42 WAKE-ROBIN - 
founded by careless observers. Both warble in the 
same cheerful strain, but the latter more continu- 
ously and rapidly. The red-eye is a larger, slimmer 
bird, with a faint bluish crown, and a light line 
over the eye. His movements are peculiar. You 
may see him hopping among the limbs, exploring 
the under side of the leaves, peering to the right 
and left, now flitting a few feet, now hopping as 
many, and warbling incessantly, occasionally in a 
subdued tone, which sounds from a very indefinite 
distance. "When he has found a worm to his liking, 
he turns lengthwise of the limb and bruises its head 
with his beak before devouring it. 
As I enter the woods the slate-colored snowbird 
starts up before me and chirps sharply. His protest 
when thus disturbed is almost metallic in its sharp- 
ness. He breeds here, and is not esteemed a snow- 
bird at all, as he disappears at the near approach 
of winter, and returns again in spring, like the 
song sparrow, and is not in any way associated with 
the cold and the snow. So different are the habits 
of birds in different localities. Even the crow does 
not winter here, and is seldom seen after December 
or before March. 
The snowbird, or “black chipping-bird,” as it 
is known among the farmers, is the finest architect 
of any of the ground-builders known to me. The 
site of its nest is usually some low bank by the 
roadside, near a wood. In a slight excavation, 
with a partially concealed entrance, the exquisite 
structure is placed. Horse and cow hair are plen- 
