Species V. EMBERIZA NIVALIS. 
SNOW BUNTING. 
[Plate XXI. Fig. 2.] 
Linn. Syst. 308.--.4rtf. Zool. p. 355, No. 222.— Tawny Bunting, Br. Zool. No. 121. 
— V Ortolan de Neige, Buffon, iv. 3:29. PL Enl 497. 
Tins being one of those birds common to both continents, its migra- 
tions 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 Greenland* but 
even the dreadful climate of Spitsbergen, where vegetation is nearly ex- 
tinct, and scarcely any but cryptogamous plants are found. It there- 
fore 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 Spitsbergen. f They annually pass 
to this country by way of Norway ; for in the spring, flocks innumer- 
able appear, especially on the Norwegian isles ; continue only three 
weeks, and then at once disappear.^ As they do not breed in Hud- 
son'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, incubation, 
and nutrition. That they breed in Spitsbergen is very 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 moun- 
tains, 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 Lapland 
Alps ; and descend in rigorous seasons into Sweden, and fill the roads 
and fields ; on which account the Dalecarlians call them illwarsfogel, or 
*Crantz, 1, 77. f Lord Mulglave : s Voyage, 188. Martin's Vpyage, 73. 
t Leems, 256. 
I Faun. Greenl. 118. 
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