SNOW BUNTING. 429 



fifteen hundred to two thousand feet, descending in severe 

 weatlier to lower ranges. In very severe times it is shot 

 on the banks of the Annan and in the Holm lands adjoining ; 

 is common on the Alpine ranges of the ujDper part of Tweed- 

 dale, and always to be seen from the high road when travel- 

 ling that country in winter ; frequents the Pentland Hills, 

 Portobello Sands, Middleton Muir at the head of Gala 

 Water, and is said to be frequent in winter on all the sub- 

 alpine ranges in the south of Scotland, descending to the 

 shore in very severe weather. 



We are indebted to Mr. Macgillivray for interesting ob- 

 servations on this species in the Hebrides, and also in Scot- 

 land : they are as follows : — " The earliest period at which, 

 according to my note-books, I have observed the Snowflake 

 in the outer Hebrides, was on Sunday the 28th of September 

 1817, on which day it is recorded that on the ridge between 

 Maodal and Ronaval I saw a Snow Bunting ; and in return- 

 ing along the shore by the low hills of Drimafuind saw an- 

 other. In another place, dated Luachar, in Harris, I find 

 the following statement. The Snow Bunting is frequently 

 met on the hills in small flocks. I am told they are never 

 seen in summer, nor have I ever met with them there beyond 

 the end of April ; yet the little flocks which I have often 

 observed, were apparently family groups ; nor do these birds 

 appear in large congregations, such as we often see along 

 the shores of Scotland or England. On the 4th of August 

 1830, being on the summit of Ben-na-muic-dui, the highest 

 mountain in Scotland, I observed a beautiful male flitting 

 about in the neighbourhood of a great patch of snow ; it was 

 also seen by Dr. Greville at the same time. Some days 

 after, having descended from the top of Lochnagar, to its 

 corry, along with Dr. Martin Barry, in quest of plants, I met 

 with a flock of eight individuals, flying about among the 

 blocks of granite. They were evidently a family, the male 



