SNOW BIRD. 
273 
is usually called, falling weather, assemble in larger flocks, and 
seem doubly diligent in searching for food. This increased 
activity is generally a sure prognostic of a storm. When 
deep snows cover the ground, they become almost half domes- 
ticated. They collect about the barn, stables, and other out- 
houses, 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 
morning, 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 ofvreeds 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 are, at this time, easily caught with almost any kind of 
trap ; 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 Ogeechee 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 roadsides are their favourite 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 
opportunity, or hovering cautiously around, making an occa- 
sional 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 
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