194 LAND-BIRDS. 



observed a few on Table Rock, above the falls of Niagara, 

 seemingly in search of the same kind of food. " Mr. May- 

 nard speaks of thousands feeding on the seeds of beach-grass, 

 at the Ipswich Sand-hills.'^ The Snow Buntings run with 

 ease and rapidity, like the Larks, and fly with considerable 

 swiftness, when in flocks often whirling like a flurry of snow 

 before alighting on the ground. They are the most pictur- 

 esque of our winter birds, and often enliven an otherwise 

 dreary scene, especially when flying, when they seem almost 

 like an animated storm, driven before a gusty wind. 



d. Their principal notes are a clearly piped whistle, and 

 a peculiar chirr, which they often utter when on wing. Their 

 song, rarely to be heard in Massachusetts, is short and simple, 

 but rather sweet. 



CALCARItrS. 



B. LAPPONicus. Lapland Longspur. Lapland Bunt- 

 ing. Rare in Massachusetts, where it is present in the win- 

 ter season only; " common on the Ipswich Sand-hills." * 



a. 6-6|^ inches long. (J i i^^ t'l^ b''66''i''g season, with the 

 crown, forehead, sides of the head, throat, and upper breast, 

 continuously black. Superciliary line, whitish, continuing 

 down the side of the chestnut red patch on the back of the neck. 

 Interscapulars, dark brown or blackish, with lighter edges. 

 Lower breast and belly, whitish ; the former more or less 

 streaked. Wings and tail, dusky ; the former marked with 

 bay (and white), the latter with conspicuous white patches. 

 (J , in winter, with the black interrupted and the chestnut red 

 less pure. 5 ' with the throat much like the breast, crown 

 like the back, and the chestnut almost wanting. 



h. In eggs from Anderson River, " where distinctly visible, 

 the ground color appears to be of yellowish gray. . . . The 

 blotches are of various shades of brown, with shadings of olive, 



'^ The Naturalist's Cfuide, p. 112. writers, that it winters in Massachu- 



* An eariy spring and late autumn setts, requires confirmation, but there 



migrant, rare in most parts of New is one explicit and apparently authen- 



England, hut regularly common at Ips- tic record of "several specimens noted 



wich, Massachusetts, in Novemher. on February 21, 1879," at Brandon, 



The statement repeatedly made by Vermont. — W. B. 



