SNOW BUNTING. 23 



and obtuse in form. Meyer mentions one in the possession 

 of Mr. Hancock, of Newcastle, marked all over with spots of 

 a reddish and purple hue. 



Male; length, about six inches and a half, or rather more, 

 to six and three quarters and seven inches; bill, yellow, 

 brownish black at the tip entirely yellow in summer; iris, 

 chesnut brown. Head on the back, pale yellowish brown, or 

 chesnut white in summer; crown, bright chesnut brown mixed 

 with white, the tips of the feathers being reddish brown in 

 winter: sometimes it is white. Neck on the back, greyish 

 brown white in summer; in front a gorget of bright chesnut 

 brown mixed with white; nape, white in summer, tinged with 

 greyish or brownish red in winter; chin, white; throat, white, 

 tinged with chesnut in winter; breast, white, with more or 

 less yellowish brown on the sides wholly white in summer. 

 The feathers of the back black in summer, at other times 

 deeply edged with greyish white, or pale yellowish, or reddish 

 brown. 



The wings extend to the width of one foot one inch. The 

 first quill feather is the longest; greater and lesser wing 

 coverts, white; primaries, black, slightly edged with white 

 wholly black in summer. In some the first, and in others 

 the second feather is the longest; secondaries, mostly white, 

 but in younger birds black edged with white, and in adult 

 birds some are black in summer; tertiaries, white. The tail 

 has the two or three outer feathers white, with a dark streak 

 along the shaft on the outer web some way down from the 

 tip, and a small black spot near the tip; the rest blackish 

 brown, edged with brownish white pure black in summer; 

 upper tail coverts, black, broadly margined with reddish 

 brown in winter, or mingled tawny and white. Legs, toes, 

 and claws, black, the hind one lengthened and nearly straight. 



The female has the colours more dull with less white. 

 Length, six inches and a quarter; bill, as in the male; iris, 

 as in the male. The head on the sides and crown is very 

 light chesnut brown; neck on the back, yellowish grey, the 

 upper part with brownish grey instead of reddish margins; 

 on the sides dark yellowish grey, in front dull chesnut brown 

 in the form of a band, its edges on the sides streaked with 

 dusky. Throat, pale yellowish grey; breast, light grey or 

 greyish white, tinged on the sides with chesnut brown. The 

 black on the back is not so pure as in the male bird, and 

 the margins of the feathers are light yellowish brown. 



