THE SNOW BUNTING. 257 



r/hciaNs), wliicli is only ca winter visitor witli us, 

 has a pleasing call-note to contribute to the music 

 of nature. It is an inhabitant of the northern 

 regions of Europe and America, visiting us in 

 large flocks in autumn, and leaving in April. This 

 species rarely perches on trees, but runs along the 

 ground, and feeds on gi'ass-seeds and other gTains. 

 When on the shores of the Polar Sea, its food in 

 spring consists chiefly of the buds of that Arctic 

 flower, the opposite-leaved saxifrage ; and in au- 

 tumn it has been observed to cat the shell-fish 

 which lie about the foliage of the water plants. 



Although, in a little volume on singing birds, 

 the snow bunting can claim but a slight notice, 

 yet an anecdote, related by Captain Lyon, of this 

 bird, is too interesting to be left untold. When 

 describing an Esquimaux burying-place, he says : 

 " Near the large grave was a third pile of stones, 

 covering the body of a child, which was coiled up. 

 A snow bunting had found its way through the 

 loose stones which composed this little tomb ; and 

 its now forsaken neatly built nest was found 

 placed on the neck of the child. As the snow 

 bunting has all the domestic virtues of our Eng- 

 lish redbreast, it has always been considered by 

 S 



