 crops ; as a rule shun the gloom of the forest, 

 and make their homes in fields and meadows. 

 Before sunrise, in May, the clear whistle of the 

 white-throat welcomes the coming dawn. When 

 the snow first melts in April, or if by chance it 

 wastes away in December or January, the snow 

 buntings and j uncos are promptly at work in the 

 ploughed fields or among the weeds left in the 

 potato patch. Winter does not see the farmer 

 moving to Florida or Cuba. He stays under the 

 shadow of Chocorua, breaking the ice in the 

 pond for his cattle, scattering corn to his fowls, 

 listening to the voice of the ice in the night, and 

 having a gun ready for the fox prowling about 

 the barnyard at dawn. 



The birds around him in these wintry days are 

 not warblers and swallows, vireos and thrushes ; 

 they are sparrows. Nine tenths of them are pine 

 grosbeaks, crossbills, snow buntings, siskins, or 

 those joyous creatures of the snow country, the 

 confiding redpoll linnets. Truly, farmers and 

 sparrows belong to the land, cling to it, live by it, 

 love it. Their acts and instincts are inspired 

 by it and have its color. 



