192 LAND-BIRDS. 



a. 6^7 inches long. In the breeding season, pure white 

 with black variegations, and a black bill. In winter, bill 

 brown, and the'plumage endlessly varied. A specimen before 

 me, a very fair type, is chiefly white, with a rich dark brown 

 on the crown, becoming lighter and warmer on the back of 

 the neck and on the rump. The interscapulars are vaguely 

 streaked with white, black, and brown, these colors extending 

 to the scapulars. Wings and tail, chiefly black and white. 

 Under parts, snowy white, with a light warm brown .patch on 

 each side of the breast. Specimens have been obtained pure 

 white, and unmarked. 



h. Mr. Macfarlane found on the arctic coast a " nest sit- 

 uated in a cave in a sand-bank." " The eggs, five in number, 

 are of a dull white, with perhaps a faint bluish cast, sprinkled 

 and spattered with dilute yellowish rufous, the markings most 

 numerous toward the larger end ; they measure .95 of an inch 

 in length by .64 in breadth." 



c. The Snow Buntings are quite regular as winter visitors 

 to New England, appearing in November, April, and the inter- 

 vening months. They are very restless, and roam over the 

 country in flocks, which sometimes contain thousands of indi- 

 viduals. They have very good powers of flight, and hence can 

 take long flights whenever their wishes or instincts prompt 

 them to do so. They generally move to the northward when 

 long-continued fine weather occurs, and to the southward on 

 the advent of heavy snow-storms, and therefore have acquired, 

 in their winter haunts, the name of " bad-weather birds," a 

 title which originated in Europe, where they are well known. 

 The Snow Buntings for the most part breed in arctic coun- 

 tries, but a pair have been known to build their nest near 

 Springfield,* Massachusetts, and, says Mr. Maynard,'* " this 



the winter "in flocks of from ten or 70). In-viewof the confusion of names 



fifteen, to thousands of individuals." — between this species and the Snow-bird 



W. B. {Junco hyemalis), it is probable that the 



* This refers to a note by Mr. Allen, birds seen by Mr. Bennett were of the 



who says : " Mr. C. W. Bennett tells latter species. In any case the record 



me that a pair spent the summer of is too meagre of details to be seriously 



1862, and reared their young, in Spring- considered. — W. B. 

 fleld" (Proc. Essex Inst., IV, 1864, p. " A Catalogue of the Birds c^ Coos 



