When they will visit us no one can say; they come and go, as if driven by the wind.
"A soft clinging December snowstorm begins, and suddenly you will wonder at a cloud of brown, snow-edged leaves that settle on a bare spot in the road, then whirl up and, clearing the high fence, drop into the shelter of the barnyard.
"'How very strange,' you will say; 'these leaves act as if they were bewitched.' You look again, and rub your eyes; for these same whirling winter leaves are now walking about the yard, picking up grass-seed and grain under the very nose of the cross old rooster himself! Then you discover that they are not leaves at all, but plump little birds who, if they could speak, would say how very much obliged they are for the food.
"When the snow melts they fly away.

By the time they have got home again, weather and travel have worn the brown edges of their feathers away, so that the black parts show; and thus, without a second moulting, they are black-and-white birds again.
"When you search for them look in the air, or on the shed-top, or about the haystack, or on the ground; for they seldom perch in trees." "Why is that ?" asked Rap.

"I should think it would be warmer for them in the thick evergreens." "They nest on the ground, and as they also gather their food there, are unused to large trees." "Why don't they nest in trees up North ?" asked Nat.
"For the same reason," laughed Olive, "that Simple Simon didn't catch a whale in the water pail! There are no trees where the Snowflake nests!" The Snowflake Length seven inches.
In summer snow-white, with black on the back, wings, and tail.
In winter wears a warm brown cloak, with black stripes, fastened with a brown collar, and a brown and white vest.
A Citizen of the North, travelling southward in snowstorms as far sometimes as Georgia.
A member of the guild of Weed Warriors, eating seeds at all seasons.
THE VESPER SPARROW (THE GRASS FINCH) "Please, uncle, before you tell us about this Sparrow, will you look at a sort of a striped, dull-brown bird that has been fidgeting over there under the bushes ever since we have been here ?" [Illustration: Vesper Sparrow.] "I have been watching him too," said Rap; "a minute ago, when he flew over the stone fence, I saw he had white feathers outside on his tail--now he is back again." "How very kind that bird is to come when he is wanted, and save my time--it is the Vesper Sparrow himself.

I suspect that we are nearer to his nest than he cares to have us, he is so uneasy." "Where would the nest most likely be ?" asked Nat; "in a tree or a bush ?" "Most Sparrow nests are near the ground," said Rap.
"A little lower yet, Rap; the Vesper Sparrow sinks his deep nest either in thick grass or in the ground itself; but though it is thus supported on all sides it is as nicely woven as if it were a tree nest." "It isn't a very pretty bird," said Dodo.

"Does it sing well?
Why is it called the Vesper Sparrow--what does Vesper mean, Uncle Roy ?" "Vesper means evening.