328 SNO W B UNTING. 



Their flights are immense, and they mingle so closely together 

 in form of a ball, that the fowlers make great havoc among 

 them. They arrive lean, soon become very fat, and are 

 delicious food. They either arrive in the Highlands very 

 early, or a few breed there, for I had one shot for me at 

 Invercauld, the 4th of August. But there is a certainty of 

 their migration ; for multitudes of them fall, wearied with 

 their passage, on the vessels that are sailing through the 

 Pentland Firth* 



"In their summer dress, they are sometimes seen in the 

 south of England,! the climate not having severity sufficient 

 to affect the colours ; yet now and then a milk-white one 

 appears, which is usually mistaken for a white lark. 



" Kussia and Siberia receive them in their severe seasons 

 annually, in amazing flocks, overflowing almost all Russia. 

 They frequent the villages, and yield a most luxurious 

 repast. They vary there infinitely in their winter colours ; 

 are pure white, speckled, and even quite brown.J This seems 

 to be the influence of difference of age more than of season. 

 Germany has also its share of them. In Austria, they are 

 caught and fed with millet, and afford the epicure a treat 

 equal to that of the ortolan." § 



These birds appear in the northern districts of the United 

 States early in December, or with the first heavy snow, par- 

 ticularly if drifted by high winds. They are usually called 

 the white snow bird, to distinguish them from the small dark 

 bluish snow bird already described. Their numbers increase 

 with the increasing severity of weather and depth of snow. 

 Flocks of them sometimes reach as far south as the borders of 

 Maryland ; and the whiteness of their plumage is observed to 

 be greatest towards the depth of winter. They spread over 

 the Grennesee country and the interior of the district of Maine, 

 flying in close compact bodies, driving about most in a high 

 wind ; sometimes alighting near the doors, but seldom sitting 



* Bishop Pocock's Journal, MS. f Morton's Northamp. p. 427. 



X Bell's Travels, i. 198. § Kramer, Anim. Austr. 372. 



