384 THE BIRDS OF HELIGOLAND 



is a dull olivaceous yellowish white (olivengelblich getrilhtes Weiss), 

 with darkish grey roundish blotches, and yellowish olive-brown 

 {gelblich-olivenbraune) splashes, which are gathered in a zone, or 

 are somewhat more crowded at the thick end. In one of the eggs 

 a violaceous greyish bro^vn (violettlich graubraun) shade predomi- 

 nates, both in the ground-colour as well as in markings, whereby it 

 resembles some of the eggs of the White Wagtail so much as to be 

 easily mistaken for them. In one egg in my collection the dots are 

 finer than in any other, and the markings, which are rather scanty, 

 are distributed uniformly over the whole surface. This example I 

 owe to the kindness of Colonel Wardlaw-Ramsay, who collected it 

 in Afghanistan during the war in 1880. The ground-colour in this 

 example is of a very pale sea-green. 



184.— Snow Bunting [Schneeammer]. 

 EMBERIZA NIVALIS, Lmn.i 



Heligolandish: Sniiling = /Si)!.oio Bunting. 



Emberiza nivalis. Naumann, iv. 297. 



Snow Bunting. Dresser, iv. 261. 



Bruant de ncige. Temminck, Manuel, i. 319, iii. 339. 



As might be expected, the Snow Buntmg is a very numerous 

 visitor to Heligoland — especially in late autunm, on the approach 

 of frosty weather. A flock of some hundreds of these boisterous 

 birds, descending for a moment on some open plam, presents a most 

 pleasing sight. Evidently they do not alight for the purpose of 

 resting — for they seem not to know what rest means, — nor in search 

 of food. They, in fact, absolutely roU themselves over and over 

 along the ground, the individuals at the rear of the flock flying low 

 over the whole train of those in front of them, and immediately 

 taking up their place in front of the foremost rank ; this mana?uvi'e 

 is repeated without interruption, so that all the flock soon gets to 

 the edge of the cliff. Arrived there, they rise in a body and hasten, 

 as though they were chased by the wind, in a high curve to some 

 distant spot, where the same restless movements are performed over 

 again. The liveliness of such a scene is enhanced in no small 

 degree by the clear call-notes of the birds, which they utter 

 repeatedly both while running along the gi'ound and when on the 

 wing. 



Not infrequently solitary young birds of the year arrive as early 

 as the last days of August and the first days of September. 



' Plectrophenax nivaiis {hinn.). 



