30 THE LAPLAND LONGSPUR. 



colonies the farmers of New England offered threepence a 

 head for the Crow Blackbirds, on account of their destruct- 

 iveness in the grain fields. Consequently they were nearly 

 extirpated for a time, and the insects increased to such a 

 degree as to cause a total loss of herbage, and the farmers 

 were compelled to obtain hay from Pennsylvania, and even 

 from Great Britain." But the birds can do nothing what- 

 ever to provide their own food. Yet when are they seen 

 starving or wanting sustenance? 



The cloud of Snow-flakes, having taken sudden alarm, are 

 risen high in air. What graceful gyrations and evolutions ! 

 and how the pure white of their under parts fairly gleams 

 against the clear ether. Must not that soft, musical chatter 

 be an intelligible conversation among themselves ? Never 

 did minds communicate in happier tones. 



The nest of this bird was once found in New Hampshire, 

 on a slope of the White Mountains, " on the ground among 

 low bushes, and formed like that of the Song Sparrow." It 

 contained young. Another is reported, even from Spring- 

 field, Massachusetts. The ordinary breeding place of the 

 Snow Bunting, however, is in the Arctic regions, where it is 

 said to spend the summer in great numbers. It now 

 becomes a bird of accomplished song, building a sub- 

 stantial nest on the ground and in the clefts of rock, lined 

 with feathers and the hair of the Arctic fox. The eggs, 

 .90 X-65, are whitish, mottled with brown, especially around 

 the larger end, where the blotches sometimes become a 

 dark wreath. The species is common to the higher latitudes 

 of the whole' northern hemisphere. 



THE LAPLAND LONGSPUR. 



In Western New York, the sunshine of early winter is 

 very fickle. In a few hours the clearest sky may be robed 



