Snow Bunting 187' 



friend that had flown off to them, as if it were a messenger to- 

 welcome the ship's crew back to life and friends.* Other 

 Arctic voyagers have also spoken with enthusiasm of the arrival 

 of this harbinger of spring, and recounted how the despondent, 

 homesick sailors were cheered by the pleasant twitter of this, 

 welcome visitor.-f- And Major Fielden found a nest in Grinnel 

 Land above lat. 82 J ; indeed, it is not known that any bird 

 breeds farther north than this thoroughly Arctic species. 



I have never seen it in this county, but I learnt from Mr.. 

 Withers that it has been occasionally killed in various localities, 

 and brought to him for preservation ; and Mr. Elgar Sloper, of 

 Devizes, informs me that he has seen several which had been, 

 killed on Salisbury Plain. The Kev. A. P. Morres records its occur- 

 rence now and then in very hard winters near Salisbury ; two- 

 having been seen near Grately in 1868, associating with a large- 

 flock of Bramblings; one killed at BrixtonDeverill and one at Mere 

 some years since. I should therefore describe it as an occasional 

 and not very infrequent straggler, though by no means a regular 

 winter visitant here. 



It is sometimes called the 'Snow-flake,' and Saxby writes, 

 ' Seen against a dark hillside or a lowering sky, a flock of these 

 birds presents an exceedingly beautiful appearance ; and it may 

 then be seen how aptly the term ' Snow-flake' has been applied 

 to the species. I am acquainted with no more pleasing combina- 

 tion of sight and sound than that afforded when a cloud of these 

 birds, backed by a dark gray sky, descends as it were in a shower 

 to the ground, to the music of their own sweet tinkling notes.! 

 The meaning of the generic name Plectrophanes is given in the- 

 B.O.U. list as ' Spur-showing,' from 7r\rJKTpov, ' a spur,' and $awto f 

 ' I show.' Temminck, too, classes it in a distinct section of the 

 Emberizidoe, which he calls Bruants eperroniers, ( Spurred 



* ' The Great Frozen Sea,' a personal narrative of the voyage of the- 

 Alert during the Arctic expedition of 1875-6, by Captain Albert Hastings 

 Markham, R.N. 



f Nordenskiold, ' Arctic Voyages in 1858-1879,' pp. 51, 218-265. 



J Professor Newton's fourth edition of Yarrell's ' British Birds, 1 vol. ii.,. 

 p. 7. 



