128 BRITISH BIRDS. 
valley of the Petchora we had abundant opportunity of seeing them in 
trees. My companion writes in ‘The Ibis’ :—‘‘ During the migration we 
constantly saw Snow-Buntings alight on trees, both singly and in flocks, 
and both on spruce-firs, willows, and bare high larches. They perched 
freely and flew from tree to tree, alighting without the slightest hesitation.” 
In the valley of the Yenesay I made similar observations ; and in the winter 
of 1879-80 Dixon saw a flock of Snow-Buntings rise from a newly manured 
field outside Endcliff Wood, near Sheffield, and alight in the trees. They 
were followed by some men who were shooting, and flew from tree to tree 
to avoid them, and some of them were shot from trees and are now in the 
Sheffield Museum. They frequented the place several days. In Ust 
Zylma, Mezen, and in the village of Koorayika, I have seen Snow-Buntings 
perched on rails, and often on the roofs of the houses. In their breeding- 
quarters they choose the most elevated situations they can find, perching 
on some projecting rock or on the piles of drift-wood. During migration 
they frequently commence to smg whilst waiting in the sunshine and the 
snow for summer to come; but at their breeding-quarters the song is very 
charming. Whilst the female is busy with the duties of incubation the 
male sings freely, sometimes as he sits upon the top of a rock, but often 
flinging himself up into the air like a shuttlecock, and then descending in a 
spiral curve with wings and tail expanded, singing all the time. The song 
is a low and melodious warble, not unlike that of the Shore-Lark, but still 
more like that of the Lapland Bunting. They have a variety of call-notes. 
As they fly together in flocks they continually twitter to each other like 
other Finches. The alarm-note is a loud ¢week, allied to the spink of the 
Chaffinch, and the call-note a long-drawn-out zh, not unlike that of the 
Brambling or Greenfinch. 
The food of the Snow-Bunting consists of seeds of various kinds in 
winter, and of insects in summer. On the rocky island opposite Vadsé, 
where Mr. Foyne has his whale-fishing establishment, the Snow-Bunting 
breeds in some numbers. All the birds I shot on this island had their 
gizzards full of the remains of flies. They seemed to be shore-feeding 
birds in this locality, and to find a variety of insects on the various decaying 
matter hy the sea. They were constantly frequenting the houses near the 
whale-fishing establishment, and doubtless found plenty of insects attracted 
by the offal of the whales. This bird has also been known to eat small 
shellfish and the buds of the Savifraga oppositifolia—a beautiful violet- 
coloured alpine plant which grows on the shores of the Polar Sea, both in 
America and Siberia, and may also be found in the there of the Engadine, 
at an elevation of about 8000 feet. 
the long dreary waiting for the sudden arrival of the arctic summer, and if I could not sub- 
stantiate my statements by careful notes written on the spot, and corroborate them by 
the observations of my companions. 
