Other northern visitors that tarried with me the same winter were
the tree or Canada sparrow and the redpoll, the former a bird
larger than the social sparrow or hair-bird, but otherwise much
resembling it, and distinguishable by a dark spot in the middle of
its breast; the latter a bird the size and shape of the common
goldfinch, with the same manner of flight and nearly the same note
or cry, but darker than the winter plumage of the goldfinch, and
with a red crown and a tinge of red on the breast. Little bands of
these two species lurked about the barnyard all winter, picking up
the hayseed, the sparrow sometimes venturing in on the haymow when
the supply outside was short. I felt grateful to them for their
company. They gave a sort of ornithological air to every errand I
had to the barn.
Though a number of birds face our winters, and by various shifts
worry through till spring, some of them permanent residents, and
some of them visitors from the far north, yet there is but one
genuine snow bird, nursling of the snow, and that is the snow
bunting, a bird that seems proper to this season, heralding the
coming storm, sweeping by on bold and rapid wing, and calling and
chirping as cheerily as the songsters of May. In its plumage it
reflects the winter landscape,--an expanse of white surmounted or
streaked with gray and brown; a field of snow with a line of woods
or a tinge of stubble. It fits into the scene, and does not appear
to lead a beggarly and disconsolate life, like most of our winter
residents.
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