458 GRANIVOROUS BIRDS. 



SNOW-BUNTING. 



(Emberiza nivalis, Lin. Wilson, iii. p. 36. pi. 21. fig. 2. [female in 

 winter dress]. Phil. Museum, No. 5900.) 



Sp. Charact. — Quills white on the lower part, black upwards; tail 

 black, the 3 lateral feathers white, tipt with blackish ; hind nail 

 rather short and curved. — Male in full dress, with the head, 

 neck, and beneath white. — In the female, young, a.nd male in 

 winter dress, the white parts are tinged with rufous. 



This messenger of cold and stormy weather chiefly 

 inhabits the higher regions of the arctic circle, from 

 whence, as the severity of the winter threatens, they 

 migrate, indifferently over Europe, Eastern Asia, and 

 the United States. On their way to the South, they 

 appear round Hudson's Bay in September, and stay till 

 the frosts of November again oblige them to seek out 

 warmer quarters. Early in December, they make their 

 descent into the Northern States in whirling roving 

 flocks, either immediately before, or soon after, an inun- 

 dating fall of snow. Amidst the drifts, and as they ac- 

 cumulate with the blast, flocks of these illwars fogel, or 

 bad-weather birds of the Swedes, like the spirits of the 

 storm, are to be seen flitting about in restless and hungry 

 troops, at times resting on the wooden fences, though 

 but for an instant, as, like the congenial Tartar hordes 

 of their natal regions, they appear now to have no other 

 object in view, but an escape from famine, and to carry 

 on a general system of forage while they happen to stay 

 in the vicinity. At times, pressed by hunger, they alight 

 near the door of the cottage, and approach the barn, or 

 even venture into the out-houses in quest of dormant 

 insects, seeds, or crumbs wherewith to allay their hun- 

 ger ; they are still, however, generally plump and fat, 

 and in some countries much esteemed for the table. In 

 fine weather they appear less restless, somewhat more 



