The Snow Bunting 
119 
Resistance 
to Cold 
In such circumstances these and other polar birds must have acquired 
an extraordinary power of resisting cold or they could not survive. What 
this endurance must be is shown in the following notes by John Wood- 
cock, referring to a winter night in northern Manitoba: 
“On cold, frosty nights, with the thermometer away below zero, one 
wonders how the winter birds are faring. Nearly every winter the 
Snow Buntings roost in the chinks on the north side of our granary. 
On fine nights, when it is not too cold, they have a fairly good place, 
if the wind does not blow directly on them. But on January 14, 1907, 
the wind blew roughly right on the ledges where the 
birds roost, and the thermometer registered 36 degrees 
below zero. Soon after sundown as I looked to see if 
there were any birds on the granary, I was surprised to see about twenty 
Snow Buntings in, their usual place, fully exposed to the biting wind. 
“For the benefit of those who have not experienced such low tem- 
perature, I might say that a wind as cold as that will freeze one’s unpro- 
tected face almost instantly ; yet here was a flock of little birds going 
to sleep, not protected from it in the least, as unconcernedly as though 
it were a warm summer night.” 
The nest of the Snow Bunting has been thus described by Dr. 
Elliott Coues : 
“The few nests of the Snow Bunting that I have seen were built with 
a great quantity of a kind of short, curly grass, which 
grows in the Arctic regions, mixed with moss, the 
whole forming a very substantial structure, with walls 
an inch or more thick, and a small, deep cavity. 
“This is warmly lined with a quantity of large feathers from some 
water-fowl. They are built on the ground, often covered and hidden 
by tussocks of grass, or even slabs of rock. The eggs are exceed- 
ingly variable in color as well as size. The ground is white, or whitish, 
sometimes flecked all over with neutral tint shell markings, overlaid by 
deep brown spots.” 
E. W. Nelson gives a very full and interesting account of the habits 
of these Buntings in Alaska, although he did not hear them sing; but he 
quotes Henry W. Elliott, who studied them in summer on the Seal 
Islands in Bering Sea, as listening to the males singing in June while 
their mates sat upon their eggs in the heather. “During this period,” 
says Mr. Elliott, “the male is assiduous in bringing food (insects, 
chiefly ground-beetles) ; and at frequent intervals sings 
his simple but sweet song, rising as he begins it, high A Flight 
up in the air, as the Skylark does, and at the end of 
the strain drops suddenly to the ground again.” 
To us, who may see the Snow Bunting only in its wanderings, its 
chief interest and importance is that its coming brings a bit of novelty 
to the winter landscape, and that it is one of the great tribe of weed- 
warriors that, through the very necessity of existence, consume vast 
numbers of weed-seeds before the growing season quickens them to life. 
Nest 
and Eggs 
