THE BIRDS OF NEW JERSEY. 141 



ground with a squeak sounding like scaipe, and as they 

 rise into the air, "now with continued beating of the 

 wings," says Audubon, "now in short sailings, until more 

 than a hundred yards high, when they whirl around 

 each other with extreme velocity, and dance as it were to 

 their own music; or at this juncture, and for the space of 

 four or five minutes, you hear rolling notes mingled to- 

 gether, each more or less distinct, perhaps according to 

 the state of the atmosphere. The sounds produced are 

 extremely pleasing, though they fall faintly on the ear." 

 The food of these birds consists of insects and worms, 

 taken principally at night. 



Snipe , Winter. See Eed-backed Sandpiper. 



Snowbird, or Junco. Length, six and a quarter 

 inches; extent, nine inches; bill, two-fifths of an inch, 

 flesh color, dusky at tip; head, back, throat, breast and 

 sides of the body, deep slate; lower breast and belly, 

 white; tail, a little forked, deep slate, with the two outer 

 feathers white and the next spotted with white; wings, 

 deep slate; legs, reddish flesh. In the female and young 

 the upper parts are somewhat suffused with brown and 

 the throat and breast are paier. 



The nests are built of grass, moss and small roots, on or 

 near the ground. The eggs are either four or five 

 in number, of a white, with at times a bluish tinge, and 

 three-fourths by four-fifths of an inch in size. 



The birds breed from Maine to Alaska and southward 

 along the Alleghanies, and in the winter come down to 

 the eastern United States, being abundant in New Jersey 

 between October 1 and April 15. 



Their note is a tsip and their song, heard in New Jer- 

 sey only in the early spring, a faint warble and trill. 



The food of these birds consists principally of seeds of 

 weeds, although they also frequent barnyards and in ex- 

 treme cold weather, when everything outdoors is frozen 



