158 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 



different periods of the year. Montagu considered 

 that the real Snow Bunting that is, the bird in its 

 summer dress had not appeared so far West as 

 Somersetshire and Devonshire : that is, however, 

 a mistake, for the bird, although rare in these 

 counties in its summer dress, does occasionally 

 remain long enough in the spring to assume it 

 before its departure. I shot two Snow Buntings 

 on the Warren at Exmouth on the 10th of April, 

 1867, in summer plumage, and they are now in my 

 collection : a friend who was with me shot a pair in 

 the same plumage the next day. There is also an 

 instance recorded in the 'Zoologist' of the occur- 

 rence of this bird in full summer plumage in Corn- 

 wall as late as the 10th of May. 



The food of the Snow Bunting appears to consist 

 principally of grain, when it can get it, as it is often 

 found, both in its own northern home and in its 

 southern migration, in stubble-fields, especially oat- 

 stubbles, also the seeds of various sorts of grass 

 and weeds: insects and the shelly Mollusca that 

 adhere to the leaves of water-plants have also been 

 mentioned as forming part of its food. 



The nest is usually placed in the crevice of a 

 rock or in a loose pile of timber and stones : Yarrell 

 also mentions one having been placed in the bosom 

 of the corpse of an Esquimaux child. It is made 

 of dry grass, and lined with hair and a few 

 feathers. 



