FAMILY Fringillidx. 



fissures of the rocks mi the mountains in May. The out- 

 side of their IK -i is of tfrass, the middle of feathers, and 

 the lining, the down of the arctic fox. They sing finely 

 near their nest." That seems rather meagre informa- 

 tion from a musical point of view! Thompson says one 

 time when a chill blizzard was blowing on the plains he 

 saw the little bird "gleefully chasing his fellows, and 

 pouring out as he flew his sweet voluble song with as 

 much spirit as ever Skylark has in the sunniest day-, 

 of June." Nor does that throw very much light upon 

 the situation! It is plain, also, that the few whistled 

 chirps we hear from him in mid-winter do not fore- 

 shadow his ability to sing the sweet melody which ap- 

 parently he must sing during the nuptial period spent in 

 the far north, for Mr. A. Hagerup testifies to the excep- 

 tional excellence of the bird's music in no doubtful 

 terms: he says, "In Greenland his song is a sweet and 

 pleasing melody, though it is rather disconnected and 

 delivered in short stanzas, a warble is perhaps the 

 English term best adapted to describe its character." 

 This is at least definite and conveys the impression that 

 the song is not unlike that of the Purple Finch in struc- 

 ture although it is evidently cut up in the same fashion 

 as that of the Goldfinch, but perhaps in shorter measures. 

 But the Snow Bunting in our part of the world is more 

 interesting in color than in song, for we can scarcely 

 expect to hear his music within the boundaries of our 

 northern States. His appearance in the winter season is 

 preeminently picturesque, for he furnishes the artist 

 with all the color and movement necessary to make 

 a winter bird attractive and beautiful; his is a combina- 

 tion of the white of the whirling snowflake, tin- rusty 

 brown of the sear leaf, and the black of the frost-bitten 

 plant-stem all tones of color admirably adapted to his 

 self-protection.* He is graceful, too, in every move- 

 ment, and especially so when he skims in a low and 

 glancing flight across the snow with a dozen of his 

 fellows in close company. 



* What skulking fox would see him in a costume like that among 

 the shadows on the snow beneath the withered stems of the dead 

 golden-rod ' 



*4 



