SNOW-BUNTING. 5 



they are restricted to the mountain-tops, but on the more 

 northerly they frequent the lower grounds in small colonies. 

 Wolley found a nest with almost fully-fledged young and an 

 addled egg on the Loisinga Fjaeld, July 13th, 1849, hut on 

 that hill, in 1872, Capt. Feilden searched carefully without 

 coming across a hird. Throughout Iceland the species is 

 perhaps the commonest of small birds a pair or more being 

 established in nearly every convenient locality, even among 

 the most desolate lava-streams, and it breeds there almost 

 on the sea-level as well as up to the snow-line. According 

 to Faber it winters in that island. In Spitsbergen it is the 

 only Passerine bird which is ordinarily met with, and though 

 it can hardly be called very numerous there it breeds almost 

 as far to the northward as the land extends. It is doubtless 

 only a summer- visitor, and Dr. Malmgren observed a large 

 flock at sea in the latitude of Bear Island on May 19th, 

 which after resting for a short time on the rigging of the 

 vessel pursued their way in the direction of Spitsbergen. 

 In Nova Zembla Mr. Gillett found it to be very common, 

 and according to Dr. von Heuglin its southward migration 

 thence begins in the middle of September. It breeds 

 throughout Norway, both on the more northern islands of 

 the coast and on the higher fells of the interior, especially 

 within the Arctic Circle, but also on some of the southern 

 mountains, even in Thelemark so low as lat. 60. Except 

 those on or near the frontier there are few hills in Sweden of 

 sufficient altitude to afford this species a congenial home, 

 but on such as are high enough both there and in Finland it 

 is almost unfailingly to be observed. In Russia the southern 

 limit of its summer-range does not seem to be recorded, 

 but it is believed to breed on the eastern slopes of the Ural, 

 and thence across the most northern portion of Siberia to 

 Behring's Strait its distribution at that season being pro- 

 bably as much affected by elevation above the sea-level as by 

 latitude. Throughout the most northern parts of the New 

 World it also breeds, and in many places very abundantly, 

 so that its summer-habits have there been well observed, 

 and for a long time the accounts given by the older explorers 



