86 SNOW FINGH. 



but it usually makes a circuit and returns to the same spot, wliere it 

 settles upon tlie ground. 



Its call, wliich is heard during flight, is a peculiar piping, short, 

 broken note, compared by Schinz to the syllables Hri, tri, tri.' Bech- 

 stein says that its call is a lond and clear 'kip, kip,' like that of the 

 Crossbill. It will also in confinement sing the notes of the Mountain 

 Finch, and it is not easily tamed. 



It lives upon seeds and insects, preferring of the first those that are 

 oily, and of the latter beetles and grassho]3pers, moths, etc. In winter 

 its food is by necessity confined to the seeds of alpine plants — fir and 

 pine trees, and, like our Sparrows and Finches, it may be seen feeding 

 among the dung of horses, and it will even in inclement seasons 

 venture into the cloisters of St. Bernard to pick up grains of rice or 

 anything it can get. Schinz tells us they are always in good con- 

 dition and very fat in summer. In confinement they will do well on 

 rape and hemp seeds, but will also eat those of the fir, which they 

 seem to like much. They also feed upon the seeds of several grasses. 



The Snow Finch breeds only in the highest regions of the highest 

 mountains, where the growth of wood has ceased, and near those 

 dreary and desolate spots where the snow has never melted since the 

 mountain was upheaved from the bowels of the earth. Yet it hath 

 pleased Him, without whose knowledge not a Sparrow falleth to the 

 ground, to locate here one of the most beautiful of His created things; 

 and as the weary traveller seeks among these wild and inhospitable 

 regions the records of a past history in the world — and is full of that 

 deep and indescribable feeling which the sublimity of such a solitude 

 creates within his mind — he is charmed and delighted by the chirp 

 or the flutter of this lonely denizen of the Alps, which proclaims to 

 him by its presence there — by its adaptation to its existence — by its 

 distinct individuality — that it had a special creation and a special 

 position assigned to it in the great scheme of nature. 



The nest of the Snow Finch is placed on the rocks, between stones, 

 in fissures of the rocks, or in holes, as well as in the balconies and 

 under the roofs of the hospitals of the great St. Bernard and the 

 Simplon. It begins to build in May, and has probably only one 

 brood in the year. The nest is made of dry grass, stalks, and moss, 

 and lined inside with feathers or hairs. It contains from four to five 

 eggs, which are very similar to those of other Finches. The ground- 

 colour is pure white, with an occasional minute brown dot. 



The young are fed upon insects, and are taken off into the snow, 

 even to the highest regions, by the old birds. 



The male in breeding plumage has the top of the head and neck 



