SNOW BTJNTINa. 21 



ladies whom I heard the other day lamenting that they never 

 found it cold enough in England. 



Sir Oswald Mosley, Bart., relates in the 'Zoologist,' page 

 1209, that one was met with near Rolleston Hall, his seat, 

 near Burton-upon-Trent, Staffordshire, in the month of Oc- 

 tober, 1845. It was knocked down by a labourer with a 

 stone. 



The numbers of these birds diminish from Yorkshire south- 

 wards, in Norfolk, Suffolk, and Cambridgeshire, and a few 

 have been met with occasionally even in Surrey, Sussex, and 

 Devonshire, and other southern counties. One was shot near 

 Liskeard, in Cornwall, as N. Hare, Esq. informs me, in March, 

 1851; one near Falmouth, by T. Harvey, Esq.; one by Mr. 

 Copeland, at Pendennis Castle, in October, 1843; three by 

 Mr. May, in subsequent years, between the Castle and Pen- 

 nance Point ; and one by Mr. Row, of Devonport, on Roborough 

 Down, October llth., 1851; and I have one, presented to me 

 by Mr. John Dickson, of Nafferton, which was shot near 

 Seamer, in the East-Riding of Yorkshire, on the 25th. of 

 March, 1851. 



Mountainous regions are their natural resort, which they 

 leave for lower and more sheltered grounds when severe 

 weather comes on. 



The Snow Buntings move southwards about the end of 

 October, betaking themselves to the sea-shores of Scotland, 

 and also to many parts of England in severe weather, retiring 

 inland at intervals, or as it becomes milder, when they resort 

 to farm-yards and roads, where they meet with grain of 

 various kinds. In the year 1849, a few were seen at Waxham, 

 near Yarmouth, in Norfolk, by W. E. Cater, Esq., of Queen's 

 College, Cambridge, as early as the 27th. of September. It 

 would seem, from the fact of Mr. Macgillivray's having seen 

 both old and young birds together in the month of August, 

 1830, that some build on the Grampian Hills, renowned in 

 song as the dwelling of 'Young Norval;' but for the most 

 part they remove to their more favourite haunts about the 

 middle of April. The young appear to be only able to fly 

 by about the end of July; and it is asserted that they 

 venture farther southwards than the old birds. 



These birds, which are believed to pair for life, seem, at 

 the time when they have young, to be fearless, it being but 

 little experience of man, as an enemy, that they have had 

 in their lonely climes. They are very good eating, as are 



