Passerell a iliaca . 
Concord, 
1893. 
April 5. 
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i 
Mass. Method of "scratching". 
The Pow Sparrows, as is their wont, during a snow-storm 
at this season, sang all day long at short intervals, some- 
times singly out oftener two or three in quick succession, 
one taking up the theme directly his predecessor ceased or 
even breaking in on him at the last of his song. It mas in- 
deed a glorious concert chon several birds were thus engaged, 
their rich, wild notes rising and falling all around the log 
cabin in which I sat writing. 
The songs of the different individuals varied greatly 
in form as well as in duration some lasting twice as long as 
others but each bird apparently sang in precisely the same 
way on different occasions. 
The seed became, at times, covered with snow but the Pox 
Sparrows quickly uncovered it by "scratching". Watching this 
operation carefully, with the Sparrows only eight or ten feet 
from my window, I satisfied myself fully as to how it is done. 
The bird first makes a forward hop of from one to three inches 
and the instant it strikes the ground jumps backward to the 
starting point carrying with it all the snow, leaves cbr other 
light surface covering that its large feet have beneath them, 
often flinging the debris six or eight inches to the rear, 
and at each hop exposing a small space of bare earth within 
convenient reach and directly in front of where it was at 
