(IO) 
and rich brown tints of the back and head. You must look for 
these visitors on smooth hill sides, and in the meadows and pas¬ 
ture lands where the grasses and weeds protruding above the 
snow, furnish requisite food. They are more numerous some 
years than others and they desert us at the first indication of 
warm weather. 
At the same time, and in similar situations you will have little 
difficulty in starting a flock of Horned Larks or Shore Larks; 
a pencil tuft of long narrow black feathers extends backward 
over each ear, in quite the semblance of a horn. 
Those of you who have driven or walked through any of the 
country roads of Rhode Island during the bright, warm days of 
summer, just as the thistle blooms have ripened and are waiting 
for the autumnal winds to distribute the downy parachutes, have 
surely noticed the merry little bird of brightest yellow, with cap 
and wings and tail of black, as he perches and dandles on a 
blossom. This is the male American Goldfinch ; a little later 
this pretty plumage is exchanged for one of brown and olive, 
more like that of the female, and now, in January, you may not 
recognize him, as he flys away from you in undulatory lines, 
singing a gentle, short, sweet song. 
In the cedar swamps, the Robin or Migratory Thrush is to be 
found, also the Cedar Bird, large flocks of these since January 
15th have been reported from Seekonk, Arctic and Johnston. 
Irregularly we find the Ruby crown Kinglet and the Golden 
crown Kinglet, tiny birds, the smallest next to the hummers, 
the Black cap Titmouse or Chickadee, the Purple Finch, com¬ 
monly called Red Linnet, the Winter Wren, the White-breasted 
Nuthatch, the Hairy Woodpecker, the Downy Woodpecker, the 
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker, the American Crossbill, the White¬ 
winged Crossbill, the Junco or Snow Bird, the Cow Bird or Cow 
Black Bird, a pair killed this year during the cold weather of 
January 19th ; surely these early birds were not looking for worms. 
The Red-wing Black Bird, the Meadow Lark or Marsh Quail, 
the Wilson’s Snipe; one was killed by Mr. Charles Carpenter 
on Thanksgiving day, 1S82, and two others at Fields Point in the 
month of January. Mr. Newton Dexter informs me of taking 
Woodcock, one Virginia Rail, and three Carolina Doves all 
