90 COMMON SNOW-BIRD. 



numbers. At this season it has a sweet note. In July the young were full 

 grown, and kept among the huckleberry bushes. It arrives in South Carolina 

 in November, and departs in March. When kept in aviaries in that State, 

 it appears to suffer much from heat, bathing frequently to cool itself, but it 

 never breeds, and is always silent. 



My friend Dr. T. M. Brewer of Boston, has sent me the following 

 account of the nest and eggs, as found among the mountains in Oswego 

 county, in the State of New York, by Mr. Edward Appleton: — "The 

 nests were all situated on the ground, some of them having concealed 

 entrances in the same manner as is frequently practised by the Song Spar- 

 row, and their complement of eggs was four. The external diameter of the 

 nest given me was four and a half inches, its internal two and a half, the 

 internal depth an inch and a half, the external about two. It is composed of 

 stripes of bark, straw roots, and horse-hair, lined with fine moss and the soft 

 hair of small quadrupeds. In size and appearance it is not unlike the nest 

 of the common Fringilla melodia. The eggs measure six-eighths of an 

 inch in length, five-eighths in breadth, and are more nearly spherical than 

 any of the eggs of this genus with which I am acquainted. Their ground- 

 colour is yellowish-white, thickly covered with small dots of a reddish- 

 brown colour; in the broadest part of the egg the spots are more numerous 

 and confluent, forming a crown or belt, but at the end they are more sparse. 



Distributed, in winter, over the Southern, Western, and Middle Districts, 

 as far as the base of the Rocky Mountains, and in the Fur Countries. 

 Breeds from Maiyland eastward, on the mountains. Very abundant. 



Snow-bird, Fringilla nivalis, Wils. Amer. Orn., vol. ii. p. 129. 



Fringilla hyemalis, Bonap. Syn., p. 109. 



Fringilla hyemalis, Black Finch, Swains. & Rich. F. Bor. Amer., vol. ii. p. 259. 



Common Snow-bird, Fringilla Hudsonia, Nutt. Man., vol. i. p. 491. 



Snow-bird, Fringilla hyemalis, Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. i. p. 72; vol. v. p. 505. 



Adult Male. 



Bill short, rather small, conical, very acute; upper mandible a little broader 

 than the lower, very slightly declinate at the tip, rounded on the sides, as is 

 the lower, which has the edges inflected and acute; the gap-line straight, not 

 extending to beneath the eye. Nostrils basal, roundish, concealed by the 

 feathers. Head rather large. Neck short. Body full. Legs of moderate 

 length, slender; tarsus longer than the middle toe, covered anteriorly with a 

 few longish scutella; toes scutellate above, free, the lateral ones nearly equal; 

 claws very slender, greatly compressed, acute and slightly arched, that of 

 the hind toe little larger. 



Plumage soft and blended. Wings shortish, curved, rounded, the third 



