144 BIRDS THROUGH AN OPERA-GLASS. 



they hang upside down even more than the rubies, 

 often flying up from one spray to light upside 

 down on the one above. The goldens have a busi- 

 ness-like way of getting under a leaf and picking 

 off the insects one after another as fast as their 

 tiny bills can work. Their song is said to be 

 inferior to that of the rubies, which is considered 

 a ten-days' marvel coming from such a tiny bird. 



XLI. 



SNOW BUNTING; SNOWFLAKE. 



THIS is the true snowbird, and though it be- 

 longs in the same pigeon-hole that of the finches 

 and sparrows it can never be confounded with 

 the junco. The monastic juncos are closely 

 shrouded in slate - gray robes and cowls, only a 

 short under robe of white being marked off below 

 their breasts. The snowflakes, on the other hand, 

 as their name suggests, are mostly white, although 

 their backs are streaked with dusky and black. 



The juncos come about the house in spring and 

 fall, and during the early snows, but the snow- 

 birds, timid and strange, fly over the fields and 

 are associated with the wonderful white days of a 

 country winter, when the sky is white, the earth 

 is white, and the white trees bow silently under 

 the wand of winter till they stand an enchanted 

 snow forest. For, as the flakes drift through the 



