158 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 
different periods of the year. Montagu considered 
that the real Snow Bunting—that is, the bird in its 
summer dress—had not appeared so far West as 
Somersetshire and Devonshire: that is, however, 
a mistake, for the bird, although rare in these 
counties in its summer dress, does occasionally 
remain long enough in the spring to assume it 
before its departure. I shot two Snow Buntings 
on the Warren at Exmouth on the 10th of April, 
1867, in summer plumage, and they are now in my 
collection: a friend who was with me shot a pair in 
the same plumage the next day. There is also an 
instance recorded in the ‘ Zoologist’ of the occur- 
rence of this bird in full summer plumage in Corn- 
wall as late as the 10th of May. 
The food of the Snow Bunting appears to consist 
principally of grain, when it can get it, as it is often 
found, both in its own northern home and in its 
southern migration, in stubble-fields, especially oat- 
stubbles, also the seeds of various sorts of grass 
and weeds: insects and the shelly Mollusca that 
adhere to the leaves of water-plants have also been 
mentioned as forming part of its food. 
The nest is usually placed in the crevice of a 
rock or in a loose pile of timber and stones: Yarrell 
also mentions one having been placed in the bosom 
of the corpse of an Esquimaux child. It is made 
of dry grass, and lined with hair and a few 
feathers. 
