4 o6 PERCHING BIRDS. 



observed on the higher mountain- tops of the west of Sutherland by Mr. Peach, who 

 in the following year captured the young of this species in a corrie. In 1888 Mr. 

 J. Young announced that during the previous summer he had taken a nest of the 

 snow-bunting in the north of Scotland, containing the only eggs of the species 

 discovered up to that time on the mainland of Great Britain. - Upon that occasion 

 the observer in question was searching for ptarmigan upon the mountains between 

 Sutherland and Caithness, and while descending some difficult ground he recognised 

 the call-note of the snow-bunting, and with some difficulty reached the nest, which 

 contained five richly-coloured eggs, and was composed of bents and moss, lined 

 with a few ptarmigan's feathers, and one or two small pieces of wool. Since then, 

 additional nests of the snow-bunting have been found in Scotland, one of the 

 number having been secured for the national "collection. Professor Newton says 

 that a considerable number of snow-buntings pass the summer in the Faroes, where, 

 on the south islands, they are restricted to the mountain-tops ; although, on the 

 northern ones, they frequent the lower grounds in small colonies. Throughout 

 Iceland the species is perhaps the commonest of small birds, a pair or more being 

 established in nearly every convenient locality, even amongst the most desolate 

 lava -streams; and it breeds there almost on the sea-level as well as up to the 

 snow-line. As is shown by the accumulation of old materials often found therein, 

 the birds commonly use the same nest -hole more than once. The eggs vary 

 from four to six in number, and are white in ground - colour, more or less 

 tinged with palish greenish blue, splashed with dull lilac, and spotted with 

 brownish red. They are laid in a nest built of dry grass and roots lined with 

 hair or soft feathers, especially those of the ptarmigan. The snow-bunting has 

 occasionally nested, and even hatched its young in confinement ; but we are not 

 aware of the young having been brought to maturity under artificial condi- 

 tions. The adult male has the crown ruddy brownish black; the scapulars 

 are black, edged with reddish brown; the primaries black; the secondaries 

 white, the outer ones being marked on both edges with black ; the central tail- 

 feathers are black tipped with white ; the under tail-feathers white streaked with 

 black on the outer edges ; a rusty band crosses the breast, and the lower-parts are 

 white. In summer the light tips to the feathers of the upper-parts are shed, and 

 the bird then appears to be black and white, black predominating. 



One of the most widely distributed of small birds is the Lapland 

 Lapland Bunting 1 . . . . . .... 



bunting (Calcarius lapponicus), a circumpolar bird, inhabiting the 



high northern regions only during the summer months, and migrating southwards 

 to more congenial winter quarters before the arrival of frost and snow in its 

 northern home. It is also found throughout the northern parts of North America. 

 During the summer season this bird frequents the fell-mosses of Norway and 

 Sweden, especially such as are covered with grass and willow-scrub and are 

 situated below the snow region. Not inhabiting the high mountains on which 

 the snow-bunting breeds, it prefers the upland swamps, and Mr. Seebohm states 

 that in Northern Europe the Lapland bunting seeks the swampiest ground it can 

 find, so long as there are tussocks of dry grass full of flowers where it can breed. 

 If there be also a few stunted willows or birches upon which it can perch, so much 

 the better. The nest is nearly always placed in some hole in a side of the little 



