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SNOW BUNTING. 



Plectrophanes nivalis (/.). 



Winter visitant, chiefly to the coast ; vei^y numerous in most years. 

 Irregular in its appearance inland. 



The earliest reference to this bird in relation to Yorkshire 

 is contained in Willughby's "Ornithology," under the heading 

 of " The great pied Mountain Finch or Bramlin." ..." Mr. 

 Johnson [of Brignall, near Greta Bridge] sent us the Bird 

 itself, and the description of it out of the Northern part of 

 Yorkshire." " The same Mr. Johnson sent also the descrip- 

 tion of another bird of this kind, by the name of The lesser 

 Mountain Finch or Bramlin, together with the case of the 

 Bird : which by the case I took to be only the female of the 

 precedent, he from its difference in bigness, place, and other 

 accidents rather judges it a distinct species." [Description 

 follows.] (Will. " Orn." 1676, p. 255.) These are the old 

 female and young of the year of the Snow Bunting. 



T/io}jias Allis, in 1844, wrote of this species thus : — 



Plectrophanes nivalis. — Snow Bunting — Occurs near Doncaster and 

 Sheffield, where a beautiful specimen was shot in a garden close to 

 the town ; is met with near Halifax every winter, but sometimes 

 occurs in immense flocks ; is seen in hard winters about Huddersfield, 

 and in great numbers about the high land near Pateley Bridge ; it 

 occurs on Hambleton and at Bradford in severe winters. Arthur 

 Strickland reports that very large flocks every winter frequent some 

 districts on the edge of the Wolds near Bridlington, but are so wary 

 that they are very difficult of approach ; there are besides generally 

 single birds or small flocks that do not seem to join the large ones 

 and, from possessing more white and being more easily approached, 

 appear to come from a more nortliern region. 



This hardy little Arctic bird usually arrives about the 

 middle or end of October or early in November ; in 1879 

 the first appeared on the 23rd of October, and arrivals 

 continued uj) to the 20th of December ; in 1880 there was 

 an intermittent stream from mid-October till the following 

 January ; and it was noted in 1881 on the 6th of October. 



