302 SINGING BIRDS. 
The Snow Buntings are seen in spring to assemble in Nor- 
way and its islands in great numbers ; and after a stay of about 
three weeks they disappear for the season, and migrate across 
the Arctic Ocean to the farthest known land. On their return 
in winter to the Scottish Highlands their flocks are said to be 
immense, mingling, by an aggregating close flight, almost into 
the form of a ball, so as to present a very fatal and successful 
mark for the fowler. They arrive lean, but soon become fat. 
In Austria they are caught in snares or traps, and when fed | 
with millet become equal to the Ortolan in value and flavor. 
When caged they show a very wakeful disposition, instantly 
hopping about in the night when a light is produced. Indul- 
gence in this constant train of action and perpetual watchful- 
ness may perhaps have its influence on this species, in the 
selection of their breeding places within the Arctic regions, 
where for months they continue to enjoy a perpetual day. 
The food of these birds consists of various kinds of seeds 
and the larve of insects and minute shell-fish; the seeds of 
aquatic plants are also sometimes sought by them, and I have 
found in their stomachs those of the Ruppia, species of Poly- 
gonum, and gravel. In a state of confinement they shell and 
eat oats, millet, hemp-seed, and green peas, which they split. 
They rarely perch, and, like Larks, live much on the ground. 
This harbinger of winter breeds in the northernmost of the 
American islands and on all the shores of the continent from 
Chesterfield Inlet to Behring’s Straits. ‘The most southerly of 
its breeding stations in America, according to Richardson, is 
Southampton Island, in the 62d parallel, where Captain Lyons 
found a nest, by a strange fatality, placed in the bosom of the 
exposed corpse of an Esquimaux child. Well clothed and 
hardy by nature, the Snow Bunting even lingers about the forts 
of the fur countries and open places, picking up grass-seeds, 
until the snow becomes deep. It is only during the months 
of December and January that it retires to the southward 
of Saskatchewan, and it is seen again there on its return 
as early as the middle of February, two months after which 
it arrives in the 65th parallel, and by the beginning of May it 
