

SPECIES 5. EMBERI&d 

 SNOW BUNTING. 

 [Plate XXL Fig. 2.] 



LINN. Syst. 508. Jirct. Zool. p. 355. JVo. 222. Itercy Bunting, 

 Br. Zool. JVo. 121. L'tfrfote rfe JV'ei^g, BUFFON, iv, 329. P/. 

 Enl. 497. PEALE'S Museum, No. 5900. 



THIS being one of those birds common to both continents, 

 its migrations extending almost from the very pole, to a distance 

 of forty or fifty degrees around; and its manners and peculiarites 

 having been long familiarly known to the naturalists of Europe, 

 I shall in this place avail myself of the most interesting parts 

 of their accounts; subjoining such particulars as have fallen un- 

 der my own observation. 



" These birds," says Mr. Pennant, " inhabit not only Green- 

 " land* but even the dreadful climate of Spitzbergen, where ve- 

 " getation is nearly extinct, and scarcely any but cryptogamious 

 "plants are found. It therefore excites wonder, how birds, 

 " which are graminivorous in every other than those frost- 

 " bound regions, subsist: yet are there found in great flocks both 

 " on the land and ice of Spitzbergen. t They annually pass to this 

 " country by way of Norway; for in the spring, flocks innumer- 

 " able appear, especially on the Norwegian isles; continue only 

 " three weeks, and then at once disappear.^: As they do not 

 "breed in Hudson's bay it is certain that many retreat to this 

 "last of lands, and totally uninhabited, to perform in full secu- 

 "rity the duties of love, incubation, and nutrition. That they 

 " breed in Spitzbergen is very probable; but we are assured that 

 " they do so in Greenland. They arrive there in April, and 



* CKANTK, I, 77. t Lord MULGLAVE'S Voyage, 188. MARTIN'S Voyage, 73. 

 \ LEKMS, 256. 



