jasmine, smilax, grape-vines, and other creepers afford them food, safety, and shelter. 

 The weather before Christmas is usually not so very cold, but after the holidays icy north 

 and west winds and snow storms sweep over prairies and stubble fields with increasing 

 vigor, placing lakes and ponds, rivers and streams in icy fetters and covering all nature 

 with a white winter robe. Only the pines, spruces, firs, cedars, and junipers, though 

 clothed in a sombre green, are as beautifiil at this time of the year as they are in 

 spring and summer, their branches being loaded with snow, the white color of which 

 contrasts beautifully with the dark, deep green of their foliage. During winter these 

 trees are frequently visited by flocks of Pine Grosbeaks, Crossbills, and Redpolls, many 

 of which show more or less red color. At this time of the year I especially admire the 

 mixed woods consisting partly of deciduous trees, partly of evergreens. 



The fields and prairies seem desolate, rarely a living creature being visible. But 

 this will not remain so. With the first heavy snow, especially when drifted by high 

 winds, numberless birds appear, usually in large swarms and in rapid and wavy flight, 

 alighting on the stubble fields of Wisconsin and the prairies of Illinois. The prevailing 

 color of these most picturesque of our winter birds is white, and as they come and 

 go with the white crystallizations of winter, they were appropriately named by the 

 people when they called them Snowfl.\kes. Like thousands of snowflakes they whirl 

 into the northern part of our country, "on wings as wayward as those of the storm 

 that urges them on ; but, though thus irregular in their appearance, according to stress 

 of weather, no winter passes without its Snow Buntings, and it is not until April that 

 the last of the birds is seen" in the northern part of the Union. 



The flight of the Snowflake, or Snow Bunting, is extremely beautiful. Great 

 numbers are usually swirling over the ground. "They keep pretty closely in flocks 

 numbering from a dozen or so to several hundreds, and, though they spread over the 

 ground a good deal in running about after seeds, they fly compactly, and wheel 

 altogether. In their evolutions they present a pretty sight, and have a not displeas- 

 ing stridulent sound, from mingling of the weak chirrups from so many throats." 

 (Coues.) The birds are constantly in motion, and when the hindermost alight in front 

 of those that first settled, these again rise and alight again in the front. Thus the 

 whole swarm soon disappears. They do not seem to suffer with cold, although the 

 thermometer often goes down to 30° below zero F. They subsist during the winter 

 entirely on the seeds of weeds which they pick up from the snow, and thus they become 

 very beneficial to the farmer. I have never seen them on trees and rarely on fences, but 

 they frequently alight on stones and boulders. When forced to alight on branches of 

 trees or bushes their movements are awkward, seemingly as if afraid they would fall. 

 Their feet evidently do not grasp small twigs with security. On the ground they are 

 perfectly at home, running around with great agility. By the end of March or the 

 beginning of April all the Snowflakes have departed again for their breeding quarters. 

 They come with the snow, and they disappear with the snow. 



The Snowflakes winter mostly in the Northern States, rarely moving as far south 

 as Pennsylvania or Kentucky. I have never seen them in the Ozark region of south- 

 western Missouri, and Mr. Otto Widmarin never observed them near St. Louis. They 

 commonly invade all our country north of latitude 39°, and less often south to latitude 



