129 



SNOW-BIRD. 



FRINGILLA NIVALIS. 

 [Plate XVI.— Fig. 6.] 



Fringilla Hudsonia, Ttjrton, Syst. I, 568. — Emberiza hyemalis, Id. 531. —Lath. I, 66.-— 

 Catesby, I, 36. — Arct. ZooL p. 359, No. 223. — Passer nivalis, Bartram, p. 291.-— 

 PEALE'siliw5(?w/?2, A'b. 6532. 



THIS well known species, small and insignificant as it may 

 appear, is by far the most numerous, as well as the most exten- 

 sively disseminated, of all the feathered tribes that visit us from 

 the frozen regions of the north. Their migrations extending from 

 the arctic circle, and probably beyond it, to the shores of the gulf 

 of Mexico, spreading over the whole breadth of the United States 

 from the Atlantic ocean to Louisiana ; how much farther westward 

 I am unable to say. About the twentieth of October they make 

 their first appearance in those parts of Pennsylvania east of the Al- 

 leghany mountains. At first they are most generally seen on the 

 borders of woods among the falling and decayed leaves, in loose 

 flocks of thirty or forty together, always taking to the trees when 

 disturbed. As the weather sets in colder they approach nearer the 

 farm-house and villages ; and on the appearance of what is usually 

 called falling iveather, assemble in larger flocks, and seem doubly 

 diligent in searching for food. This increased activity is generally 

 a sure prognostic of a storm. When deep snow covers the ground 

 they become almost half domesticated. They collect about the 

 barn, stables, and other outhouses, spread over the yard, and even 

 round the steps of the door; not only in the country and villages, 

 but in the heart of our large cities ; crowding around the threshold 

 early in the morning, gleaning up the crumbs ; appearing very 



VOL. II. K k 



