SNOW BUNTING. 85 



bacl-Aveather birds. The Uplanders hardwarsfogel, expressive of the 

 same. The Laplanders style them Alaipg. Leems* remarks, I know 

 not Avith what foundation, that they fatten on the flowing of the tides in 

 Finmark ; and grow lean on the ebb. The Laplanders take them in great 

 numbers in hair-springs for the tables, their flesh being very delicate. 



" They seem to make the countries within the whole Arctic circle 

 their summer residence, from whence they overflow the more southern 

 countries in amazing multitudes, at the setting in of winter in the 

 frigid zone. In the winter of 1778-9, they came in such multitudes 

 into Birsa, one of the Orkney islands, as to cover the whole barony ; 

 yet of all the numbers hardly two agreed in Colors. 



" Lapland, and perhaps Iceland, furnishes the north of Briton with 

 the swarms that frequent these parts during winter, as low as the Che- 

 viot Hills, in lat. 52° 32'. Their resting places the Feroe isles, ScJiet- 

 land and the Orkneys. The highlands of Scotland, in particular, 

 abound with them. Their flights are immense, and they mingle so 

 closely together in form of a ball that the fowlers make great havoc 

 among them. They arrive lean, soon become very fat, and are deli- 

 cious food. They either arrive in the highlands very early, or a few 

 breed there, for I had one shot for me at Invercauld, the fourth of 

 August. But there is a certainty of their migration ; for multitudes of 

 them fall, wearied with their passage, on the vessels that are sailing 

 through the Pentland frith, f 



" In their summer dress they are sometimes seen in the south of 

 England ;| the climate not having severity sufiicient to affect the co- 

 lors ; yet now and then a milk white one appears, which is usually mis- 

 taken for a white Lark. 



" Russia and Siberia receive them in their severe seasons annually, 

 in amazing flocks, overflowing almost all Russia. They frequent the 

 villages, and yield a most luxurious repast. They vary there infinitely 

 in their winter colors, are pure white, speckled, and even quite brown. § 

 This seems to be the influence of difference of age more than of season. 

 Germany has also its share of them. In Austria they are caught and fed 

 with millet, and afford the epicure a treat equal to that of the Ortolan. "|| 



These birds appear in the northern districts of the United States, 

 early in December, or with the first heavy snow, particularly if drifted 

 by high winds. They are usually called the White Snow-bird, to dis- 

 tinguish them from the small dark bluish Snow-bird already described. 

 Their numbers increase with the increasing severity of weather, and 

 depth of snow. Flocks of them sometimes reach as far south as the 



* Finmark, 255. § Bell's Travel's, 1, 198. 



t Bishop Pocock's Journal, MS/ || Kramer, Anim. Austr. 372. 



X Morton's Northamp. p. 427. 



