§4 CANADA BUNTING (TREE SPARROW.) 



and enterprising people among whom it seems to spend the severe season by 

 choice, it makes strenuous efforts to supply itself with the means of sub- 

 sistence. Many remove as far south as Pennsylvania, and even Maryland; 

 but I never observed one in either of the Carolinas. Their return to the 

 north is marked by a lingering disposition to wait each day for a finer and 

 warmer morrow. They appear, indeed, so perfectly aware of the clanger to 

 be encountered during a forced march in the early spring, that on the least 

 change from mild weather to cold, they immediately return to their loved 

 winter quarters. By the middle of May, however, they have begun to move 

 regularly, and their songs announce the milder season at every resting place 

 at which they tarry. 



The Tree Sparrow sings sweetly during the love season. I have fre- 

 quently listened to their musical festivals near Eastport, in the State of 

 Maine, while gazing upon them with an ardent desire to follow them in their 

 progress northward. Twenty or more, perched on the same tree, often 

 delighted me with their choruses, now and then varied with the still clearer 

 notes of one or two White-throated Finches, that, like leaders of an orchestra, 

 seemed to mark time for the woodland choristers. Toward the close of the 

 day their single notes were often repeated, and sounded like those of a 

 retreat. They seemed to hop and dance about among the branches, mixing 

 with the "W T hite-throats," and enjoying a general conversation, when the 

 pipings of two or three frogs would suspend their entertainment. At early 

 dawn they were all on the alert, and if the rising sun announced a fine day, 

 group after group would ascend in the air, and, with joyful feelings, imme- 

 diately proceed towards their breeding-places in the distant north. 



1 followed them as far as the Magdeleine Isles, saw some in Newfoundland, 

 and all the countries between it and Maine, but did not find a single indi- 

 vidual in Labrador. On the islands above mentioned I saw them arriving 

 in flocks of from five to a dozen, flying widely apart. They dived towards 

 the ground, and at once threw themselves among the thickest coverts of the 

 tangled groves, where, although I could hear their single chip, I could 

 seldom see them afterwards. Their flight is more elegant and elevated than 

 that of most of our Sparrows, and they pass through the air in rapid undu- 

 lations, more regular and continued than those of any other bird of the 

 family, except the Fox-coloured Sparrow. 



On opening several of these birds, I found their stomach to contain very 

 minute shell-fish, the remains of coleopterous insects, some hard seeds, small 

 berries, and grains of sand. 



Many of the Tree Sparrows breed in New Brunswick, in Nova Scotia, 

 and, I have reasons for believing, in the northern portions of the State of 

 Maine. A nest given me by Professor MacCulloch, had been found a few 



