FKIXGILLm.E. 77 



Snow-Bunting. Flectro])lienax nivalis (Linn.). 



[White Lark: Dtv.'\ 



A winter visitor of irregular occurrence. 



This species is sometimes met with as early as September, and remains 

 rarely as late as April and May. It occurs most frequently near the 

 coasts, more especially in the north of the county. 



The Snow-Bunting, and another species of far rarer occurrence in this 

 country, the Lapland Bunting, form a good link between the Buntings 

 and the Larks, as they possess the elongated hind claws of the true Larks, 

 with the hard conical bill with its cutting palatal knob of the Bunting-s. 

 About the end of October the Snow-Bunting is to be met with in flocks on 

 high grounds, and is a frequent winter visitantto the South-western counties. 

 When the flocks first arrive they are in a dingy yellow and black plumage, 

 in which garb they received from the older ornithologists the name of the 

 Tawny Bunting. As the season advances the yellow gradually disappears, 

 the edges of the feathers wearing off, and black and white are left as the 

 sole colours. The Snow-Bunting in this plumage was the Mountain 

 Bunting of Montagu. Some specimens we shot on Lundy in January had 

 become pure white below, with a slight concentric mark on the breast of 

 flame- colour, and dusky yellowish white on the back; on raising the 

 latter feathers slightly it can be seen that they are all black, with the 

 exception of a dusky white fringe, which becoming gradually abraded the 

 bird is left with the glossy black back it assumes in the spring. The 

 changes of plumage in the Snow-Bunting are very interesting, and afford 

 a good example of the manner in which, in most small birds, the transition 

 from the i)lumage of one season into that of another is effected, not by the 

 shedding of old feathers and the production of new, but by the growth of 

 the old feathers from within outwards, and the gradual wearing off of their 

 edges. We have some very beautiful examples of the Snow-Bunting 

 shot by the late Mr. Vingoe in April, on some sand-hills near Penzance, in 

 the complete summer garb with the exception of the bill, which, strangely, 

 never becomes black until the bird arrives at its summer home in the 

 north. Our examples, like those in all stages of plumage obtained in the 

 south, have still tlie yellow beaks of the immature birds. We ourselves 

 never met with tlie Snow-lkinting either in autumn or winter on Dartmoor, 

 whose high plateau is entirely avoided by the flocks of migrating birds. 



Some Snow-Euntiu^s occurred near Plyiiioutli in October L^ni, November 1Sr)2, 

 Miircli \>i'hi, iJeceiiiber 1«(;4, November 1872, Sepleinber ]8S0, November 1881, 

 November 188C. (K. A. J., 'Naturalist,' \Krl, p. 7 ; J. G., (q). cif.. 18.')3, ji. 84, jind 

 'Zoologist,' 1873, p. ;«'.»ll; 18.S1, p. 51 ; 1882, p. C..') ; ] 8,<C,, p. ;J78 ; B., il 8. Notes). 

 A specimen in perfect summer ))luinagp was killed by a boy witb a stone under the 

 Hoe, Plymoiitii. April 2;jrd, 18(iS (J. G-., M8. Notes). 



The Suow-lJuiiling is not unCrequent in autunni and winter on Dartmoor (J. B. R., 

 MS. Notes). Turtoii and Kingston observed it several successive winters un Ashburton 

 Down. 



Montagu obtained a mule near tbe Start, 20tli October, 1802 (Oni. Diet., Suppl.). 



Several epecnnens have occurred in the neigiibourbood ot Kiiigsbridge (11. N. and 



