SNOW-BUNTING. 125 
EMBERIZA NIVALIS. 
SNOW-BUNTING. 
(Pirate 15.) 
Emberiza hortulanus nivalis, Briss. Orn. ili. p. 285 (1760). 
Emberiza nivalis, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 808 (1766); et auctorum plurimorum— 
Gmelin, Scopoli, Latham, Temminck, (Bonaparte), (Degland § Gerbe), Naumann, 
(Newton), (Dresser), &e. 
Emberiza notata, Miiller, Natursyst. Suppl. p. 157 (1776). 
Emberiza mustelina, G'mel, Syst. Nat, i. p. 867 (1788). 
Emberiza montana, Gmel. Syst. Nat. i. p. 867 (1788). 
Emberiza lotharingica, Gmel. Syst. Nat. i. p. 882 (1788, partim). 
Emberiza glacialis, Lath. Ind. Orn. i. p. 898 (1790). 
Passerina borealis, Vieill. N. Dict. d’ Hist. Nat, xxv. p. 8 (1817). 
Passerina nivalis (Zinn.), Viel. Faun. Frang. p. 86 (1820), 
Plectrophanes nivalis (Linn.), Meyer, Zus. u. Ber. 2. Taschenb. p. 57 (1822). 
Plectrophanes hiemalis, Brehm, Vog. Deutschl. p. 804 (1831). 
Emberiza borealis (Vieill.), Degland, Orn. Eur. i. p. 273 (1849). 
The Snow-Bunting was known as a British bird as long ago as the days 
of Willughby, who shot it in Lincolnshire, and also obtained it from the 
northern parts of Yorkshire through his friend Mr. Johnson. In Ray’s 
edition of his ‘ Ornithologia,’ published in 1676, it is described and figured 
under.the name of the Great Pied Mountain-Finch. In England and 
Ireland this handsome little bird is only known as a comparatively rare 
winter visitor, and its chief haunts are the rough open grounds near the 
sea. In stormy weather, however, many of the birds occasionally wander 
far inland, and they have been obtained in almost every county. In 
Scotland the “ Snowflake” is commoner, and a few remain to breed on the 
higher mountains. Saxby found it breeding in Shetland, and Capt. 
Feilden observed it during the breeding-season in the Faroes. There 
appears to be no authenticated instance of the nest of the Snow-Bunting 
ever having been found on the mainland of Scotland, but there is indirect 
evidence of its having bred in some of the highest parts of the Grampians. 
The Snow-Bunting is a circumpolar bird, breeding on the tundras of 
the Arctic regions beyond the limit of forest-growth, in Iceland, Nova 
Zembla, and Spitzbergen, and in similar climates at high elevations further 
south, in the snow-regions of the Norwegian fells. The Snow-Bunting is 
a gipsy migrant during winter, occurring in larger or smaller flocks in 
Central Europe, South Siberia, North China, Japan, and the Northern 
States of America. Mr. Godman mentions a flock of about twenty of 
these birds which visited the Azores in the winter of 1864-65. It has 
not been recorded from the Spanish peninsula, but is a regular, though 
