SNOW BUNTING. 473 



their seeds, but on the shelly mollusca which adhered to 

 the leaves ; and he observes that the long hind claws of 

 these birds afford them much support when so engaged. 

 The young are fed with insects." Mr. Nuttall, in his Or- 

 nithology of the United States and Canada, says that on 

 their way to the south these birds appear round Hudson^s 

 Bay in September, and stay till the frosts of November 

 again oblige them to seek out warmer quarters. Early in 

 December they make their descent into the Northern 

 States in whirling, roving flocks, either immediately before, 

 or soon after, an inundating fall of snow. The southern 

 migration on the American continent extends as far to the 

 south as Louisville in Kentucky. 



Mr. William Proctor, the curator of the Durham Uni- 

 versity Museum, who visited Iceland in the summer of 

 1837, and has very kindly supplied me with several inter- 

 esting notices of the habits of some of our birds on that 

 island, says, " of the Snow Bunting it is observed, that 

 this bird breeds there in June ; the nest, placed among 

 large stones, or in the fissures of rocks, is composed of dry 

 grass, and lined with hair or feathers ; the eggs from four 

 to six in number. The male bird attends the female 

 during incubation ; I have often seen him, when he was 

 coming from the nest, rise up in the air and sing sweetly, 

 with his wings and tail spread like the Tree Pipit. I ob- 

 served these Buntings frequently perch on some low rail- 

 ing which had been put up to dry fish on, even when fish 

 were hanging on the rails." 



Linnaeus, in his Tour in Lapland, mentions having seen 

 them in that country at the end of May, and in the be- 

 ginning of July. At page 282 he observes that the Em- 

 beriza nivalis is said to be the only living animal that has 

 been seen two thousand feet above the line of perpetual 



