fringillidjE. 247 



the bosom of the corpse of an Esquimaux child. Its nest is composed of dry 

 grass, neatly lined with deer's hair and a few feathers, and is generally fixed in 

 the crevice of a rock or in a loose pile of timber or stones. The eggs are 

 greenish-white, with a circle of irregular umber-brown spots round the thick end, 

 and numerous blotches of subdued lavender-purple. On the 22nd July, 1826, 

 in removing some drift timber lying on the beach of Cape Parry, we discovered 

 a nest on the ground, containing four young Snow-birds. Care was taken not to 

 injure them ; and while we were seated at breakfast, at the distance of only two or 

 three feet, the parent birds made frequent visits to their offspring, at first timidly, 

 but at length with the greatest confidence, and every time bringing grubs in 

 their bills. The Snow-Buntling does not hasten to the south on the approach 

 of winter with the same speed as the other summer birds ; but lingers about 

 the Forts and open places, picking up grass-seeds, until the snow becomes 

 deep ; and it is only during the months of December and January that it retires 

 to the southward of the Saskatchewan. It usually reaches that river again 

 about the middle of February ; two months afterwards it attains the sixty-fifth 

 parallel of latitude, and in the beginning of May it is found on the coast of the 

 Polar Sea. At this period it feeds upon the buds of the Saxifraga oppositi- 

 folia, one of the most early of the arctic plants ; during the winter its crop is 

 generally filled with grass-seeds. In the month of October, Wilson found a 

 large flock running over a bed of water-plants, and feeding, not only on their 

 seeds, but on the shelly mollusca which adhered to the leaves ; and he observes 

 that the long hind claws of these birds afford them much support when so 

 engaged. The young are fed with insects. 



DESCRIPTION 

 Of a male, killed at Carlton House, March 30, 1827- 



Colour. — Head, neck, rump, wing coverts, spurious wings, basal half of the primaries, all 

 the secondaries, and the whole under plumage pure white : hind head slightly tinged with 

 wood-brown. Back, scapulars, two large coverts of the spurious wings, outer halves of 

 seven primaries, the tertiaries and largest tail covers black, bordered with white, more or less 

 tinged with brown. The three outer pairs of tail feathers white, with a terminal exterior 

 line of black; the rest black, with white borders. Bill yellow, tipped with brown. Legs 

 pitch-black. 



Form. — Bill typical. Palate very convex throughout, with a narrow groove betwixt it 

 and the cutting margins for the reception of the edges of the lower mandible. The two lateral 

 ridges so conspicuous on the palate of E. Lapponica, are merely indicated by faint lines. 

 Wings very long and pointed ; first feather the longest ; lesser quills much truncated, and 



