3i8 ANNALS OF BIRD LIFE. 



Japan, and the most northerly of the United 

 States. It is a noteworthy fact that none of 

 these four winter birds whose habits we have 

 been briefly studying, have ever been observed 

 in the Spanish Peninsula. 



The Snow Bunting is pre-eminently a bird of 

 the snow ; and its arrival on our shores, more 

 likely than not, is the first warning of a coming 

 snowstorm. I have watched these pretty birds 

 in flocks among the wild, weedy grounds below 

 the sea-banks on the Lincolnshire coast the 

 same county, by the way, where Willughby ob- 

 tained it more than a hundred years ago, and thus 

 established its claim to rank as a British bird ; 

 although there can be little doubt that the Snow 

 Bunting regularly visited our islands since glacial 

 times, and shared the Lincolnshire marshes with 

 birds and beasts whose race has long been run. 

 They spend by far the greater portion of their 

 time upon the ground, searching for small seeds 

 and buds among the rough herbage ; but if trees 

 are near, they will frequently alight upon them. 

 Snow Buntings are also birds of the coast, most 

 at home on the wildest beaches, in those districts 

 most resembling their Arctic haunts ; but some- 

 times a severe storm will drive them inland, and 

 then I see them feeding on the stubbles and 

 clover fields, in company with Bramblings and 

 other Finches. Upon the ground this pretty bird 

 both walks and hops ; and its flight is more 

 straightforward than that of its congeners, although 



