188 SIXTH REPORT — 1836. 



mer heat is already on the decline before the country is even 

 partially denvided of its wintry mantle, we should scarcely ex- 

 pect to find any granivoroiis birds feeding in such high lati- 

 tudes ; but, in fact, by an admirable provision, springing from 

 the peculiar severity of the climate, the snow-buntings and Lap- 

 land finches are furnished with food on their first arrival, when 

 the patches of cleared land are scarcely larger than what suffices 

 for the reception of their eggs. In the polar regions, the au- 

 tumnal frosts set in so severely and suddenly that the pro- 

 cess of vegetation is at once an-ested, and the grass-culms, in- 

 stead of whitening and withering as they do more to the south- 

 Avard, are preserved full of sap vmtil the spring, the seeds re- 

 maining firmly fixed in their glumes ; when the ground is pre- 

 pared for their reception by the melting snow, the seeds fall, 

 and in a few days, under the influence of continuous light, a 

 brilliant, though short-lived, verdure gladdens the eye. These 

 grass-seeds, then, and the berries of several vaccinea;, empetrecef 

 &c., which remain plump and juicy till the spring, yield food to 

 the birds on their first arrival ; and by the time that the young 

 are hatched, their wants are supplied by the further melting 

 of the snow liberating the larvae of many insects. The nata- 

 tores, which feed at sea, find open water early enough for their 

 purpose, and it is interesting to observe how well even the 

 freshwater anatklcE (the majority of which breed in high lati- 

 tudes) are provided for. Long before the ice of the small lakes 

 gives way it is flooded to the depth of several feet with melted 

 snow, that swarms with myriads of the larvae of gnats and 

 other insects on which the ducks feed. The more herbivorous 

 of the duck-tribe, viz., the geese, feed much on berries in their 

 migrations ; in the spring, before the sprouting of the tender 

 grass, which they like, we find their crops filled with the shi- 

 ning, white, dry fruit of the eleagnus urgentea; and in the au- 

 tumn, when they cross the barren grounds, they banquet at 

 their halting-places on the juicy berries of the vaccmium 

 idiginosum, vitis idcea, or entpetruin nigrum, which dye their 

 crops a deep purple colour. These and other capabilities 

 of the lands on the confines of the arctic circle account for 

 so many birds entering the arctic fauna. The numbers of 

 the fa IconidcE and strigidce are of course proportioned to the 

 abundance of smaller birds and rodent animals on which they 

 feed. 



It may be considered as a general rule, that the number of 

 species of birds which enter the faunfe of successive parallels of 

 latitude, diminishes gradually as we advance from the tropics 

 towards the poles ; but if we deduct the birds of passage and 



