SNOW-BUNTING. 127 



or, after all, it may be the solitude which constitutes the charm, the com- 

 parative immunity from disturbance, though even to these remote wilds 

 the Snow-Buntings are followed by their relentless enemies, the Pere- 

 grines and the Merlins. But whatever may be the cause, the true home 

 of the Snow-Bunting lies beyond or above the limit of forest-growth. 

 "Winter home it has none. At this season it leads a roving gipsy life, 

 perpetually trying to migrate northwards with every appearance of milder 

 weather, and perpetually driven southwards with each recurring frost or 

 heavy fall of snow. It cannot be said, to have any line of migration, the 

 flocks wander here and there as fancy leads them ; but in the high north 

 they naturally follow the few roads that are kept trodden in winter, 

 because abundant food is always to be procured from the droppings of the 

 horses. In sledging over the snow across the steppes of South-western 

 Siberia from Ekatereenburg to Tomsk, a distance of about a thousand 

 miles, the Snow-Bunting was the only bird we saw, except a few Sparrows, 

 Jackdaws, and Hooded Crows near the villages. The Snow-Buntings 

 were in small flocks, and many of them had almost lost their winter dress. 

 It was a charming sight to watch them flitting before the sledge as we 

 disturbed them at their meals. Sometimes in the sunshine their white 

 bodies were invisible against the white snow, and we could almost fancy 

 that a flock of black butterflies were dancing before us. The flight of the 

 Snow-Bunting is peculiar, and is something like that of a butterfly, as if 

 the bird altered its mind every few seconds as to which direction it wished 

 to take. It can scarcely be called an undulating flight. The bird 

 certainly does rest its wings every few seconds; but either they are 

 expanded when at rest, or they are rested for so short a time that the 

 plane of flight is not sufficiently altered to warrant its being called undu- 

 latory. The Snow-Bunting is almost entirely a ground-feeder, and is 

 consequently continually seen on the ground. These birds run along the 

 snow with the celerity of a Wagtail on a sand-bank ; but they can hop as 

 easily as a Sparrow, and I have very often seen them do so. The idea 

 that they seldom or never perch in trees is a mistake, which has no doubt 

 arisen from the circumstance that on the steppes, where they delight to 

 winter, and on the tundra, where they breed, there are no trees*. In the 



* It is a remarkable fact that there should be a difference of opinion amongst ornitho- 

 logists on this subject ; but so many wild-goose stories have been told by writers on the 

 habits of birds, and copied again and again, that cautious ornithologists are apt to disbelieve 

 any statement that they have not themselves verified. Even the great Naumann, who was 

 by far the greatest field-ornithologist who ever lived, falls into error on this point, and 

 doubts Bechstein's statement, supported by that of Nilsson, that Snow-Buntings perch in 

 trees, and also denies that they ever hop. Newton, who has had many opportunities of 

 watching these birds, mentions nothing about their hopping, and says that in Western 

 Kumpe they seldom perch on a tree or bush. I should not venture to differ from such 

 high authorities if I had not spent hours, I might say weeks, watching these birds during- 



