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. Auuen, J. A., Auk, IV, 284-286 (nesting). 
The BuLacK-HEADED GoOLpFINCH (632. 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. # 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. ¢ 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 7, 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. and 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 
