SNOW BUNTING 1671 



with the buntings. As in spring, the birds fed heavily from 6 to 8 p.m. 

 before retiring. By September they started going to roost somewhat 

 earlier, usually between 8 and 9 p.m., and the coming of night made 

 them roost even earlier. By late September they were roosting by 

 7:30 p.m. 



Enemies. — Probably the snow buntings' greatest foe in spring is 

 the elements. Sutton (1932) describes dramatically how hundreds 

 of buntings succumbed from starvation or exposure on Southampton 

 Island during stormy weather in late May and early June. Weak 

 from lack of food and dazed by the wind, they were easily caught by 

 hand, and many were destroyed near the settlement by Eskimo 

 children and dogs. Under normal spring conditions when the birds 

 are healthy and the weather clement, predators probably catch few 

 buntings. MacDonald and I watched dogs and arctic foxes stalking 

 buntings unsuccessfully on Ellesmere Island, though one fox track 

 led to a bunting kill. 



Arctic foxes are doubtless one of the principal destroyers of bunting 

 nests and of young buntings. When a fox appears on the nesting 

 grounds, the old birds flock together in common defense. We watched 

 some 20 fluttering over and behind one hunting fox, but how successful 

 their distraction displays are is speculative. Where weasels are 

 plentiful they also take their toll of young birds. Unpretentious 

 desp oilers of bunting and other small passerine ground nests are the 

 brown and collared lemmings. These small rodents may only 

 partially destroy a clutch of eggs, but this causes the parents to desert 

 the nest. They may destroy all or part of a brood of small young. 



Among potential avian predators on the breeding grounds are 

 snowy owls, the several arctic falcons, and the jaegers that quarter the 

 tundra so fast and low. On Ellesmere Island, Tener (m Godfrey, 1953) 

 found the remains of an adult snow bunting in an adult long-tailed 

 jaeger, and a long-tailed jaeger chick regurgitated a bunting fledgling 

 while MacDonald and I were handling it. Bunting remains are 

 often numerous at gyrfalcon and peregrine falcon aeries. The 

 gyrfalcons commonly follow the bunting hordes along the coasts in 

 the fall; one that MacDonald and I shot had just eaten four buntings. 



Though buntings are still used for food occasionally in parts of 

 Europe and Asia, happily they are no longer hunted for market in 

 North America. William Dutcher's (1903) report of 80,000 buntings 

 for the gourmet trade "found by a State game warden in a cold storage 

 warehouse in one of the larger eastern cities" staggers the imagination. 



Fall and winter. — On Southampton Island Sutton (1932) comments: 

 "The prompt fall departure of the passerine birds surprised me. 

 I had expected to find Snow Buntings, Lapland Longspurs, and horned 

 larks all through the fall, and perhaps irregularly throughout the 



