PLECTROPHANES NIVALIS. 377 



for long flights : feet formed more for running than perching ; 

 hind claw long and nearly straight ; thus intermediate between 

 the larks and buntings. It is a native of the Arctic regions, 

 breeds in high latitudes, and only comes to us when driven off 

 by ice and snow We seldom see them about St Andrews 

 until driven from the fields to the seashore by the hard white 

 hand of Winter. It used to be multiplied into three species, 

 the snow-bunting, tawny-bunting, and mountain-bunting, owing 

 to the varied plumage by age and sex. Indeed, as you see 

 thp-m flying about the sands in their usual small flocks the 

 difference is apparent, some with white wings, others nearly all 

 brown. The white-winged ones are the adult males — the first 

 mark of the bird-stuffing ornithologist — -as I once was. Alas ! 

 the general fate of pretty or rare birds ; however, a few of the 

 whitest can be spared, but their white wings are missed out of 

 their little flocks They arrive in Britain in October in large 

 flocks, chiefly young birds, which were called mountain- 

 buntings. Then the old females with some young males and a 

 few adult males, not yet in winter livery, arrive, and were 

 called the taiony-buntings. Next come the true snow-buntings, 

 chiefly adult males in their winter garb, but not in such large 

 flocks as the two first. This separation of the sexes and young 

 with the females earlier than the adult males is not confined to 

 the snow-flake, but is a natural law with several migratory as 

 well as other birds, such as the woodcocks, whose females 

 come first ; female chaffinches also separate from the males in 

 small distinct flocks, and remain so till the pairing season. 

 Avhile the males may be seen in large flocks along with other 

 graniverous birds in winter. In open winters they prefer 

 mountainous districts, and feed on the seeds of grasses, and 

 only descend to the low grounds (preferring stubble fields) 

 when their favourite resorts are covered with snow ; hence, by 

 the same law, are driven to the seashore when the fields 

 are covered by their natural enemy. Like the larks they run 

 with celerity, but never perch on trees. On the approach 

 of spring they leave us for more northern regions, advancing by 

 degrees within the Arctic Circle, where they breed ; but I 

 have seen them on our links and sands on the 29th of March 

 in fine weather, when our sky-larks were singing and breeding. 

 Their migration extends to the coasts of the Polar Sea, and are 

 found in the most extreme northern latitudes our navigators 

 have yet reached. So the little winter visitor of our links and 

 sands is a true snow-flake indeed ! It builds its nest in the 



