THE SNOW BUNTING 257 



curious hesitating or wildly erratic flights of the male during 

 the nesting season are, I think, quite peculiar to it. 



It is doubtful whether those birds nesting on the high 

 Scottish hills remain in the glens of their nesting country 

 throughout the winter ; but towards October flocks of Snow 

 Buntings appear from the lands lying to our north, and fre- 

 quent the high tops, till snow drives them to shelter. In 

 the glens they feed actively on the seeds of the hill grasses, 

 but they are restless and are difficult to approach, uttering 

 twittering cries, and, sometimes, their clear whistling call, 

 as they take wing and make their way to new grounds. 

 But it is not easy to realise that these birds are of the same 

 species as those which reared their young in the high 

 corries, for, curiously enough, the cock Snow Bunting has 

 more white on his plumage during the summer months, 

 and on the approach of autumn exchanges many of his 

 snowy feathers for those bearing a russet tint. Even when 

 the birds are flocked it is doubtful whether unions formed 

 during the nesting season are dissolved, for I have seen, 

 in the dead of winter, a Snow Bunting feed his mate as 

 they perched with others from the flock on a stack of oats. 

 It is perhaps during the month of March that the Snow 

 Bunting harmonises most closely with his surroundings. 

 During that month the hills are still deep in their snowy 

 cloak, yet the Snow Birds, the males handsome in their 

 full breeding plumage, have already penetrated to their 

 wild and exposed nesting sites, and the cock birds re- 

 semble closely the snowy wastes over which they flit. 



One sees many Snow Buntings along the eastern coast 

 of Scotland during the late autumn and winter months. 

 Occasionally a male is noted still in his nesting plumage, 

 and such an individual is at once a marked object, 

 however large may be the flock of which he is a 

 member. During severe weather flocks of Snow Buntings 

 may be seen passing south along the Aberdeenshire coast. 



R 



