SNOW-BUNTING. 



PLECTR OPHANES NIVALIS {Linn). 



Emberiza nivalis, Linn. S. N. i. p. 308 (1766) ; Naum. iv. 

 p. 297. 



Plectrophanes nivalis, Macg. i. p. 460; Hewitson, i. p. 184; 

 Yarr. ed. 4, ii. p. 1 ; Dresser, iv. p. 261. 



Ortolan de neige, French ; Schnee-Ammer, German. 



This pretty bird is best known in our islands as 

 a winter visitor, occasionally occurring in very large 

 numbers during that season on our eastern coasts, but 

 the long-suspected fact of its nesting in Scotland, though 

 no doubt no uncommon occurrence, has only been 

 satisfactorily proved within the last few years. I must 

 confess with sorrow that my personal acquaintance with 

 the Snow-Bunting in a wild state being limited to an 

 occasional meeting with a few scattered individuals in 

 the highlands of Inverness-shire in the late autumn, I 

 am not competent to enter into any details as to its 

 habits. In captivity I have found this species tame, 

 sluggish, and greedy; most of those that I have kept 

 caged have succumbed to plethora in a few months. A 

 very interesting account of the discovery of a nest of the 

 Snow-Bunting in Scotland is given at pp. 138, 139 of 

 Messrs. Harvie Brown and T. E. Buckley's ' Vertebrate 

 Fauna of Sutherland and Caithness.' 



