EMBERIZA NIVALIS. 
313 
feathers, mark the recent loss they have sustained ol 
their coloured margins. 
“ A female, killed on the 10th of June, is noticed h)' 
Mr Edwards, as having the crown and nape black, with 
white tips. Fabrieius remarks correctly, that the 
white feathers of the back and belly, when blown 
aside, appear black at their bases. This occurs both J® 
the summer and winter plumage of the male bird. 
“ The snow buntings frequent the shores of the ArctW 
Sea during the summer season, retiring inland in the 
winter to shelter themselves in wooded tracts, w, 
Cumberland House, in the interior of the country, and 
in lat. 54°, they remain the greater part of the winter, 
absenting themselves only occasionally during the severe 
storms of December and January. At Fort Enterprise) 
in lat. 64°, they were also seen in the winter, but more 
rarely, anil in a register kept for a series of years ® 
Fort Churchhill, in lat. 59°, on the sea-coast, they « re 
noted as arriving from the 26th of March to the 7th 
of April ; disappearing in the summer, returning again 
in the end of September, and remaining for about * 
month. It is mentioned as a rare occurrence, that oO‘‘ 
was killed in December. They made their first appe»£' 
ance at Captain Parry’s winter quarters, in lat. 60 > 
on the 27th of April. In their winter migrations, they 
reach, according to Wilson, (vol. ii. p. 224.) as far south 
as the borders of Maryland. 
“ They breed on Melville peninsula, and Captim 
Lyon describes their nest as being placed in the 
crevices of rocks, or amongst loose stones, and coh" 
structed of dried grass, neatly lined with white deers 
hair. They lay seven eggs. (Parry’s Narrath' e > 
p. 462.) . . 
“ Pennant remarks, that it is singular that a grarnin ' 
vorons bird should resort to the barren regions ot th 
Arctic circle ; hut Mr Brown has pointed out, that th 
grasses which grow on the islands of the Arctic 
form nearly one-fifth of the phrenogamous vegetation > 
a proportion nearly double to what occurs in any oth® 
part of the world. These grasses retain their seeds n 
