THE SNOW-BUNTING. 31 



young are sufficiently fledged for flight in their first or nest- 

 ing plumage, they have to get the winter additions, which all 

 birds partially or generally resident in very high latitudes or 

 very cold places, acquire at that time ; and the probability is 

 that they do not get their additions so early in the season as 

 the old ones, in which the autumnal change is, with the 

 exception of such feathers as have been injured, more an 

 addition to their covering than a displacing and renewal of it. 

 The worn feathers are of course those of the wings and the 

 tail, which have been entirely employed in the labours of the 

 summer, and the ones which are thickened by an additional 

 supply without a general loss of the old ones, are those which, 

 merely clothe the body of the bird ; and hence though the 

 old birds are better clothed for the polar climate than the 

 young ones, they are much less capable of flight and conse- 

 quently of migration. 



There is another trait in the natural history of birds, which 

 although it may be observed in them all, resident as well as 

 migrant, is yet so conspicuous in the snow-bunting, that this 

 is the proper place for noticing it. The male is the most 

 sensitive to heat, and the female to cold. That difference 

 appears, whether the result of the action of heat be change 

 of place or change of plumage. The males of all our summer 

 visitants arrive earlier than the females ; and in all resident 

 birds the change of plumage and voice of the male are among 

 the first indications of the spring, taking precedence of most 

 of the vegetable tribes, for the redbreast and the wren sing 

 before the snow-drop flowers appear. It seems, too, that the 

 song and the attentions of the male are necessaries, in aid 

 of the warmth of the season, to produce the influence of the 

 season upon the female ; and even as the season advances, the 

 female remains a skulking and hideling bird throughout the 

 season, at least until the young have broken the shell, and 

 require her labour to feed and her courage (which she some- 



