A YEAR WITH THE BIRDS 619 
Snowflake: Plectrophanes nivalis. W. V. 
Snow Bunting 
_ . Plate VI Fig. 2 
Length: 7 inches. 
Male and Female: Summer plumage white, with the exception of 
black back, white-banded wings, tail, and band across back. 
Winter plumage soft browns and white — dead-leaf colors and 
snow. Bill and feet black. 
Song: Thoreau says, “a soft, rippling note.” 
Season: A midwinter visitor, especially in snowy seasons. 
Nest: Thickly lined with feathers set in a tussock. 
Eggs : 4-6, variable in size and color, whitish speckled with neutral 
tints. 
A bird well named, for the Snowflake, hurried from the 
north by fierce winds and weather, comes to us out of the 
snow-clouds. Traveling in great flocks, which are described 
as numbering sometimes a thousand, they settle down upon the 
old fields and upland meadows, subsisting upon various seeds. 
Their winter plumage, by which we alone know them, is ex- 
quisitely soft and beautiful, and the birds themselves have a 
wonderfully mild and spiritual expression as if they had come 
from an unknown region, and craved a little food and shelter, 
but conscious that while here they are the veriest birds of 
passage. 
After a northeasterly storm you may expect to see these 
useful and beautiful weed eaters scattered over the lowlands, 
often feeding in company with Tree Sparrows, the winter 
prototype of the sociable Chippy, who leaves us at cold 
weather. 
THE SNOWBIRD 
When the leaves are shed 
And the branches bare, 
When the snows are deep 
And the flowers asleep, 
And the autumn dead; 
And the skies are o’er us bent 
Gray and gloomy since she went, 
And the sifting snow is drifting 
Through the air; 
Then mid snowdrifts white, 
Though the trees are bare, 
Comes the Snowbird bold 
In the winter’s cold. 
