But dreary as this would seem to us, nest building is going on there this June day, as well as here.
"Running lightly over uneven hummocks of grass are plump, roly-poly, black-and-white birds, with soft musical voices and the gentlest possible manners.

They may have already brought out one brood in thick, deep grassy nests, well lined with rabbit fur or Snow Owl feathers, that they know so well how to tuck under a protecting ledge of rock or bunch of grass.

Now and then a male Snowflake will take a little flight and sing as merrily as his cousin the Goldfinch, but he never stays long away from the ground where seeds are to be found.
"The white feathers of these birds are as soft as their friend the snow, of which they seem a part.

They have more white about them than any other color, and this snowy plumage marks them distinctly from all their Sparrow cousins.

After the moult, when a warm brown hue veils the white feathers, and the short northern summer has ended, the birds flock together for their travels.