16 



drops through chinks in the cars. Contrary to their usual habits, 

 they are quite arboreal, spending most of the time upon trees, above 

 the track, only descending occasionally to fill their crops, between the 

 passage of trains. Among the mountains on the right bank of the 

 river, I have rarely seen them. When shooting there on December 

 30, 1878, a flock of five flew overhead, uttering their wild notes, which 

 seem to me to have a very wintry significance, which is quite in keep- 

 ing with their white plumage and boreal habitat. They are said to 

 occur occasionally at West Point. 



The Snow Bunting breeds in the Arctic regions of Europe, Asia and 

 America. A nest, with its complement of four eggs, taken at Akreyri, 

 Iceland, June 13, 1874, was sent to me, together with a number of odd 

 eggs, by Herr Alfred Benzon, of Copenhagen, and I take advantage 

 of this opportunity to describe them. The nest is quite bulky; com- 

 posed largely of dry grasses, with considerable long, fine, whitish hair 

 interwoven and lining the inside ; also a few feathers of some water- 

 fowl, and some of those of its own species. It was built upon the 

 ground, and still has some earth adhering to it. Its external diam- 

 eter is about 6-00 inches, internal, nearly 3-00; depth, 2-40 externally, 

 and 1-25 internally. The eggs belonging to this set, four in number, 

 were all accidentally broken, but I have mended one of them perfectly, 

 and the rest will answer for the purpose of description. They closely 

 resemble each other in coloration; their ground-color is distinctly 

 greenish-white, quite evenly marked with blotches of pale purplish- 

 brown, and less numerous dashes of umber-brown ; the spotting is a 

 little more distinct at their larger ends. The mended egg measured 

 88 by -65 of an inch. 



Seven eggs, taken at Akreyri, Iceland, in 1872, are now before me. 

 Their ground-color varies from pale greenish to dirty white ; some are 

 so thickly covered with rusty -brown markings as almost to conceal the 

 ground; others are sparsely or thickly spotted with dark umber- 

 brown or sepia, sometimes aggregated at the larger end, sometimes 

 arranged circularly about that extremity, and sometimes pretty uni- 

 formly distributed over the whole egg. They measure, respectively, 

 94 X '67; -94 X '68; -90 X '64; -91 X '63; -85 X '65; '85 X '66; -88 

 X '62. 



Dimensions. Average measurements of ten specimens : length, 

 6-88; stretch, 12-47; wing, 4-07; tail, 2-70; culmen, '45; tarsus, -83. 



76. Passerculus savanna (Wilson). SAVANNA SPARROW. 

 Common during spring and autumn ; a few are seen during summer, 

 but none in winter. It will probably prove to be a continuous resi- 

 dent; but of rare occurrence during the breeding season, and in 

 winter. During migrations they are especially numerous upon the 

 marshes. They make a whirring noise in flight, are not shy, and 

 their note is a low tweet. 



