110 SNOW BUNTING 
SNOW BUNTING 
PLECTROPHENAX NIVALIS 
Head, neck, portion of the wings, and lower parts white ; upper parts black, 
tinged here and there with red. Length six inches and three-quarters. 
Eggs pale reddish white, speckled and spotted with brown and pale red. 
Tuts, though a northern bird also, does not confine itself so closely 
to the Arctic regions as the preceding species ; but is of common 
occurrence in many parts of Scotland during autumn and winter 
and later in the season in various parts of England. Macgillivray, 
whose acquaintance with British birds, especially those of Scot- 
land, was very accurate, was inclined to the opinion that the Snow 
Bunting or Snow-flake breeds on the higher Grampians, having 
observed a specimen on a mountain of this range so early as the 
fourth of August, while the migratory flocks do not appear until two 
months later. “About the end of October it makes its appearance 
along the coasts or on the higher grounds of the south of Scotland, 
and about the same period in the south of England, although it is 
there of much less frequent occurrence. Assembled in large 
straggling flocks, or scattered in small detachments, these birds may 
be seen flying rather low along the shore, somewhat in the manner 
of Larks, moving in an undulating line by means of repeated 
flappings and short intervals of cessation, and uttering a soft and 
rather low cry, consisting of a few mellow notes, not unlike those 
of the Common Linnet, but intermixed at times with a sort of 
stifled scream or churr. When they have found a fitting place, 
they wheel suddenly round, and alight rather abruptly, on which 
occasion the white of the wings and tail becomes very conspicuous. 
They run with great celerity along the sand, not by hops, like the 
Sparrows and Finches, but in a manner resembling that of the 
Larks and Pipits; and when thus occupied, it is not in general 
difficult to approach them, so that specimens are easily procured. 
At intervals they make excursions into the neighbouring fields, 
alight in cornyards, at barn-doors, or even on the roads, where they 
obtain seeds of oats, wheat, and weeds, which I have found in 
them. In the villages along the coast of Lothian, they are some- 
times, in spring, nearly as common as Sparrows, and almost as 
familiar. About the middle of April, or sometimes a week later, 
these birds disappear and betake themselves to their summer 
residence.” Its habits, as observed in England, are similiar ; but 
the flocks are generally smaller.In the Arctic regions, it is abundant 
from the middle or end of April to the end of September. Its 
nest is composed of dry grass, neatly lined with deer’s hair and a 
few feathers, and is generally fixed in the crevice of a rock or in a 
loose pile of timber or stones. In spring it feeds principally 
on the buds of Saxifraga oppositifolia, one of the earliest of the 
Arctic plants; during winter, on grass seeds. Peculiar interest 
