THE SNOW BUNTING 253 



would return and that I might obtain a photograph of 

 him. But he apparently noticed that his singing-station 

 had been altered : at all events he did not return to it. 

 Later in the afternoon, when my companion and I were 

 lying half asleep in the hot sun, the songster suddenly 

 appeared and commenced to sing only a few yards from 

 us. My large camera being unavailable, I stalked the 

 Snow Bunting with a kodak that I had with me, and suc- 

 ceeded in obtaining a photograph of the bird in the middle 

 of its song at short range. 



Toward the second week of July the snow-bird utters 

 his song less frequently, also he extends his range and 

 moves out on to the highest hill-tops during fine calm 

 weather. By August, save in exceptional cases, he is 

 silent. 



The nest of the Snow Bunting is placed where it is 

 almost impossible of discovery, unless the parent birds 

 are marked down as they visit it either with building 

 materials or with food for their young. It is built hidden 

 away amongst the stones, at a depth maybe of well 

 over a foot, and the hen-bird does not usually take wing 

 until actually compelled to do so. The eggs number from 

 five to as many as eight. Their ground colour is of a 

 bluish green, and they are spotted and blotched with 

 rich reddish brown, finely striated with deep blackish 

 brown. 



In size they vary from 1'05 to 82 inch in length, 

 and from "67 to "60 inch in breadth. They repose on a 

 lining of dried grass-stems and Ptarmigan feathers. The 

 building of the riest is commenced almost with the melting 

 of the snows — about May 20th— and the hen begins 

 to brood during the first week in June. The young are 

 fed mainly on insects, and both parent birds share in 

 these duties, the cock varying the monotony of searching 

 for delicacies with snatches of his song. By the first days 



