SPECIES 7. FRINGILLA HUDSONM* 

 SNOW-BIRD. 



[Plate XVI. Fig. 6.] 



Fringilla Hudsonia, TURTON, Syst. i, 568. Emberiza hyemalis, 

 Id. 531. LATH, i, 66. CATESBY, i, 36. Arct. Zool. p. 359, JVo. 

 223. Passer nivalis, BARTRAM, p. 291 PEALE'S Museum, 

 JVo. 6532. 



THIS well known species, small and insignificant as it may 

 appear, is by far the most numerous, as well as the most exten- 

 sively disseminated, of all the feathered tribes that visit us from 

 the frozen regions of the north. Their migrations extending 

 from the arctic circle, and probably beyond it, to the shores of 

 the gulf of Mexico, sreading over the whole breadth of the 

 United States from the Atlantic ocean to Louisiana; how much 

 farther westward I am unable to say. About the twentieth of 

 October they make their first appearance in those parts of Penn- 

 sylvania east of the Alleghany mountains. At first they are 

 most generally seen on the borders of woods among the falling 

 and decayed leaves, in loose flocks of thirty or forty together, 

 always taking to the trees when disturbed. As the weather sets 

 in colder they approach nearer the farm-house and villages; and 

 on the appearance of what is usually calledfalling weather -, as- 

 semble in larger flocks, and seem doubly diligent in searchingfor 

 food. This increased activity is generally a sure prognostic of 

 a storm. When deep snow covers the ground they become al- 

 most half domesticated. They collect about the barn, stables, 

 and other outhouses, spread over, the yard, and even round the 

 steps of the door; not only in the country and villages, but in 

 the heart of our large cities; crowding around the threshold 



* Frwgilla hyemnlis, Limr. Sysl. Ed. 10, i, p. 183, 30. 



