46 IN THE HEMLOCKS. 



true Sylvia. He resembles somewhat the warbling 

 vireo ( Vireo gilvus), and the two birds are often con- 

 founded by careless observers. Both warble in the 

 same cheerful strain, but the latter more continuously 

 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 hop- 

 ping 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 

 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 snow-bird 

 (Fringilla Hudsonia) starts up before me and chirps 

 sharply. His protest when thus disturbed is almost 

 metallic in its sharpness. 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 asso- 

 ciated with the cold and the snow. So different are the 

 habits of birds in different localities. Even the crow 

 does not winter here, and is seldom seen after Decem- 

 ber or before March. 



The snow-bird, 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 road-side near a 



