1881.] The Eastern Snow-Bird. 519 
But how obliging has nature become, that she allows a con- 
valescent to interview her from his study windows. Yes, and her 
coyness breaks down too, for she lets out some of the esoteric 
ways of her winter birds. After falling many hours, the snow 
Stops, and a cold clear blue sky opens over head. A flock of 
snow-birds has come. They seem to be the living feathery fringe 
on the skirts of the snow storm. And what a relief these pretty 
birds impart. This nival covering is not a shroud to conceal the 
dead, but a warm comforter spread over earth’s slumbering forces 
by that Great, Good Hand “ which giveth snow like wool.” In 
€asy view from my library windows is a spot in the headland of 
the old orchard, where last autumn grew a tall Phytolacca decan- 
dra, The tip of the dead plant is but just exposed, and that is 
hint enough to the little fellows that the dried currant-like berries 
of the pokewort are to be found ina natural cache under the 
snow. The way in which a group of five or six birds keep at the 
Spot would indicate that the placer “ pans out well.” How they 
do dig down into the snow! Dig? Yes, though, very un-bird- 
like, that is the right word, for it is altogether unlike scratching. 
Its method of mining, for a bird, seems to me to be original. 
Our Junco hyemalis is a hopper, not a runner, and scratching is, 
as a rule, not an accomplishment of the hopper family. In truth, 
you can't bring the hoppers up to the scratch any way. Still our 
snow-bird is great on push—he does shove things; and a queer 
Shove it is. I am almost afraid to attempt a description. The 
bird stiffens out its toes, then makes a jumping shove forward 
and upward, thus lifting and flirting the snow. The movement is 
of the whole body, and the action is scooping, not unlike that of 
aditcher. It is not a shuffling motion, for it demands too much 
dexterity, but a true shoveling movement. Like the post-hole 
digger’s shovel with its short blade and long handle, the middle 
toe of Junco is shorter than its tarsus. 
Soon this natural cache was exhausted, and a deep, wide exca- 
vation with a small entrance was the result of their patient dig- 
Sing. It was truly a snow cavern. The birds soon learned to 
feed from a Supply put at their service on the window sill. Find- 
ng SO good a commissariat, they sojourned with us a number of 
days, the little bevy of not more than seven, keeping always to- 
gether, as if by a family compact. Indeed, this is a pretty domes- 
uc feature of our eastern snow-bird. Some twenty-five feet from 
