THE SNOWFLAKE. 



(^Plectrophenax mvalis. ) 



Then 'mid snowdrifts white, 

 Though the trees are bare. 

 Comes the Snowbird, bold 

 In the Winter's cold, 

 Quick and round and bright, 

 Light he steps across snow, 

 Cares he not for winds that blow. 



Though the sifting snow be drifting 

 Through the air. 



— Dora Read Goodale, "The Snowbird." 



The Snowflakes, or Snow Buntings 

 as they are frequently named, are the 

 well known white birds of winter which 

 frequent the northern tier of the United 

 States., They are also irregular visit- 

 ants, during the colder weather, as far 

 south as southern Illinois, Indiana and 

 Ohio. Occasionally they even pass as 

 far southward as Georgia and Kansas, 

 and they are said to be abundant some 

 seasons in the western interior, as far 

 south as Colorado. The general geo- 

 graphical range of the species may be 

 given as the entire northern parts of 

 the northern hemisphere, but the birds 

 breed only in the Arctic regions. If 

 they can only obtain a sufficient quan- 

 tity of food they care but little for icy 

 blasts. On the snow covered prairies, 

 nothing can brighten a cold and dreary 

 winter's day like a flock of these dainty 

 birds as they circle and wheel around 

 looking for a favorable spot on which 

 to alight, finally dropping in a mass 

 for all the world like snow flakes in a 

 whirl of wind. At all times, when they 

 are with us, their soft white plumage 

 and amiable disposition appeal to us 

 and we look forward to visits from 

 the Snowflakes with a great deal of 

 pleasure. 



Snowflakes never perch on trees and 

 while it is truly a bird of the ground 

 it will frequently perch on a fence or 

 a house. Their food is chiefly, if not 

 exclusively, wild seeds and grain which 

 they gather in stubbles and barnyards. 

 They frequent the latter places when 

 the fields are covered with snow. Dur- 

 ing the* winter months they do not need 



our sympathy, for they always seem 

 cheerful and happy and apparently find 

 enough to eat, as they become very fat. 

 Thoreau speaks of the Snowflakes as 

 ''true spirits of the snowstorm." Mr. 

 Ernest E. Thompson has said: "In 

 mid-winter, in the far north, when the 

 thermometer showed thirty degrees be- 

 low zero, and the chill blizzard was 

 blowing on the plains, I have seen 

 this brave 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 days of June." During the 

 nesting season the Snowflakes are said 

 to utter an agreeable song, but as they 

 choose to nest only in the dreary and 

 desolate areas of the Arctic regions it 

 has been the pleasure of but few to 

 listen to them. While we who reside 

 only in the region of their more south- 

 ern winter home cannot listen to its 

 song, we may often hear them utter 

 cheerful twittering notes which are very 

 inspiring during the uninviting days 

 of winter. 



In the government report on the 

 Cruise of the Steamer Corwin in the 

 Arctic Ocean, Mr. E. W. Nelson gives 

 an interesting account of the summer 

 home of the Snowflakes. It is as fol- 

 lows: "In the north, the range and 

 abundance of this species in summer is 

 to a great extent complimentary to 

 that of" the lapland longspun Along 

 the rugged parts of the coast, on rocky 

 and barren islands and desolate shores 

 of the Arctic Ocean, wherever explor- 

 ers have gone, they have found these 



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