FOOD OF SPARROWS BY SPECIES. 
SNOWFLAKE. 
Boast rind nivalis.) 
The snowflake is a bird of the arctic tundra, above the limit of tree 
growth. In North America it breeds about Hudson Bay. in the north- 
ernmost partfi of Labrador and Alaska, and to the northward. In its 
northern home it is a white, black-blotched sparrow, of whose habits 
very little is known, except that it makes a feather-lined nest on the 
ground, in which it rears four to five young on a diet which probably 
consists principally of insects. After the breeding season, however, 
a buffy brown become> mixed with the black and white, and the birds 
assume a more sparrow-like aspect. They migrate southward with 
the first severe cold weather, some of them coming as far south as the 
northern half of the United States, where their appearance is regarded 
as a sure sign that winter has begun in earnest. Often a flock of a 
thousand will come with a blizzard, the thermometer registering 30 c 
to4<> below zero; and in their circling, swirling flight, as they are 
borne alon^r by the blast, they might well be mistaken at a distance 
for veritable snowflakes. They settle in the open fields and along 
railroad tracks, where they secure some food from hayseed, grain that 
has sifted out of the grain cars, and seeds of weeds that grow along 
the tracks. Here they remain until April, when, in obedience to the 
migrating instinct, they journey north to nest on the treeless plains 
of the arctic region >. 
The snowfiakc differs from many other winter sparrows, such as 
the tree sparrow, junco, and white-throated sparrow, in that its flocks 
act more nearly as units, the alarm of a single member causing the 
whole flock to whirl up into the air and be off. A further difference 
may be noted in its strictly terrestrial habits. When not flying, it is 
almost Invariably found on the ground: and when it does happen to 
alight in a tree, awkward wobblings betray its discomfort. Where 
the feeding conditions are favorable, immense flocks of snowflakes 
may be seen apparently rolling like a cloud across the land, this 
curious effect being due to the rear rank continually rising and flying 
forward to a point just in advance of the rest of the flock. At times 
they feed in company with horned larks. This is particularly notice- 
able when snow has covered the tops of weeds, and the birds are 
obliged t«» repair to the cre>ts of wind-swept knolls where the ground 
• mparatively bare of snow and the weeds arc. consequently, 
expoe 
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