FRINGILLID^ — THE FINCHES. 513 



different situations. On St. Michael's Island he never saw one of this spe- 

 cies far from the shore, while the other species was abundant everywhere in 

 tlie interior of the island. During the summer he never saw more than one 

 or two of these birds at once, nor anywhere except on rocky points or on 

 small rocky islands near the shore. These localities they seemed to share 

 with the liavens and Puffins. In the autumn they are more gregarious, but 

 still seem to prei'er the vicinity of water. Mr. Bannister also observed this 

 Itird at Unalaklik, where it is common. 



Wilson was of the opinion that these birds derive a considerable part of 

 their food from the seeds of certain aquatic plants, and tins he supposed one 

 of the principal reasons why they prefer remote northern regions intersected 

 with streams, ponds, lakes, and arms of the sea, abounding witli such j^lants. 

 On Seneca lii\'er, near Lake Ontario, in October, he met with a large flock 

 feeding on the surface of the water, supported on the close tops of weeds that 

 rose from the bottom. They were running about with great activity, and 

 the stomachs of those he shot were filled not only with the seeds of that 

 plant, but also with minute shell-fish that adhered to the leaves. 



Tiichardson states that tliis species breeds in the most northern of our 

 Arctic islands, and on all the shores of the continent, from Chesterfield's Inlet 

 to Behring Strait. The most southerly of its breeding-places known to him 

 was Southampton Island, in the 62d parallel, where Captain Lyons found 

 a nest on the grave of an Esquimaux child. Its nest was usually made 

 of dry grass, neatly lined with deer's hair and a few featliers, and is gen- 

 erally fixed in tlie crevice of a rock, or in a loose pile of timbers or stones. 

 The eggs are described as of a greenish-white, with a circle of irregular 

 undjer-brown spots round the larger end, with numerous blotches of subdued 

 lavender-purple. Jnly 22, in removing some drift timber on a beach at 

 Cape Parry, he discovered a nest on the ground, containing four young Snow- 

 birds. Care was taken not to injure them, and while they were seated at 

 breakfast, at a distance of only two or three feet, the parent birds made fre- 

 quent visits to their offspring, each time bringing grubs in their bills. The 

 Snowbirds are in no apparent haste to leave for the South on the approach 

 of winter, but linger about the forts and open places, picking up seeds, until 

 the snow becomes too dee]). It is not until December or January that they 

 retire to the south of the Saskatchewan. It returns to that river about the 

 middle of February, l)y April it has reached the GHth parallel, and by the 

 l)eginning of May it is found on the shores of the Polar Sea. At this period 

 it I'eeds on tlie buds of the Saxifraga opj^ositifolia , one of the earliest of the 

 .Vrctic plants. Tlie j'oung are fed with insects. 



The Snow Bunting is also an inhabitant, during the breeding-season, of 

 the Arctic regions of Europe and Asia, and the islands of the Arctic Sea. 

 Scoresby states that it resorts in large flocks to the shores of Spitzbergen, and 

 Captain Sabine includes it among the birds of Greenland and the North 

 Georgian Islands, where it is among the earliest arrivals. Mr. Proctor, who 

 65 



