SNOW BUNTING. 593 



SNOW-BUNTING. 



( Ember iza nivalis, Wilson. E. (Plectrophanes) nivalis, Mi:yeb.. Rich. 



and SwAiNs. North. Zool, ii. p. 246.) 



This harbinger of winter breeds in the northernmost of 

 the American islands, and on all the shores of the continent 

 from Chesterfield Inlet to Behring's Straits. The most 

 southerly of its breeding stations in America, according to 

 Richardson, is Southampton Island in the 62d parallel, 

 where Capt. Lyons found a nest, by a strange fatality, placed 

 in the bosom of the exposed corpse of an Esquimaux child. 

 It is composed of dry grass, and usually lined with deer's hair, 

 and a few feathers, and is commonly fixed in the crevice 

 of a rock, or in the accidental and rude shelter of loose 

 stones or fallen timber. The eggs are greenish-white, with 

 a circle of irregular umber-brown spots round the larger 

 end, and blended with numerous blotches of pale lavender- 

 purple. Well-clothed, and hardy by nature, the Snow-Biin- 

 ting even lingers about the forts of the fur countries and 

 open places, picking up grass seeds, until the snow becomes 

 deep ; it is only during the months of December and 

 January that it retires to the southward of the Saskatche- 

 wan ; and it is seen again there on its return as early as the 

 middle of February ; two months after which it arrives in 

 the 65th parallel, and by the beginning of May it has pen- 

 etrated to the coast qf the Polar sea. At this period it feeds 

 upon the buds of the Purple Saxifrage (Saiifraga oppositi- 

 folia,) one of the most early of the arctic plants. 



As the Snow-Bunting sometimes begins to visit the United 

 States in October, it appears pretty certain that some of 

 these birds breed, almost, if not quite within the northern 

 limits of the Union. And as stated elsewhere, a nest has 

 been found near the rocky summit of the White Mountains 

 of New Hampshire. 



