SNOW BUNTING. 213 
long familiarly known to the naturalists of Europe, I shall in this place 
avail myself of the most. interesting parts of their accounts, subjoin- 
ing such particulars as have fallen under my own observation. | _ 
“These birds,” says Mr.’ Pennant, “inhabit not only Greenland,* 
but even the dreadful climate of Spitzbergen, where vegetation is 
nearly extinct, and scarcely any but cryptogamous plants are found. 
It therefore excites wonder, how birds, which are graminivorous in 
every other than those frost-bound regions, snbsist ; yet are there found 
in great flocks, both on the land and ice of Spitzbergen.t They an- 
nually ‘pass to this country by way of Norway; for, in the spring, 
flocks innumerable appear, especially on the Norwegian isles, continue 
only three weeks, and then at once disappear.t As they do not breed 
in Hudson’s Bay, it is certain that many retreat to this last of lands, 
and totally uninhabited, to perform, in full security, the duties of love, 
incubation, and nutrition. That they breed in Spitzbergen, is very 
probable; but we are assured that they do so in Greenland. They 
arrive there in April, and make their nests in the fissures of the rocks 
on the mountains, in May ; the outside of their nest is grass, the middle 
of feathers, and the lining the down of the arctic fox. They Jay five 
eggs, white, spotted with brown: they sing finely near their nest. 
also been lately discovered to be an occasional visitant in this country, being taken 
by the bird-catchers about London. The following very proper observations occur 
in Mr. Selby’s account of the Lapland Finch :— 
“The appropriate station for this genus, I conceive to be intermediate between 
Alauda and Emberiza, forming, as it were, the medium of connection or passage 
from one genus to,the other. In Alauda, it is met with that section of the genus 
which, in the increasing thickness and form of the bill, shows a deviation from the 
more typical species,and a nearer approach to the thick-billed Fringillidee ; to this 
section Alawda calandra and hrachydactyla belong. Its affinity to the Larks is also 
shown, by the form of the feet, and production of the hinder claw; this, in Lappo- 
nica, is nearly straight, and longer than the toe, resembling, in every respect, that 
of many of the true Larks. The habits and manners of the two known species 
also bear a much greater resemblance to those of the Larks than the Buntings. 
Like the members of the first genus, they live entirely upon the ground, and never 
perch. Their mode of progression is. also the same, being by successive steps, and 
not the hopping motion used by all the true Enberize. a power of flight, superior 
to that possessed by the true Buntings, is also indicated by the greater fength of 
the wings and form of the tail-feathers. In Plectrophanes, the first and second 
quills are nearly equal in length, and the longest in the wing; in Emberiza, on the 
contrary, the second and third are equal, and longer than the first. The affinity of 
our genus to Emberiza, is shown in the form of the bill, which, with the exception 
of being shorter and more rounded on the back, possesses the characteristic dis- 
tinctions of that genus.” i 
During the spring and breeding season, the plumage assumes a pure white on the 
under parts, and deep black on all the brown markings of the upper. ‘The feathers 
are at first edged with brown, which gradually drop off as the summer advances. 
A third species is figured in the Northern Zoology, (Plectrophanes picta,’ Sw.) 
Only one specimen was obtained, associating with the Lapland Buntings, on the 
banks of the Saskatchewan. The description of the bird in the summer plumage is 
nearly thus given: —“ Head and sides, velvet black ; three distinct spots of pure 
white on the sides of the head, one bordering the chin, another on. the ear, a third 
above the eye, a less distinct spot in the middle of the nape ; the neck above, wood 
brown, the dorsal plumage and lowest rows of wing-coverts, blackish brown ; the 
under mle entirely of a color intermediate between wood brown and buff 
orange.” — Ep. é 
* Crantz,i. 77. 
t Lorp Murcrave’s Voyage, 188; Martin’s Voyage, 73. 
$¢ Lerms, 256. 
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