128 BRITISH BIRDS. 



valley of the Petchora we had abundant opportunity of seeing them in 

 trees. My companion writes in ' The Ibis J : " During the migration we 

 constantly saw Snow-Buntings alight on trees, both singly and in flocks, 

 and both on spruce-firs, willows, and bare high larches. They perched 

 freely and flew from tree to tree, alighting without the slightest hesitation." 

 In the valley of the Yenesay I made similar observations ; and in the winter 

 of 1879-80 Dixonsaw a flock of Snow-Buntings rise from a newly manured 

 field outside End cliff Wood, near Sheffield, and alight in the trees. They 

 were followed by some men who were shooting, and flew from tree to tree 

 to avoid them, and some of them were shot from trees and are now in the 

 Sheffield Museum. They frequented the place several days. In Ust 

 Zylma, Mezen, and in the village of Koorayika, I have seen Snow-Buntings 

 perched on rails, and often on the roofs of the houses. In their breeding- 

 quarters they choose the most elevated situations they can find, perching 

 on some projecting rock or on the piles of drift-wood. During migration 

 they frequently commence to sing whilst waiting in the sunshine and the 

 snow for summer to come ; but at their breeding-quarters the song is very 

 charming. Whilst the female is busy with the duties of incubation the 

 male sings freely, sometimes as he sits upon the top of a rock, but often 

 flinging himself up into the air like a shuttlecock, and then descending in a 

 spiral curve with wings and tail expanded, singing all the time. The song 

 is a low and melodious warble, not unlike that of the Shore-Lark, but still 

 more like that of the Lapland Bunting. They have a variety of call-notes. 

 As they fly together in flocks they continually twitter to each other like 

 other Finches. The alarm-note is a loud tweek, allied to the spink of the 

 Chaffinch, and the call-note a long-drawn-out zh, not unlike that of the 

 Brambling or Greenfinch. 



The food of the Snow-Bunting consists of seeds of various kinds in 

 winter, and of insects in summer. On the rocky island opposite Vadso, 

 where Mr. Foyne has his whale-fishing establishment, the Snow-Bunting 

 breeds in some numbers. All the birds I shot on this island had their 

 gizzards full of the remains of flies. They seemed to be shore-feeding 

 birds in this locality, and to find a variety of insects on the various decaying 

 matter by the sea. They were constantly frequenting the houses near the 

 whale-fishing establishment, and doubtless found plenty of insects attracted 

 by the oflal of the whales. This bird has also been known to eat small 

 shellfish and the buds of the Saxifraga oppositifolia a beautiful violet- 

 coloured alpine plant which grows on the shores of the Polar Sea, both in 

 America and Siberia, and may also be found in the valley of the Engadine, 

 at an elevation of about 8000 feet. 



the long dreary waiting for the sudden arrival of the arctic summer, and if I could not sub- 

 stantiate my statements by careful notes written on the spot, and corroborate them by 

 the observations of my companions. 



