186 LAND-BIRDS AND GAME-BIRDS 



with black variegations, and a black bill, /n winter, bill 

 brown, and the plumage endlessly varied. A specimen before 

 me, a very fair type, is chiefl}" white, with a rich dark brown 

 on the crown, becoming lighter and warmer on the back of 

 the neck and on the rump. The interscapulars are vaguely 

 streaked with white, black, and brown, these colors extending 

 to the scapulars. Wings and tail, chiefly black and white. 

 Under parts,, snowy-white, with a light warm brown patch on 

 each side of the breast. Specimens have been obtained pure 

 white, and unmarked. 



(6). Mr. Macfarlane found on the Arctic coast a "nest sit- 

 uated in a cave in a sand-bank." " The eggs, five in number, 

 are of a dull white, with perhaps a faint bluish cast, sprinkled 

 and spattered with dilute yellowish-rufous, the markings most 

 numerous toward the larger end ; thej'' measure -do of an inch 

 in length by -64 in breadth." 



(c). The Snow Buntings are quite regular as winter-visitors 

 to New England, appearing in November, April, and the inter- 

 vening months. They are very restless, and roam over the 

 country in flocks, which sometimes contain thousands of indi- 

 viduals. They have ver}' good powers of flight, and hence can 

 take long flights whenever their wishes or instincts prompt 

 them to do so. They generall}^ move to the northward when 

 long-continued fine weather occurs, and to the southward on 

 the advent of heavy snow-storms, and therefore have acquired, 

 in. their winter-haunts, the name of " bad-weather birds," a title 

 which originated in Europe, where they are well known. The 

 Snow Buntings for the most part breed in Arctic countries, but 

 a pair have been known to build their nest near Springfield, 

 Massachusetts, and, says Mr. Maynard,^''' " this species may 

 breed on the tops of some of the ranges of Maine and New 

 Hampshire. I have a note of a well authenticated instance of 

 a large flock being seen on Mount Katahdin, in early August, 

 1869." None, however, have ever been reported in summer 



M " A Catalogiie of the Birds of Coos Co., N. U., aud Oxford Co., Maine," etc.; 

 57th species, p. 17 of pamphlet. 



