444 SNOW BUNTING. Class II. 



' legs, feet and claws are black ; the hind toe is 



very long, like that of a lark, but not so 

 strait. 



Snow This is their summer dress. Against the 



Bunting. . , , , . , . 



rigorous season, they become white on their 

 head, neck, and whole under side: great- part 

 of their wings and the rump assume the same 

 color; but the back and middle feathers of 

 the tail remain black : Linnaus, who was 

 well acquainted with the species, says that 

 they vary according to age and season. In 

 this state they are called in Scotland, Snow- 

 flakes, from their appearance in hard wea- 

 ther and in deep snows. They arrive in that 

 season among the Cheviot hills, and in the 

 Highlands, in amazing flocks. A few breed in 

 the last on the summit of the highest hills in the , 

 same places with the Ptarmigans ; but the 

 greatest numbers migrate from the extreme, 

 north. They first appear in the Shetland islands, 

 then in the Orknies, and multitudes of them 

 often fall, wearied with their flight, on vessels 

 in the Pentland Firth. Their appearance is a 

 certain fore-runner of hard weather, and storms . 

 of snow, being driven by the cold from their 

 common retreats. Their progress southward is 

 probably thus; Spitzbergen and Greenland, 

 Hudson s Bay, the Lapland Alps, Scandinavia, 



