SPECIES 7. 
FRINGILLA HUDSONM* 
SNOW-BIRD. 
[Plate XVI. — Fig. 6.] 
Fringilla Hudsonia, Tukton, 8yst. i, 568 . — Emberiza hyemalis. 
Id. 531.— Lath, i, 66. — Catesby, i, 36. — .drct. Zool. p. 359, JVb. 
223 . — Passer nivalis, Babtram, p. 291. — Peale’s Museum, 
JSTo. 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, sreading 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 Penn- 
sylvania east of the Alleghany 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 weather, as- 
semble in larger flocks, and seem doubly diligent in searchingfor 
food. This increased activity is generally a sure prognostic of 
a storm. When deep snow covers the ground they become al- 
most 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 
* Fringilla hymalis, Linn. Syst. Ed. 10, i, p. 183, 30. 
