BIRDS 149 



SNOW BUNTING. 



Plectrophanes nivalis (L.). 



On the 12th of January 1892, Mr. R. Mann wrote to me to 

 report an immigration of this species quite unprecedented in the 

 vicinity of the English Solway. ' It may interest you,' he says, 

 1 to know that an immense number of Snow Buntings appeared 

 in this neighbourhood during the end of last week. None of us 

 have ever seen anything like the numbers before. Not hundreds, 

 but thousands! ' This is the more remarkable because the Snow- 

 Hake is' by no means a numerous visitor to the north-west coast 

 of England in ordinary seasons. A few appear in the district in 

 which Mr. Mann resides every winter, but I have never myself 

 seen a larger flock on any of our salt marshes than one of 

 thirty birds, and smaller numbers are the rule. In 1840 this 

 pretty Bunting appeared on our seaboard in hundreds. James 

 Irwin reported that at Bowness, in November, he saw ' not less 

 than three hundred in one flock.' A flock which visited Abbey 

 in November 1890, was estimated by Mr. Nicol to consist of at 

 least one hundred and fifty birds. A good many individuals 

 visited the coast near Ravenglass at this time, and one of the 

 number was reported to me as being pure white throughout its 

 plumage. Upon the fells which divide the most northern coun- 

 ties a few Snow Buntings appear at the beginning of every 

 winter, and in 1873 large numbers frequented the high grounds 

 above Renwick. An early straggler appeared on the 26th of 

 September, in 1886, but the date is a very exceptional one for 

 the interior of Lakeland. A few individuals of this species 

 generally appear on the tops of the Lake hills in early winter, 

 but the species is always much scarcer on the west side of the 

 Eden valley than on the fells, and in the dales of the Pennine 

 range. The larger flocks of this Bunting are usually restless and 

 difficult to approach, but individual birds sometimes evince a 

 charming disregard of mankind. When visiting Silloth one 

 winter day, I was amused to see a small urchin endeavouring to 

 capture a couple of Snow Buntings under his cap. The l snow- 

 birds ' were tripping tamely over the village green, and allowed 

 their persecutor to approach repeatedly within a few feet. 



