384 FINCHES, SPARROWS, ETC. 



its habits now resemble those of the Goldfinch. It has a flight-song, but 

 this with its perch-song is less musical than that of its more brightly 

 plumaged relative. 



During its post-breeding wandering, it is found in closely massed 

 flocks which move as one bird and which feed much upon the ground 

 where they may be closely approached. 



1887. ALLEN, J. A., Auk, IV, 284-286 (nesting). 



The BLACK-HEADED GOLDFINCH (532. Spinus notatus\ a Mexican spe- 

 cies, is recorded by Audubon from Kentucky, where its occurrence is, of 

 course, purely accidental. 



534. Plectrophenax nivalis nivalis (Linn.}. SNOW BUNTING. (Fig. 

 10.) Ad. cf in summer. Whole head and neck, rump, and underparts white; 

 back and scapulars black; outer primaries black, white basally, secondaries 

 wholly white; outer tail-feathers white, inner ones black. Ad. 9 in summer. 

 Similar, but entire upperparts streaked with black; outer primaries all 

 fuscous; secondaries more or less tipped with fuscous. & in winter. Upper- 

 parts a kind of rusty brown, almost umber on the center of the crown ; back 

 streaked with black, caused by the black bases of the feathers showing 

 through their rusty tips; wings and tail much as in summer, but more or 

 less edged with rusty; underparts white, the breast and sides washed with 

 rusty. 9 in winter. Similar to d", but wings as in summer 9. L., 6'88; 

 W., 4-07; T., 2-70; B., '42. 



Range. N. Hemisphere. In N. A., breeds in Arctic zone from at least 

 83 north (including Greenland) to n. parts of mainland from Alaska to 

 Ungava; winters from Unalaska, s. Alberta, s. Keewatin, and s. Ungava s. 

 to n. U. S. arid irregularly to n. Calif., Colo., Kans., s. Ind., s. Ohio, and 

 Fla. ; casual in Bermuda. 



Washington, W. V., casual, one instance. Ossining, irregular W. V., 

 Oct. 25-Mch. 22. Cambridge, common W. V., Nov. 1-Mch. 15; abundant 

 in migrations. N. Ohio, tolerably common W. V., Dec. 10-Mch. 15. SE. 

 Minn., common W. V., Oct. 9-Mch. 14. 



Nest, of grasses, rootlets, and moss, lined with finer grasses and feathers, 

 on the ground. Eggs, 4-7, pale bluish white, thinly marked with umber 

 or heavily spotted or washed with rufous-brown, '85 x '64. Date, Pt. Barrow, 

 Alaska, June 12. 



The Snowflake may readily be known by the fact that it is the only 

 one of our sparrowlike birds that has white predominating on its wings 

 and tail, as well as on its body. It feeds exclusively on seeds, and is so 

 much like the Shorelark in habits that the two species occasionally 

 associate. The Snowflake is also strictly a ground bird, rarely perching 

 on a tree, though it often does so on a house or fence. It always pro- 

 gresses by walking, not by hopping. 



Throughout Canada and the northern tier of states this is the 

 familiar little white bird of winter. As soon as the chill season comes on 

 in icy rigors, the merry Snowflakes appear in great flocks, and come 

 foraging about the barnyards when there is no bare ground left in the 

 adjacent fields. Apparently they get but little to eat, but in reality 

 they always find enough to keep them in health and spirits, and are as 

 fat as butter balls. In midwinter, in the far north, when the thermome- 

 ter showed thirty degrees below zero, and the chill blizzard was blowing 

 on the plains, I have seen this brave little bird gleefully chasing his 



