162 
PLacee 
Bowe N se ete Nx 1G. 
rump white: baftard wing, and ends of the greater coverts, 
white: quills black; bafe of them white: fecondaries white, with 
a black fpot on their inner webs: middle feathers of the tail 
black ; the three outer ones white, with a dufky fpot near 
the ends: from chin to tail pure white: legs black. 
This is found in the northern parts of Great Britain, and is 
called in Scotland Snowflake, appearing in great flocks in the 
fnowy feafon, and fuppofed to be the certain forerunner of hard 
weather. A few breed in the fame places with the Ptarmigans, 
but the major part come from the ftill colder regions: they are 
found in all the northern latitudes, without exception, as far as 
our navigators have been able to penetrate; being not only 
found on the land of Spitzbergen, but alfo upon the ice adjacent 
to it, in large flocks; what can be found there for food is diffi- 
cult to determine, as they are granivorous birds, and the only 
fpecies of the genus found in that climate*. In America they 
advance no farther to the fouth than Nova Scotia, never being 
found at New York. I believe the more northward they are 
found, the whiter the plumage becomes, fomewhat in the manner 
of the Ptarmigan, whofe fummer and winter drefs-is quite 
different. ‘I have one from Hud/on’s Bay, and have feen others, in 
which the whole head, neck, rump, and under parts, were white: 
back black, fringed with white: wings and tail black and white 
mixed, like that figured in the PJ. enluminees: while thofe found 
in Scotland have fome blackifh markings about the head and 
neck, like that figured in the Britifh Zoology. In the Faun. 
Groenl. the female is faid to be dufky where the male is black, 
except the breaft and belly, which are white: the temples tefta- 
* Phipps’s Voy. 
Ceaus ; 
