\ 
112 SNOW-BIRD. 
tliey 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 morn- 
ing, gleaning up the crumbs ; appearing very lively and familiar. They 
have also recourse, at this severe season, when the face of the earth is 
shut up from them, to the seeds of many kinds of 'weeds that still rise 
above the snow, in corners of fields, and low sheltered situations along 
the borders of creeks and fences, where they associate with several 
species of Sparrows, particularly those represented on the same plate. 
They arc at this time easily caught with almost any kind of traps ; are 
generally fat, and, it is said, are excellent eating. 
I cannot but consider this bird as the most numerous of its tribe of 
any within the United States. From the northern parts of the district 
of Maine, to the Ogechee river in Georgia, a .distance by the circuitous 
route in which I travelled of more than 1800 miles, I never passed a 
day, and scarcely a mile, without seeing numbers of these birds, and 
frequently large flocks of several thousands. Other travellers, with 
whom I conversed, who had come from Lexington in Kentucky, through 
Virginia, also declared that they found these birds numerous along the 
whole road. It should be observed, that the road sides are their favorite 
haunts, where many rank weeds that grow along the fences furnish them 
with food, and the road with gravel. In the vicinity of places where 
they were most numerous, I observed the small Hawk, represented in 
the same plate, and several others of his tribe, watching their opportu- 
nity, or hovering cautiously around, making an occasional sweep among 
them, and retiring to the bare branches of an old cypress to feed on 
their victim. In the month of April, when the weather begins to be 
warm, they are observed to retreat to the woods ; and to prefer the 
shaded sides of hills and thickets ; at which time the males warble out 
a few very low sweet notes ; and are almost perpetually pursuing and 
fighting with each other. About the twentieth of April they take their 
leave of our humble regions, and retire to the north, and to the high 
ranges of the Alleghany to build their nests, and rear their young. 
In some of those ranges, in the interior of Virginia, and northward 
about the waters of the west branch of the Susquehanna, they breed in 
great numbers. The nest is fixed in the ground or among the grass, 
sometimes several being within a small distance of each other. Accord- 
ing to the observations of the gentlemen residing at Hudson's Bay 
factory, they arrive there about the beginning of June, stay a week or 
two, and proceed farther north to breed. They return to that settlement 
in the autumn on their way to the south. 
In some parts of New England I found the opinion pretty general, 
that the Snow-bird in summer is transformed into the small Chipping 
