iio SNOW BIJNTING ' 



SNOW BUNTING 



PLECTROPHENAX NIVALIS 



Head , neck, portion of the wings, and lower parts white ; upper parts black, 

 tinged here and there with red. Length six inches and three-quarters. 

 Eggs pale reddish white, speckled and spotted with brown and pale red. 



This, though a northern bird also, does not confine itself so closely 

 to the Arctic regions as the preceding species ; but is of common 

 occurrence in many parts of Scotland during autumn and winter 

 and later in the season in various parts of England. Macgillivray, 

 whose acquaintance with British birds, especially those of Scot- 

 land, was very accurate, weis incHned to the opinion that the Snow 

 Bunting or Snow-flake breeds on the higher Grampians, having 

 observed a specimen on a mountain of this range so early as the 

 fourth of August, whUe the migratory flocks do not appear until two 

 months later. " About the end of October it makes its appearance 

 along the coasts or on the higher grounds of the south of Scotland, 

 and about the same period in the south of England, although it is 

 there of much less frequent occurrence. Assembled in large 

 straggling flocks, or scattered in small detachments, these birds may 

 be seen flying rather low along the shore, somewhat in the manner 

 of Larks, moving in an undulating line by me^is of repeated 

 flappings and short intervals of cessation, and uttering a soft and 

 rather low cry, consisting of a few mellow notes, not unlike those 

 of the Common Linnet, but intermixed at times with a sort of 

 stifled scream or churr. When they have found a fitting place, 

 they wheel suddenly round, and ahght rather abruptly, on which 

 occasion the white of the wings and tail becomes very conspicuous. 

 They run with great celerity along the sand, not by hops, like the 

 Sparrows and Finches, but in a manner resembling that of the 

 Larks and Pipits ; and when thus occupied, it is not in general 

 difficult to approach them, so that specimens are easily procured. 

 At intervals they make excursions into the neighbouring fields, 

 alight in cornyards, at barn-doors, or even on the roads, where they 

 obtain seeds of oats, wheat, and weeds, which I have found in 

 them. In the villages along the coast of Lothian, they are some- 

 times, in spring, nearly as common as Sparrows, and almost as 

 familiar. About the middle of April, or sometimes a week later, 

 these birds disappear and betake themselves to their summer 

 residence." Its habits, as observed in England, are simUiar ; but 

 the flocks are generally smaller. In the Arctic regions, it is abundant 

 from the middle or end of April to the end of September. Its 

 nest is composed of dry grass, neatly lined with deer's hair and a 

 few feathers, and is generally fixed in the crevice of a rock or in a 

 loose pile of timber or stones. In spring it feeds principally 

 on the buds of Saxifraga oppositifolia, one of the earliest of the 

 Arctic plants ; during winter, on grass seeds. Peculiar interest 



