3l6 SINGING BIRDS. 



At this season the male sings in a loud, clear, musical, but 

 rather plaintive tone, the song consisting of six or seven notes ; 

 these he repeats at short intervals during the whole day. On 

 the 13th of April, 1835, I saw flocks of this species among 

 the thickets in the vicinity of Santa Barbara, Upper California. 

 They sung with a feeble, quaint note, to me unlike that of any 

 other species, and almost similar to some of the notes of the 

 Chickadee. As they depart from Hudson Bay in September, 

 it is probable that they principally winter in the Canadian 

 provinces, otherwise, as passengers farther south, they would 

 be seen more abundantly in the United States than they are. 

 Indeed, as they approach this part of New England only in 

 small desultory parties in the winter, as in November and 

 December, it is evident that they only migrate a short distance 

 in quest of food, and return to the North at the approach of 

 fine weather. While here they appear silent and solitary, and 

 are not difficult to approach. Their food, as usual, is seeds of 

 grasses, insects, and their larvae. 



This species is not so rare in our day as Nuttall evidently con- 

 sidered it, for it is now more or less abundant throughout this 

 Eastern Province, though likely to appear in irregular numbers at 

 any given locaHty. It breeds in northern Maine and New Bruns- 

 wick, and north to sub-arctic regions. Nests have been found also 

 in Vermont and New York. The birds are met with in winter from 

 southern New England southward. 



