SNOW-BUNTING. 
PLECTROPHANES NIVALIS (Linn.). 
Emberiza nivalis, Linn. 8. N. i. p. 808 (1766) ; Naum. iv. 
p. 297. 
Plectrophanes nivalis, Macg. 1. p. 460; Hewitson, i. p. 184; 
Yarr. ed. 4, ii. p. 1; Dresser, iv. p. 261. 
Ortolan de neige, French; Schnee-Ammer, German. 
This pretty bird is best known in our islands as 
a winter visitor, occasionally occurring in very large 
numbers during that season on our eastern coasts, but 
the long-suspected fact of its nesting in Scotland, though 
no doubt no uncommon occurrence, has only been 
satisfactorily proved within the last few years. I must 
confess with sorrow that my personal acquaintance with 
the Snow-Bunting in a wild state being limited to an 
occasional meeting with a few scattered individuals in 
the highlands of Inverness-shire in the late autumn, I 
am not competent to enter into any details as to its 
habits. In captivity I have found this species tame, 
sluggish, and greedy; most of those that I have kept 
caged have succumbed to plethora in a few months. A 
very interesting account of the discovery of a nest of the 
Snow- Bunting in Scotland is given at pp. 138, 139 of 
Messrs. Harvie Brown and 'T. HE. Buckley’s ‘ Vertebrate 
Fauna of Sutherland and Caithness.’ 
