194 THE BUNTINGS 



Considerations of space oblige me to pass, at once, from the 

 flocking movements of the corn-bunting to those of his northern 

 cousin, the snow-bunting. It is in him that the instinct is most 

 strongly developed, or rather which often amounts to the same 

 thing circumstances are in his case as perhaps, almost as much, 

 in that of the Lapland-bunting more strongly conducive to the 

 results which we see. The hardiest bird must have food, and if this 

 is not to be found in one place, it must be sought in another, nor is 

 it to be wondered at that parties of birds, flying over a treeless and 

 snow-covered waste, driven by the same great want, and bound in 

 the same general direction, should join one another, or that the 

 larger cohorts should tend to absorb the smaller, till, at last, in some 

 cases, the numbers become enormous, and the advance like that of 

 a feathery snow-storm. It seems probable, indeed, that the very 

 natural idea of each individual bird, that another has found, or is 

 just upon finding, what it is itself in search of, acting upon groups, has 

 been a principal element in making " birds of a feather flock together," 

 as it is, indeed, in veiy many ways, amongst birds of no feather at all. 



Audubon has given a very elaborate account of the flocking 

 movements of the snow-bunting, some parts of which may be here 

 quoted, more particularly as this seldom happens to Audubon nowa- 

 days, a fate, perhaps not wholly undeserved, since, with large oppor- 

 tunities for something better, he appears to have devoted himself, 

 principally, to the gun and the paint-brush, no doubt considering the 

 latter an ample equivalent for any amount of destruction, specific or 

 individual, for which the first might be responsible a habit of 

 thought, whether as applied to the plate or the specimen, now 

 happily fast dying out amongst naturalists generally, and especially 

 obsolete, as I am given to understand, at ornithological headquarters. 

 His words are as follows : "As soon as the cold blasts of winter have 

 stiffened the earth's surface, and brought with them the first snow- 

 clouds, millions of these birds, driven before the pitiless storm, make 

 their way towards milder climes. Their wings seem scarcely able to 



