238 
SNOW-BIRD. 
early in the morning, gleaning up the crumhs; appearing very 
lively and familiar. They have also recourse, at this severe sea- 
son, 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 bor- 
ders of creeks and fences, where they associate with several 
species of Sparrows, particularly those represented on the same 
plate. They are at this time easily caught with almost any 
kind of traps; are generally fat, and, it is said, are excellent 
eating. 
I cannot but considerthis 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 
b)^ the circuitous route in which I travelled of more than 1800 
miles, I never passed a day, and scarcely a mile, without see- 
ing numbers of these birds, and frequently large flocks of sev- 
eral 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 favour- 
ite haunts, where many rank weeds that grow along the fences 
furnish them with food, and the road with gravel. In the vi- 
cinity 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 opportunity, 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 
