36 



SNOW BUNTING. 

 EMBERIZA NIVALIS, 

 [Plate XXL— Fig. 2.] 



Linn. Sijst. 308.—Jrct. ZooL p. 355. No. 1^2.— Tawny Bunting, Br, Zool. JYo. 121.— 

 L' Ortolan de Neige, Buffon, IV. 329. PL EnL 497. — Peale's Museum, 5900. 



THIS being one of those birds common to both continents, 

 its migrations extending almost from the very pole, to a distance 

 of forty or fifty degrees around ; and its manners 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 ve- 

 "getation is nearly extinct, and scarcely any but cryptogamioiis 

 " 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 innumerable appear, espe- 

 " cially on the Norwegian isles : continue only three weeks, and 

 " then at once disappear. j As they do not breed in Hudson's Bay 

 " it is certain that many retreat to this last of lands, and totally 

 " uninhabited, to perform in full security the duties of love, incu- 

 "bation, and nutrition. That they breed in Spitzbergen is very 



* Crantz, I. 77. 



t Lord Mulgrave's Voyage, 188. Martin's Voyage, 73. 

 % Leems, 256. 



