\iO Trans. Acad. Sci. of St. LouU 



A great wanderer is the Snow P>iintiii,ir- It makes its 

 nest in the Aretic ami Subarctic Kegion, and is the lirst 

 passerine bird to penetrate into tliose regions with the 

 return of spring, before tlie snow is melted. In winter 

 they come south, usually in large Hocks, to the northern 

 United States, sometimes as far south as Indiana, Mis- 

 souri, Kansas, Coh)ra<lo and Oregon. They are decidedly 

 gregarious and delight to fly in the stormiest weather. 

 Their a])pearances is often considered the harbinger of 

 snow, and they retuni northward with the disaj^jiearance 

 of snow. All are gone from the United States by the end 

 of A]uil. They are said to be much less numerous than 

 formerly in the regions which they visit regularly in win- 

 ter. One of the reasons for the decrease is that they have 

 been slaughtered by liundreds for food and for millinery 

 pui*poses, the beauty of tlie bird in its spring plumage of 

 black, white and brown rendering it ]iarticuhn'ly attrac- 

 tive as a *'hat l)ird." It is also said tliat thousands of 

 h(>ads of Snow Buntings were ])ahned off on county 

 clerks as those of English Sparrows, wlien bounties were 

 paid on them. It may be said that bounty laws under the 

 best conditions are expensive and unsatisfactory, and as 

 far as the English Sparrow is concerned liave ]n'oved to 

 be extremely unwise and iiietTective, as many of our val- 

 uable birds have been destroyed and bounties illegally 

 paid. 



Better acquainted than with the Snow Bunting are we 

 ^lissourians with its cousin, the La])land Longsinir, be- 

 cause we have it as a regular winter visitant, a])]>earing 

 from the north in November and remaining till March, 

 exceptionally as in the cold spring of 1907 till the middle 

 of April. They are similar in gen<'ial ai)])earance to the 

 Snow Bunting, but with a large black ]iatch on the breast 

 and a chestnut collai- on the back of the neck. In early 

 winter the black is obscured by wliite tips of the feathers. 

 It breeds in the northern part of both hemispheres and 

 comes south to the United States, chiefly the middle 



