SNOW BUNTING. 497 



ernmost of the American islands, and on all the shores of 

 the continent from Chesterfield Inlet to Behring's Straits. 

 The most southerly of its breeding stations in the New 

 World, that has been recorded, is Southampton Island, in 

 the sixty-second parallel, where Captain Lyons found a 

 nest placed in the bosom of the corpse of an Esquimaux 

 child. 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. 

 The eggs are greenish white, with a circle of irregular 

 umber-brown spots round the thick end, and numerous 

 blotches of subdued lavender purple. On the 22nd July, 

 1 826, in removing some drift timber lying on the beach of 

 Cape Parry, we discovered a nest on the ground contain- 

 ing four young Snow birds. Care was taken not to injure 

 them ; and while we were seated at breakfast, at the dis- 

 tance of only two or three feet, the parent birds made 

 frequent visits to their offspring ; at first timidly, but at 

 length with the greatest confidence, and every time bring- 

 ing grubs in their bills. The Snow Bunting does not 

 hasten to the south on the approach of winter with the 

 same speed as the other summer birds, but lingers about 

 the forts and open places, picking up grass seeds, until the 

 snow becomes deep ; and it is only during the months of 

 December and January that it retires to the southward 

 of the Saskatchewan. It usually reaches that river again 

 about the middle of February ; two months afterwards it 

 attains the sixty-fifth parallel of latitude, and in the be- 

 ginning of May it is found on the coast of the Polar Sea. 

 At this period it feeds upon the buds of the Saxifraga 

 appositifolia, one of the most early of the Arctic plants ; 

 during winter its crop is generally filled with grass seeds. 

 In the month of October, Wilson found a large flock run- 

 ning over a bed of water plants, and feeding, not only on 



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