Species V. EMBERIZA NIVALIS. 



SNOW BUNTING. 



[Plate XXI. Fig. 2.] 



Linn. Syst. ZQ?,.—Arct. Zool. p. 355, No. 22%— Tawny Bunting, Br. Zool. No. 121. 

 —V Ortolan de Neige, Buffon, iv. 329. PL Enl. 497. 



This being one of those birds common to both continents, its migra- 

 tions extending almost from the very pole, to a distance of forty or 

 " fifty degrees around ; and its manners and peculiarities having been long 

 familiarly known to the naturalists of Europe, I shall in this place avail 

 myself of the most interesting parts of their accounts ; subjoining such 

 particulars as have fallen under my own observation. 



" These birds," says Mr. Pennant, "inhabit not only Greenland* but 

 even the dreadful climate of Spitzbergen, where vegetation is nearly ex- 

 tinct, and scarcely any but cryptogamous plants are found. It there- 

 fore excites wonder, how birds, which are graminivorous in every other 

 than those frost-bound regions, subsist : yet are there found in great 

 flocks both on the land and ice of Spitzbergen. f They annually pass 

 to this country by way of Norway ; for in the spring, flocks innumer- 

 able appear, especially on the Norwegian isles ; continue only three 

 weeks, and then at once disappear. | As they do not breed in Hud- 

 son's Bay it is certain that many retreat to this last of lands, and totally 

 uninhabited, to perform in full security the duties of love, incubation, 

 and nutrition. That they breed in Spitzbergen is very probable ; but 

 we are assured that they do so in Greenland. They arrive there in 

 April, and make their nests in the fissures of the rocks, on the moun- 

 tains, in May ; the outside of their nest is grass, the middle of feathers ; 

 and the lining the down of the Arctic fox. They lay five eggs, white 

 spotted with brown : they sing finely near their nest. 



" They are caught by the boys in autumn when they collect near the 

 shores in great flocks, in order to migrate, and are eaten dried. § 



"In Europe they inhabit during summer the most naked Lapland 

 Alps ; and descend in rigorous seasons into Sweden, and fill the roads 

 and fields ; on which account the Dalecarlians call them illivarsfogel, or 



*Crantz, 1, 77. f Lord Mulglave's Voyage, 188. Martin's Voyage, 73. 



X Leems, 256. 



? Faun. Greenl. 118. 



(84) 



