326 SNOW B UNTING. 



and peculiarities having been long familiarly known to the 

 naturalists of Europe, I shall in this place avail myself of 

 the most interesting parts of their accounts, subjoining such 

 particulars as have fallen under my own observation. 



" These birds," says Mr Pennant, " inhabit not only Green- 

 land,* but even the dreadful climate of Spitzbergen, where 

 vegetation is nearly extinct, and scarcely any but cryptogam- 

 ous plants are found. It therefore excites wonder how birds 

 which are graminivorous in every other than those frost-bound 

 regions subsist, yet are there found in great flocks, both on 

 the land and ice of Spitzbergen. f They annually pass to this 

 country by way of Norway ; for, in the spring, flocks innu- 

 merable appear, especially on the Norwegian isles, continue 

 only three weeks, and then at once disappear.! As they do 



mode of progression is also the same, being by successive steps, and not 

 the hopping motion used by all the true Emberizce. A power of flight 

 superior to that possessed by the true buntings is also indicated by the 

 greater length of the wings and form of the tail-feathers. In Plectro- 

 phanes, 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 

 distinctions of that genus." 



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 gra- 

 dually 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 Avhite on the sides of the head, one bordering on the chin, 

 another on the ear, a third above the eye, a less distinct spot on the 

 middle of the nape ; the neck above, wood brown, the dorsal plumage 

 and lowest rows of wing-coverts, blackish brown ; the under plum- 

 age, entirely of a colour intermediate between wood brown and buff 

 orange." — Ed. 



* Crantz, i. 77. 



f Lord Mul grave's "Voyage, 188 ; Martin's Voyage, 73. 



X Leems, 256. 



