A PUZZLE IN BIRDS 



they were as common inland where I now live, yet 

 they are there no strangers to Ned and me, whirring 

 over the snow and the projecting stubble in open places. 

 One very wintry day they afforded us a beautiful 

 spectacle. We were out sleigh riding, on a road which 

 followed the open summit of quite a high hill. A snow 

 squall came up, driving fiercely in our faces. Pres- 

 ently we saw what at first I thought was a cloud of the 

 light, newly fallen snow stirred up by a squall of wind, 

 blowing toward us across a weedy field. Instead it 

 proved to be a large flock of Snow Buntings. Their 

 advance guard were alighting to eat the seeds of the 

 weeds, while those in the rear were continually flying 

 over those ahead of them and themselves becoming 

 leaders. Thus the flock rolled over and over as it were, 

 like a great white wheel, ever advancing. 



Associating with the Snow Bunting we are liable 

 occasionally to meet the Lapland Longspur, a bird of 

 about the same size, but darker colored, the males 

 black on the breast and throat. They are much rarer 

 than the other, enough so to make it a red-letter day 

 when one is identified. How delighted I was when I 

 saw my first Lapland Longspur! I was driving in a 

 sleigh in February, along a country road, when I saw 

 three birds ahead of me feeding in the road. Two 

 were clearly Snow Buntings, as their white wings 

 showed. The other was unfamiliar. I drove up 

 within a few feet of them and stopped. The stranger 

 had buffy cheeks and some black on the breast. It was 



164. 



