SNOW BUNTING 283 



near, enhanced this impression. These were almost as 

 white as snowballs, and from time to time I heard a 

 low, soft rippling note from them. I could see no fea- 

 tures, but only the general outline of plump birds in 

 white. It was a very spectral sight, and after I had 

 watched them for several minutes, I can hardly say that 

 I was prepared to see them fly away like ordinary bunt- 

 ings when I advanced further. At first they were al- 

 most concealed by being almost the same color with 

 the cloudy sky. 



Dec. 23, 1859. In this slight snow I am surprised to 

 see countless tracks of small birds, which have run over 

 it in every direction from one end to the other of this 

 great meadow since morning. By the length of the hind 

 toe I know them to be snow buntings. Indeed, soon after 

 I see them running still, on one side of the meadow. I 

 was puzzled to tell what they got by running there. Yet 

 I [saw them] stopping repeatedly and picking up some- 

 thing. Of course I thought of those caterpillars which 

 are washed out by a rain and freshet at this season, but 

 I could not find one of them. It rained on the 18th and 

 again the 20th, and over a good part of the meadow 

 the top of the stubble left by the scythe rises a little 

 above the ice, i. e. an inch or two, not enough to disturb 

 a skater. The birds have. run here chiefly, visiting each 

 little collection or tuft of stubble, and found their food 

 chiefly in and about this thin stubble. I examined such 

 places a long time and very carefully, but I could not 

 find there the seed of any plant whatever. It was merely 

 the stubble of sedge, with never any head left, and a 

 few cranberry leaves projecting. All that I could find 



