PLECTROPHANES NIVALIS. 445 



July 18, in Wideroe shoot some Snowfowl [Fseroese Snjoufuglur'], 

 of which there is a colony ; they sit on stones and sing delightfully. 

 The females are almost entirely brown, but a little white shows in 

 their wings as they fly. I am exceedingly pleased with this colony. 

 The nests seem to be under very large stones, which were scattered 

 about. 



19th July, in Fugloe, the north-easternmost island, see Snowfowl, 

 of which 1 shoot one. This not in high ground, neither were those 

 in Wideroe. In both islands they were near the northern end — in 

 the one near Wideroe, in the other near Haltervig. I saw one 

 settle like a Sparrow in the yard of the minister in Wideroe. 



[The above paragraphs seem to have been copied from rougli notes taken 

 during Mr. Wolley's Fseroese excursion, and put together after his return. They 

 were not entered in his regular ' Egg Book,' which he had not taken with him, 

 for more than a year later. Though the Snow-Bunting was already known to 

 breed in the Faeroes, T find no record of any nest having been taken or found before \ 

 Greatly pleased as he was with his capture, Mr. Wolley did not make much of it in 

 his paper on the birds of these islands read before the British Association at its 

 Meeting in Edinburgh the next year, and afterwards printed in Sir William 

 Jardine's ' Contributions to Ornithology ' (1850, p. 110), Therein the author merely 

 stated that this species " breeds very scantily near the tops of the mountains ; but 

 in the northernmost islands of the group, on the lower grounds, and in small 

 colonies. A neatly made nest, placed under a large stone, had young almost fully 

 fledged at the beginning of July. We had the pleasure of hearing its sweet little 

 song spoken of with so much delight by the northern voyagers." It remains to be 

 added that the e^^g he obtained is of abnormal appearance, and had it not been 

 unmistakably inscribed by himself as the specimen taken in the circumstances 

 above related, I should have hardly ventured to ascribe it to this species. — Ed.] 



§ 2402. 7'e;z.— Iceland, 1854. From Mr. Proctor. 



With two nests, made principally of fine grass, lined with Ptar- 

 migan^s feathers. 



^ [Debes, writing in 1G70 (Faerose & Faeroa Reserata &c. Kjobenhaffn : 1073, 

 p. 1!24), knew that Snee-Fvylene, as he translated their name into Danish, were 

 found at all times in the islands, keeping in the highest hills, though they were 

 only seen in the early part of the year when there was sharp frost and snow. 

 Graba did not find a nest, though on the 1st July, 1828, he must have been very 

 near one on the hill behind Sandegjerde, where he obtained a cock and hen 

 (Tagebuch gef iihrt auf einer Reise nach Faro. Hamburg : 1830, p. 218). Holm 

 writing in 1847 (Naturhist. Tidaskr., Ny liaskke, ii. p. 480) says he had never seen or 

 obtained the bird in summer-plumage. In 1872 Col. Feilden visited the \Qi-\ place 

 where Mr. Wolley found the nest, but did not see a bird of the species tliere, 

 meeting with it only on Skuoe; but he was especially unlucky in his weather 

 (Zoologist, 1872, p. 3218).— Ed.] 



