THE SISOW-BUNTING. 
155 
fell in with some Esquimaux graves: among them was a pile 
of stones covering the body of a child. ''^ A snow-bunting/^ 
says that graphic writer, " had found its way through the 
loose stones which composed this little tomb, and its now 
forsaken, neatly- built nest, was found placed on the neck of 
the child. As the snow-bunting has all the domestic virtues 
of our English redbreast, it has always been considered by 
us as the robin of these dreary wilds ; and its lively chirp 
and fearless confidence have rendered it respected by the 
most hungry sportsman. I could not on this occasion view 
its little nest, placed on the breast of infancy, without wish- 
ing that I possessed the power of poetically expressing the 
feeling it excited"^/^ 
Sir George Mackenzie too speaks with pleasure of the 
Snow-flake, and says that it is " the only bird in Iceland 
which can truly be said to attempt singingf."'^ It must 
have been very gratifying to Lieutenant Brown, on the 5th 
April, 1851, when on a sledge-party to the desolate country 
south of Cape Walker, during the late search for the crews 
of the Erebus and Terror, to enter in his Journal that ^^two 
snow-buntings came hopping and chirruping round the 
* A Brief Narrative, etc., by Captain G. F. Lyon, R.N, 
t Travels in Iceland, second edition, p. 89. 
