SNOWFLAKE. 
301 
into the Northern States in whirling, roving flocks, either im- 
mediately before or soon after an inundating fall of snow. 
Amidst the drifts, and as they accumulate with the blast, flocks 
of these illwars fogel, or bad-weather birds, of the Swedes, like 
the spirits of the storm are to be seen flitting about in restless 
and hungry troops, at times resting on the wooden fences, 
though but for an instant, as, like the congenial Tartar hordes 
of their natal regions, they appear now to have no other 
object in view but an escape from famine and to carry on a 
general system of forage while they happen to stay in the 
vicinity. At times, pressed by hunger, they alight near the 
door of the cottage and approach the barn, or even venture 
into the out-houses in quest of dormant insects, seeds, or 
crumbs wherewith to allay their hunger ; they are still, how- 
ever, generally plump and fat, and in some countries much 
esteemed for the table. In fine weather they appear less rest- 
less, somewhat more familiar, and occasionally even at this 
season they chant out a few unconnected notes as they survey 
the happier free of Nature. At the period of incubation they 
are said to sing agreeably, but appear to seek out the most 
desolate regions of the cheerless North in which to waste the 
sweetness of their melody, unheard by any ear but that of their 
mates. In the dreary wastes of Greenland, the naked Lapland 
Alps, and the scarcely habitable Spitzbergen, bound with eter- 
nal ice, they pass the season of reproduction seeking out the 
fissures of rocks on the mountains in which to fix their nests 
about the month of May or June. A few are known to breed 
in the alpine declivities of the White Mountains of New 
Hampshire. The nest is here fixed on the ground in the 
shelter of low bushes, and formed nearly of the same materials 
as that of the Common Song Sparrow. 
At times they proceed as far south in the United States as 
the State of Maryland. They are here generally known by the 
name of the White Snow Bird, to distinguish them from the 
more common dark-bluish Sparrow, so called. They vary m 
their color according to age and season, and have always a, 
great predominance of white in their plumage. 
