184 THE BUNTINGS 



feathered cup, sunk amidst the thick, mossy mattress, must be a 

 beautiful, a moving thing to see or, if not to see, to muse upon. 

 There it lies, the grey stone above it, the bleak, whistling wind all 

 around, the snow, perhaps, still driving and whirling, or, where melted, 

 a drear desolation wild, barren, inhospitable yet there, amidst it 

 all, and taking no harm from it warm with its lining, warmer with 

 domestic love glows that bright little focus of life and joy, of 

 comfort and cosiness, of bustle and cheerful activity ; and, back- 

 wards and forwards, coming and going, with their warm little hearts 

 beating under their white little waistcoats, flit those tiny bird 

 atoms, those " snowflakes," looking as soft as the softest one, but as 

 iron-framed, really, as granite, as the ribs of the mountains, hardier 

 than the hardiest Highlander, than the Esquimaux, sharers of 

 their "farthest north" home, in the bleached skeleton of one of 

 whose children a pair has once nested backwards and forwards, 

 through the storm and the whirlwind, they go, fearless and cheery, 

 strong as the elements, bringing food to that little, loved nursery. 

 Why should we wish to destroy and " break-up in its assigned and 

 native dwelling-place," such a household as this? Surely it is a 

 much more respectable one than many amongst our own, and 

 contains more happiness, perhaps, than any. It is an appalling 

 thought, indeed, that a larger amount of the last-named element is, 

 in all probability, absorbed daily out of the world, by the mere filling 

 of cabinets, than years of active philanthropy can ever put into it. 



The passion for his nest has left little to be said concerning the 

 nesting habits of the snow-bunting, but in regard to the actual nidifi- 

 cation, Trevor-Battye l has observed the female alone "exerting 

 all her tiny energies to pull fibres from the ground." The male was 

 " very assiduous, very fussy, he accompanied his wife up and down. 

 He waited upon her whilst she hunted up fibres, he flew back with 

 her, and watched while she worked at the nest," but this was all. 

 Doubtless he might have done more, but why what he did do should 



1 Ice-bound in Kolguev, p. 107. 



