263 



difficult of access, does it migrate southward, and is then met with in larger or smaller flocks in 

 Central Europe, Asia, and the temperate portions of North America. 



In Great Britain it is more generally met with during the winter season, especially during 

 severe weather ; but there is little doubt as to its occasionally breeding in Scotland, and I deferred 

 the publication of this article in deference to the wish of one of my friends in Scotland, who 

 felt certain of finding the nest this season: unfortunately he did not succeed in so doing. 

 Macgillivray expressed his firm belief that it breeds in the Grampians, though he could not find 

 the nest ; and Mr. A. G. More states that Dr. Saxby has discovered the nest of this species in 

 Unst, Shetland, and he tells Mr. More that he has upon many occasions observed pairs of them 

 during summer, but in parts of the cliffs almost always inaccessible. Dr. Saxby considers that 

 the Snow-Bunting breeds regularly in the cliffs below Saxavord. 



Mr. Gray writes that " it is a very common species over the whole of Western Scotland, 

 arriving in October and leaving in April. It undoubtedly does breed in Scotland in small 

 numbers. Macgillivray states that both old and young have been seen on the Grampians late in 

 August; and Pennant writes "that a few breed on the summits of the highest mountains. 

 Mr. William Hamilton observed two pairs on Scuir Ouran, in Ross-shire, on the 12 th of July, 

 1868." In England it occurs during the winter. Mr. Stevenson records it as a regular winter 

 visitant to Norfolk ; and it is included in most of the local lists of birds occurring in various parts 

 of England. Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., writes that he has " repeatedly shot Snow-Buntings at the 

 mouth of the Tees, at a place called Seaton Snook, and I hardly ever got two that were exactly 

 alike. I never shot but one really adult male ; and that was in a meadow where I had never 

 seen any before. These 'Tawny' and 'Mountain' Buntings vary nearly as much in size as in 

 plumage, as I know from a number of measurements which I took from birds in the flesh. I 

 have known them to occasionally associate with Bramblings and Linnets ; but generally they go 

 by themselves in flocks of about a score. I cannot remember having seen any before October ; 

 but my father has seen them on September 25th in Suffolk (Zool. p. 2849). In Norfolk 

 Mr. Frere records one on the 23rd, near Blakeney (Zool. p. 1191), and Mr. Clark Kennedy on 

 the 14th, at Hunstanton (Zool. p. 559), which, it must be confessed, is very early. I should think 

 they are as plentiful on the coast of this county as anywhere in England. I have seen them at 

 Lynn, Heacham, &c. ; and both this winter and last I saw large cages full of these birds which 

 had been netted at Yarmouth and sent up to London. I was informed that some had been seen 

 at sea off there about the 3rd of this month (November 1872), by a gentleman who knows them 

 well." It occurs also in the south of England, and is, according to Mr. J. Brooking Howe, "not 

 uncommon in the winter and autumn on Dartmoor." It occasionally appears early in the 

 autumn, in confirmation of which Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., sends the following extract from 

 Dillwyn's ' Fauna and Flora of Swansea,' p. 5, where it is stated that " two were seen near the 

 Infirmary on August 30, 1840 ; and one of them, an adult female, which was shot by Mr. Mogg- 

 ridge, is preserved in the Museum of our Institution." 



It is a common summer resident in Greenland, and Professor Newton writes that it is 

 perhaps the commonest of Icelandic small birds; according to Faber, most of them pass the 

 winter in that country. Captain Feilden says that " the Snow-Bunting is an abundant species 

 throughout Fseroe in the winter time, and a considerable number remain to breed in suitable 



