274 
SNOW BIRD. 
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 20th 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 waters of the west branch 
of the Susquehanna, they breed in great numbers. The nest 
is fixed in the ground, or among the grass, sometimes several 
being within a small distance of each other. According to the 
observations of the gentlemen residing at Hudson Bay factory, 
they arrive there about the beginning of June, stay a week 
or two, and proceed farther north to breed. They return to 
that settlement in the autumn on their way to the south. 
In some parts of New England, I found the opinion pretty 
general, that the Snow Bird, in summer, is transformed into 
the Small Chipping Sparrow, which we find so common in 
that season, and which is represented in the same plate. I 
had convinced a gentleman of New York of his mistake in 
this matter, by taking him to the house of a Mr Gautier, there, 
who amuses himself by keeping a great number of native as 
well as foreign birds. This was in the month of July, and the 
Snow Bird appeared there in the same coloured plumage he 
usually has. Several individuals of the Chipping Sparrow 
were also in the same apartment. The evidence was, there- 
fore, irresistible ; but, as I had not the same proofs to offer to 
the eye in New England, I had not the same success. 
There must be something in the temperature of the blood 
or constitution of this bird, which unfits it for residing, during 
summer, in the lower parts of the United States; as the 
country here abounds with a great variety of food, of which, 
during its stay, it appears to be remarkably fond. Or, 
perhaps, its habit of associating in such numbers to breed, 
and building its nest with so little precaution, may, to ensure 
its safety, require a solitary region, far from the intruding 
footsteps of man. 
