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entirely with insect-larvae, and they greeted the arrival of each fresh instalment of food with a 

 chorus of tiny voices. 



" In autumn the Snow-Bunting flocks in prodigious numbers, especially in the western 

 provinces of Norway, and in November and December along the line of coast, where the flocks 

 alighting remind one of snow-flakes falling on a field. These flocks do not remain long in the 

 same locality, but are constantly shifting their quarters, the ground when vacated being taken 

 up by fresh arrivals ; this continues till the spring, but as soon as the sun's rays become powerful 

 enough to melt the snow in patches on the mountain-sides, they betake themselves again to their 

 summer haunts, and once more enliven these dreary regions with their presence." Messrs. Harvie 

 Brown and Alston also write that "nowhere on the fjelds did we meet with this species at all 

 abundantly; but scattered pairs were observed from an elevation of from 3500 to 5600 feet; and 

 one nest, containing five fresh eggs, was procured by a man in our employ at an elevation of 

 about 4000 feet, on the 22nd of June. When crossing the fjelds earlier in the season (on the 

 17th of May), when they were still deeply covered with snow, the Snow-Buntings were going in 

 small flocks. When we returned in the beginning of June they had dispersed, and were all at 

 their breeding-stations. The above-mentioned nest, which is now before us, is composed of thin 

 wiry grass, warmly lined with feathers of the Fjeld-rype (Lagopus vulgaris) and a quantity of 

 Beindeer's hair ; and our informant told us it was placed under the shelter of a large stone on the 

 mountain-side." Dr. Sundstrom, of Stockholm, writes to me that " it is found during the summer 

 season in numbers on all the Swedish snow-fells, where it frequents places where the snow still 

 remains, or else stony places or puddles formed by the melting of the snow. It never occurs 

 amongst the trees or bushes, not even in the juniper region, and inhabits higher altitudes than 

 the Lapland Bunting. Here it hatches its young, and resides during about half the year. It 

 feeds chiefly on larvae of gnats and other insects, and to some extent on the insects themselves. 

 When food of this nature becomes scarcer, in the autumn, it migrates southward, at first not going 

 far ; but when the cold weather sets in it wanders further south, and then is met with in large 

 flocks in Central and Southern Sweden down to Gottland and Skane, often wandering further 

 south, into Germany. On the 27th of November, 1861, I met with Snow -Buntings in flocks 

 with Shore-Larks on the coast near Alnarps School of Agriculture, close to Malmo, in Skane ; 

 and on the 22nd of April following a few were observed, also in company with Shore-Larks, at 

 the same place. Generally, however, they return in March or April, according to the season, to 

 their summer haunts. When wandering it is not shy ; it feeds then on grain and seed which 

 it picks up on the fields and roads, which places it frequents, and not places where trees, or 

 bushes grow." 



In Finland it occurs in flocks during the seasons of migration, and may possibly breed in 

 the northern portion of that country. I had eggs sent to me from Ija and Kajana, said to 

 belong to this species, which certainly agree very closely with authentic eggs from Greenland. 

 In Northern Bussia it is common, and I have received numerous skins from Archangel. Mr. G. 

 Gillett records it as very common on Novaya Zemlia ; and regarding its occurrence in Spitzbergen, 

 Professor Newton writes that " I have already mentioned the discovery of two nests of this 

 species beneath the Alkenhorn, and that a family party were observed on Busso. Dr. Malmgren 

 states that when at sea in the latitude of Bear Island, on the 19th of May, on his first voyage, 



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