SNOWFLAKE. 95 



prairie homed lark — is found in Ontario in summer and the eastern 

 form is found there also, but in sinull numbers. 



The horned larks arrive in New Brunswick early in October, when 

 large flocks may be seen in the fields near the sea-shore and on the 

 beaches. The flocks disappear toward mid- winter, but a few birds 

 brave the snow and the cold winds. They are generally seen on 

 the ground along which tliey run with ease and rapidity. They 

 are rather shy and wary and endeavor to elude observation by 

 hiding behind rocks and drift stuff. 



SNOWFLAKE. 



"Snow bunting " we called this bird when I was a boy, and I 

 think that name better suited to a fellow of such sturdy character 

 than this newly invented label. True, the snow in mass is suggestive 

 of strength and vigor, but an individual crystal, separated from the 

 mass, is so frail a thing a breath dissolves it. Now these winged 

 snowflakes are far from frail. They are a hardy, vigorous lot, 

 upon whom the biting breath of the north wind makes little 

 impression. Yet a flock of buntings, as they dart and whirl through 

 a storm, do appear like a cloud of crystal flakes driven before the 

 wind. 



They know — these birds — what many men and women have not 

 learned, that all the good things of nature — all that is grand and 

 beautiful of the out-of-door world — is not displayed under a clear 

 sky ; that you can find in the storm a glory all its own — can find it 

 if your eyes be true and your heart in tune. But you must have 

 been bred in the north to enjoy a snow-storm as the buntings do, 

 to find with them exhilaration in the biting air, and delight in the 

 swish and swirl of the drifting flakes. These birds seem to be at 

 their happiest in a storm, and wlienever one comes their way they 

 join in its whirl and scurry just for the fun of its fierce revelry, 

 birds and flakes mingling in the same wild dance. 



When the spring-time comes with its soft, warm days, then off go 

 the buntings to the far north — so far that the snow is always in 

 sight, and there, tucked away in some cranny on a barren hill-side, 

 they place the nest in which to rear their sturdy young. This nest is 



