316 SINGING BIRDS. 
At this season the male sings in a loud, clear, musical, but 
rather plaintive tone, the song consisting of six or seven notes ; 
these he repeats at short intervals during the whole day. On 
the 13th of April, 1835, I saw flocks of this species among 
the thickets in the vicinity of Santa Barbara, Upper California, 
They sung with a feeble, quaint note, to me unlike that of any 
other species, and almost similar to some of the notes of the 
Chickadee. As they depart from Hudson Bay in September, 
it is probable that they principally winter in the Canadian 
provinces, otherwise, as passengers farther south, they would 
be seen more abundantly in the United States than they are. 
Indeed, as they approach this part of New England only in 
small desultory parties in the winter, as in November and 
December, it is evident that they only migrate a short distance 
in quest of food, and return to the North at the approach of 
fine weather. While here they appear silent and solitary, and 
are not difficult to approach. Their food, as usual, is seeds of 
grasses, insects, and their larve. 
This species is not so rare in our day as Nuttall evidently con- 
sidered it, for it is now more or less abundant throughout this 
Eastern Province, though likely to appear in irregular numbers at 
any given locality. It breeds in northern Maine and New Bruns- 
wick, and north to sub-arctic regions. Nests have been found also 
in Vermont and New York. The birds are met with in winter from 
southern New England southward. 
