SNOW-BUNTING 153 



fore be regarded as an indigenous species; but the birds breeding 

 within British limits are only a few pairs, and the snow-bunting is 

 best known as a winter visitor from more northern regions. They 

 appear on our coasts iq the month of October, sometimes in immense 

 flocks, to pass the winter, for the most part in the neighbourhood of 

 the sea, seeking their food in fields and on waste lands. Occasion- 

 ally these flocks penetrate to the more inland districts. Being 

 very pretty and lively little birds, they are great favomrites in the 

 places they visit ; and their appearance is all the more welcome on 

 account of the desolate aspect of nature in the districts where they 

 are most abundant. Many ornithologists have written lovingly 

 about the snow-bunting. Thus, Saxby says : * Seen against a dark 

 hillside or a lowering sky, a flock of these birds presents an exceed- 

 ingly beautiful appearance, and it may then be seen how aptly the 

 term " snowflake " has been applied to the species. I am acquainted 

 with no more pleasing combination of sight and sound than that 

 afforded when a cloud of these birds, backed by a dark grey sky, 

 descends, as it were, in a shower to the ground, to the music of their 

 own sweet, tinkling notes.' 



The fuUest, and by far the most interesting, account ever given 

 of the snow-bimting is by Seebohm. He says that in its habits it 

 is the most arctic of the small birds, breeding as far north as latitude 

 82° 33'. Its appearance is thus described : ' In sledging over the 

 snow across the steppes of South-western Siberia from Ekaterran- 

 burg to Tomsk, a distance of about a thousand miles, the snow- 

 bunting was the only bird we saw, except a few sparrows, jackdaws, 

 and hooded crows near the villages. The snow-buntings were in 

 small flocks, and many of them had almost lost their winter dress. 

 It was a charming sight to watch them flitting before the sledge, as 

 we disturbed them at their meals. Sometimes, in the sunshine, their 

 white bodies were invisible against the white snow, and we could 

 almost fancy that a flock of black butterflies was dancing before us. 

 The flight of the snow-bimting is peculiar, and is somewhat like that 

 of a butterfly, as if the bird altered its mind every few seconds as to 

 which direction it wished to take.' 



Of its song he says : * Whilst the female is busy with the duties 

 of incubation the male sings freely, sometimes as he sits upon the 

 top of a rock, but often flinging himself into the air like a shuttle- 

 cock, and then descending in a spiral curve, with wings and tail 

 expanded, singing all the time. The song is a low and melodious 

 warbling, not unlike that of the shore-lark.' 



