SNOW-BUNTING. 125 



EMBERIZA NIVALIS. 



SNOW-BUNTING. 

 (PLATE 15.) 



Emberiza hortulanus nivalis, Briss. Orn. iii. p. 285 (1760). 



Eruberiza nivalis, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 808 (1706) ; et auctorum plurimorum 



Gmclin, Scopoli, Latham, Temminck, (Bonaparte), (Deglandfy Gerbe), Naumann, 



(Newton), (Dresser), &c. 



Emberiza notata, Mutter, Natiirsyst. Suppl. p. 157 (1776). 

 Emberiza mustelina, Omel. Syst. Nat. i. p. 867 (1788). 

 Emberiza montaua, Omel. Syst. Nat. i. p. 867 (1788). 

 Emberiza lotharingica, Gmel. Syst. Nat. i. p. 882 (1788, partim). 

 Emberiza glacialis, Lath. 2nd. Orn. i. p. 398 (1790). 

 Passerina borealis, Vieill. N. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. xxv. p. 8 (1817). 

 Passerina nivalis (Linn.), Vieill. Faun. Franq. p. 86 (1820). 

 Plectroplianes nivalis (Linn.), Meyer, Zus. u. Ber. z. Taschenb. p. 57 (1822). 

 Plectrophaues hiemalia, Brehm, Vog. Deutschl. p. 304 (1831). 

 Emberiza borealis ( Vieill.), Degland, Orn. Eur. i. p. 273 (1849). 



The Snow-Bunting was known as a British bird as long ago as the days 

 of Willughby, who shot it in Lincolnshire, and also obtained it from the 

 northern parts of Yorkshire through his friend Mr. Johnson. In Ray's 

 edition of his ' Ornithologia/ published in 1676, it is described and figured 

 under the name of the Great Pied Mountain-Finch. In England and 

 Ireland this handsome little bird is only known as a comparatively rare 

 winter visitor, and its chief haunts are the rough open grounds near the 

 sea. In stormy weather, however, many of the birds occasionally wander 

 far inland, and they have been obtained in almost every county. In 

 Scotland the " Snowflake " is commoner, and a few remain to breed on the 

 higher mountains. Saxby found it breeding in Shetland, and Capt. 

 Feilden observed it during the breeding-season in the Faroes. There 

 appears to be no authenticated instance of the nest of the Snow-Bunting 

 ever having been found on the mainland of Scotland, but there is indirect 

 evidence of its having bred in some of the highest parts of the Grampians. 



The Snow- Bunting is a circumpolar bird, breeding on the tundras of 

 the Arctic regions beyond the limit of forest-growth, in Iceland, Nova 

 Zembla, and Spitzbergen, and in similar climates at high elevations further 

 south, in the snow-regions of the Norwegian fells. The Snow-Bunting is 

 a gipsy migrant during winter, occurring in larger or smaller flocks in 

 Central Europe, South Siberia, North China, Japan, and the Northern 

 States of America. Mr. Godman mentions a flock of about twenty of 

 these birds which visited the Azores in the winter of 1864-65. It has 

 not been recorded from the Spanish peninsula, but is a regular, though 



