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Birds Eat Snow

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Birds Eat Snow.-In the dry Southwest certain areas are useful for grazing only when some snow is on the ground, thus affording horses, cattle or sheep a chance to slack their thirst by eating snow. In winter deer may be seen eating snow.

That birds also depend upon snow when it is available was vividly called to my attention here in Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona. On November 28, 1942, I noted Red-backed Juncos (Junco phueonotlrs do~sulis) coming to a ledge outside my office window. When I stopped to observe closely at a distance of six feet, I found them eating snow, a small patch of which remained on the shaded stone ledge. Shortly thereafter, a Mountain Chickadee (Penthestes gumbeli) came for several mouthfuls of snow. No water was available for a considerable distance and the weather was fairly warm and sunshiny.

Again on the morning of November 30 a half dozen Oregon Juncos (Jztnco oregums) ate snow at the same place, working hard to break loose the snow crystals now hardened into ice. They were soon joined by a couple of Red-backed Juncos and a Mountain Chickadee. On December 6 when a new snow had fallen, a flock of English Sparrows (Pesser domesticus) were seen greedily eating snow at the mule barns-HAROLD C. BRYANT, Grand Canyon, Arizona, December 11, 1942.

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