GROUND riNOIIES. 
163 
these birds are not annually to be met with in the 
three varieties of plumage which have caused them to 
be deemed as separate species by Montague and 
others, under the names of the Snow, Tawny, and* 
Mountain Bunting. 
The Snow-flake, as this bird is sometimes called, 
generally arrives in the upland or mountainous dis- 
tricts, about the middle or latter part of October, in 
large flocks, which seem chiefly to consist of the 
young of the year (or Mountain Buntings), and of 
females or young males (the Tawny Buntings), with a 
few adult males intermixed, which at this period, 
having scarcely acquired their winter livery, are in 
consequence nearer to the state of the tawny plumage. 
Afterwards, if the season should be severe, small 
flocks are seen, principally consisting of adult male 
birds, ill their winter dress, but never in such num- 
bers as are those in the two first-mentioned states. 
As the severity of the winter increases, they leave 
the heaths, where they liave fed upon the seeds of 
various grasses, and, descending to the lower grounds, 
frequent the oat stubbles ; and, if the snow lies deep, 
they approximate to the coasts, ivhere the ^influence 
of the sea-breeze soon exposes a sufficient breadth of 
ground to afibrd them subsistence. Their call-note is 
pleasing, and often repeated during their flight, which 
is always in a very compact body ; and frequently, 
before settling upon the ground, they make sudden 
wheels, coming almost in collision with each other, at 
which time a peculiar guttural note is produced. 
As spring approaches, they retire to their northern 
haunts to breed, and penetrate as far as the coasts of 
