SNOW BUNTING. 473 
their seeds, but on the shelly mollusca which adhered to 
the leaves ; and he observes that the long hind claws of 
these birds afford them much support when so engaged. 
The young are fed with insects.” Mr. Nuttall, in his Or- 
nithology of the United States and Canada, says that on 
their way to the south these birds appear round Hudson’s 
Bay in September, and stay till the frosts of November 
again oblige them to seek out warmer quarters. Early in 
December they make their descent into the Northern 
States in whirling, roving flocks, either immediately before, 
g 
or soon after, an inundating fall of snow. The southern 
migration on the American continent extends as far to the 
south as Louisville in Kentucky. 
Mr. William Proctor, the curator of the Durham Uni- 
versity Museum, who visited Iceland in the summer of 
1837, and has very kindly supplied me with several inter- 
esting notices of the habits of some of our birds on that 
island, says, ‘‘of the Snow Bunting it is observed, that 
this bird breeds there in June; the nest, placed among 
large stones, or in the fissures of rocks, is composed of dry 
grass, and lined with hair or feathers; the eggs from four 
to six in number. The male bird attends the female 
during incubation; I have often seen him, when he was 
coming from the nest, rise up im the air and sing sweetly, 
with his wings and tail spread like the Tree Pipit. I ob- 
served these Buntings frequently perch on some low rail- 
ing which had been put up to dry fish on, even when fish 
were hanging on the rails.” 
Linnzus, in his Tour in Lapland, mentions having seen 
them in that country at the end of May, and in the be- 
ginning of July. At page 282 he observes that the Hm- 
beriza nivalis is said to be the only living animal that has 
been seen two thousand feet above the line of perpetual 
