EMBKRIZIN^.. 



THE SNOW-BUNTING. 

 Plectr<')PHENAX nivalis (Linnreus). 



The Snow-Bunting is principally a cold-weather visitor to the 

 British Islands, seldom making its appearance on the east coast of 

 England until October, and generally returning northwards in March 

 or April. For more than a century, however, paired birds have 

 been noticed from time to time on several of the higher mountains 

 of the Scottish mainland, and there could be no reasonable doubt 

 that they were breeding ; though absolute proof was wanting, until, 

 in July 1886, Messrs. Peach and Hinxman discovered the nest 

 and young in Sutherlandshire. In Unst, the most northern of the 

 Shedands, Saxby, who had frequently observed the birds in summer, 

 obtained a nest with three eggs on July 2nd i86r, and others have 

 since been taken in Yell. 



In the Faeroes a considerable number of Snow-Buntings remain 

 !o breed, and in v/inter the species is abundant there, as it is in 

 Iceland throughout the year ; while northward. Col H. \V. Eeilden 

 found it nesting on Grinell Land in 82° t,7,', nearly as far as man has 

 penetrated. In Spitsbergen, Novaya Zemlya, Siberia, and the Arctic 

 regions generally, it is widely distributed in summer ; migrating 

 southwards in winter down to Georgia in North America, Japan, 

 Northern China, Turkestan, South Russia, the northern shores of 



