SONG-BIRDS. Snowflake 



Breeds : In the Arctic regions. 



Nest : Thickly lined with feathers set in a tussock. 



Eggs : 4-6, variable in size and colour, whitish speckled with neutral 

 tints. 



Range: Northern parts of the Northern Hemisphere. In North 

 America, south in winter into the northern United States, irreg- 

 ularly to Georgia, southern Illinois, and Kansas. 



A bird well named, for the Snowflake, hurried from the 

 north by fierce winds and weather, comes to us out of the 

 snow-clouds. Travelling in great flocks, which are de- 

 scribed as numbering sometimes a thousand, they settle 

 down upon the old fields and upland meadows, subsisting 

 upon various seeds. Their winter plumage, by which we 

 J ilone know them, is exquisitely soft and beautiful, and the 

 oirds themselves have a wonderfully mild and spiritual 

 expression as if they had come from an unknown region, 

 and craved a little food and shelter, but conscious that while 

 here they are the veriest birds of passage. 



Though a native of Arctic latitudes, Snowflakes, belated 



on their return migration, have been known to breed in the 



Northern States. In July, 1831, Audubon found a couple 



nesting in the White Mountains, and Dr. J. A. Allen notes 



a pair as breeding near Springfield, Mass. In its home it is 



laid to have a cheerful inspiriting song, but here we only 



mow its Sparrow-like call note. 



The Snowflake is very capricious in its visits, as are, in 



ct, all the winter birds along the Connecticut shore of the 



'ind. An easterly wind prevailing for several days drives 



n two or three miles inland behind the Greenfield ridge 



hills. During the snowy winter of 1893-94 not a single 



k appeared, though the weather was evenly cold and 



rked by northeasterly storms. On February 15, 1894, 



one of the only days of the season when there was suffi- 



nt snow for sleighing, a day with heavy, drifting clouds 



d wind gusts which scattered the loose snow so suddenly 



at it was driven with the sharpness of sand, — I drove for 



jveral miles along the road that separates the shore and 



marshes from cultivation, and was rewarded by seeing Gulls, 



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