SNOWFLAKE. 301 



into the Northern States in whirling roving flocks, either im- 

 mediately before or soon after an inundating fall of snow. 

 Amidst the drifts, and as they accumulate with the blast, flocks 

 of these iliwars fogel, or bad- weather birds, of the Swedes, like 

 the spirits of the storm are to be seen flitting about in restless 

 and hungry troops, at times resting on the wooden fences, 

 though but for an instant, as, like the congenial Tartar hordes 

 of their natal regions, they appear now to have no other 

 object in view but an escape from famine and to carry on a 

 general system of forage while they happen to stay in the 

 vicinity. At times, pressed by hunger, they alight near the 

 door of the cottage and approach the barn, or even venture 

 into the out-houses in quest of dormant insects, seeds, or 

 crumbs wherewith to allay their hunger ; they are still, how- 

 ever, generally plump and fat, and in some countries much 

 esteemed for the table. In fine weather they appear less rest- 

 less, somewhat more familiar, and occasionally even at this 

 season they chant out a few unconnected notes as they survey 

 the happier face of Nature. At the period of incubation they 

 are said to sing agreeably, but appear to seek out the most 

 desolate regions of the cheerless North in which to waste the 

 sweetness of their melody, unheard by any ear but that of their 

 mates. In the dreary wastes of Greenland, the naked Lapland 

 Alps, and the scarcely habitable Spitzbergen, bound with eter- 

 nal ice, they pass the season of reproduction seeking out the 

 fissures of rocks on the mountains in which to fix their nests 

 about the month of May or June. A few are known to breed 

 in the alpine declivities of the White Mountains of New 

 Hampshire. The nest is here fixed on the ground in the 

 shelter of low bushes, and formed nearly of the same materials 

 as that of the Common Song Sparrow. 



At times they proceed as far south in the United States as 

 the State of Maryland. They are here genetally known by the 

 name of the White Snow Bird, to distinguish them from the 

 more common dark-bluish Sparrow, so called. They vary in 

 their color according to age and season, and have always a 

 great predominance of white in their plumage. 



