r 



74 SNOWFLAKE. 



atid resorting to tree holes and out-of-the-way places, while the other took the cities 

 and towns. 



"This Tree Sparrow is a much more acceptable acquisition than the House Sparrow. 

 Although sharing many of its habits, it lacks the fighting qualities for which the other 

 is so much hated. Of course, like every bird, it defends its home against intruders, but 

 it is not aggressive. It never attacks other birds for mere sport, like its cousin ; on the 

 contrary, it enjoys the company of our native birds, and it is daily seen associating 

 wit*h our wintering Junco and Canada Tree Sparrow. With this latter bird it has some 

 notes in common, and it seems that this resemblance of the voice led the early European 

 settlers to apply the name of Tree Spai-row to this otherwise entirely different bird, a 

 misnomer which in turn gave rise to the equally inappropriate scientific names montana 

 and monticola. 



"The voice of the European Tree Sparrow, although it can not be called a song, 

 is really melodious, especially when a number of them, as is generally the case, join in 

 common concert, much like our Bobolinks and Blackbirds. Not more than two broods 

 are raised annually, while the House Sparrow often raises three, but not four to six, 

 as some claim." The nest is similar to that of the common Sparrow, and the eggs are 

 also much like Sparrow's eggs but averaging smaller and usually darker and redder. 



DESCRIPTION : The black of the throat in the adult male is not continued over the chest ; ear-coverts with 

 a large black spot; top of head entirely liver-brown, or purplish-chestnut. 

 Length about 5.50 inches ; wing, 2.80 ; tail, 2.40 inches. 



SNOWFLAKE. 



Plectrophenax nivalis Stejneger. 



The sky is gray as gray may be, 



There is no bird on wing or bough. 



There is no leaf on vine or tree. 



Slow creep the hours, slow creep the days, 



The black ink crusts upon the pen — 



Just wait till Bluebirds, Wrens, and Jays 



And Golden Orioles come again, 



T. B. Aldrich. 



a- HOUGH the winter in the Northern States of our great country is exceedingly 

 / cold and changeable, it is not entirely without beauty. True, the trees are 

 leafless, the woods quiet, and the beautiful summer flowers rest under a thick cover of 

 snow. The winged choristers of woodland and garden, field and meadow have deserted 

 their natal haunts, sojourning in the tropics or in the mild regions of the Gulf coast. 

 Even the Slate-colored Snowbirds, the White-throated, White-crowned, and Fox 

 Sparrows have left, long before the winter commenced, for the milder regions of the 

 Southern States, where the dense shrubbery of the bottom lands and the woods, fringed 

 with bushes and tangled thickets covered with cross-vine (Bignonia capreolata), Carolina 



