68 THE RED-BILLED CROW. 



build his nest, are the crests of inaccessible rocks, surrounded 

 by vast fields of snow, in whose midst the sun and tempest 

 have created a few oases. The most he does is to approach 

 the hospices of Monts St Bernard and St Gothard, and con- 

 struct his nest under the eaves of their roofs. This nest, made 

 of long blades of grass, is lined internally with hair and the 

 feathers of poultry. At the beginning of May, the female 

 lays six eggs of a snowy whiteness, and the male assists in 

 hatching them, and bringing up the young. The bill of the 

 latter is, at first, of a bright yellow, which turns black, like 

 that of the parents, as they grow older. 



The snow-bunting rarely descends into the wooded region. 

 Of a very sprightly disposition, he spends nearly all his life 

 in the midst of the snows and the ice. His song somewhat 

 resembles that of the finch, which he also resembles in size 

 and social instincts j for he may frequently be seen in numer- 

 ous bands hovering above the highest mountains. 



The snow-bunting is also met with in the northern districts 

 of Asia and America. 



THE RED-BILLED CROW (Corvus pyrrhocoraoc], 

 The familiar cry of this bird, who resembles the thrush, 

 the krapp-krapp of the red-billed crow (la corneille des nieges], 

 agreeably falls on the ear of the traveller, when wandering 

 through solitudes devoid of any other living being. By their 

 cries and their presence these birds animate the denuded 

 rocks which rise like promontories in seas of ice. They are 

 easily distinguished from other species by their coral-red bills; 



