34 GRAMINIVOR^3. 



winter is more advanced. They come during, and apparently 

 driven by, the violent north-east winds which precede or 

 accompany the heavy falls of snow. On their arrival, they 

 are sadly exhausted and emaciated ; and, if caught in the 

 snow-drift, many of them are whelmed in the wreaths and 

 perish. But when the storm abates, those that are in the low 

 countries near the sea Shetland, Orkney, Caithness, and 

 similar places soon get very fat, as they also do upon the- 

 coasts of Lapland, when the storms drive them from the. 

 mountains. The inhabitants of the latter country capture 

 them in great numbers for the table, and they are highly prized, 



In summer the plumage alters ; the white on the head, the 

 breast, partially on the rest of the under part, and the mar- 

 gins of the feathers above, gives place to pale tawny orange, 

 mixed on some parts with pale grey ; and an additional 

 portion of the upper feathers brown black. 



The young are still darker, except in the black on the 

 upper part, which is not so pure, and the females do not 

 acquire the intense snowy whiteness of the other sex. 



The young birds and females reach the south of England, 

 and are probably more numerous in the middle latitudes of 

 that country than in the north of Scotland ; but the males. 

 in winter plumage are most numerous there very numerous, 

 indeed if the winter is severe. The males that come early 

 and with the plumage partially changed, and also the females. 

 (for females do come there), are birds of evil omen to the 

 hill "farmers, as they often foretell but too truly, that the 

 snow will come before the late oats are gathered in, and the 

 potatoe crop out of the ground ; and those who are weather- 

 wise quicken the hand of their industry, when they see the 

 snow-flake early, with his pale tawny gorget, especially if on, 

 those halcyon days which are so treacherous in the autumn 

 of high latitudes. 



They even remain and breed in the extreme north. But 



