SNOW BUNTING. 



37 



" probable ; but we are assured that they do so in Greenland. 

 "They arrive there in April, and make their nests in the fissures 

 "of the rocks, on the mountains, in May; the outside of their nest 

 "is grass, the middle of feathers ; and the lining the down of the 

 " Arctic fox. They lay five eggs, white spotted with brown : they 

 " sing finely near their nest. 



" They are caught by the boys in autumn when they collect 

 " near the shores in great flocks, in order to migrate ; and are 

 " eaten dried. ^ 



" In Europe they inhabit during summer the most naked Lap- 

 " land Alps ; and descend in rigorous seasons into Sweden, and fill 

 " the roads and fields ; on which account the Dalecarlians call them 

 " illwarsfogel, or bad-weather birds. The Uplanders hardwarsfogel, 

 " expressive of the same. The Laplanders style them Alaipg\ 

 " Leems t remarks, I know not with what foundation, that they 

 " fatten on the flowing of the tides in Finmark; and grow lean on 

 " the ebb. The Laplanders take them in great numbers in hair- 

 " springs for the tables, their flesh being very delicate. 



" They seem to make the countries within the whole Arctic 

 " circle their summer residence, from whence they overflow the 

 " more southern countries in amazing multitudes, at the setting in 

 " of winter in the frigid zone. In the winter of 1778-9 they came 

 " in such multitudes into Birsci, one of the Orkney islands, as to 

 " cover the whole barony ; yet of all the numbers hardly two 

 " agreed in colors. 



" Lapland, and perhaps Iceland, furnishes the north of Bri- 

 " tain with the swarms that frequent these parts during winter, as 

 " low as the Cheviot Hills in lat. 5T 32'. Their resting places the 

 " Feroe isles, Schetland and the Orkneys, The highlands of Scot- 

 "land, in particular, abound with them. Their flights are im- 

 " mense, and they mingle so closely together in form of a ball 



* Faun. Greenl. 118. 

 VOL. HI. 



I Fin mark, 255. 

 K 



