196 
SNOW BUNTING. 
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 decend in rigorous seasons into Sweden, 
“ and fill the roads and fields; on which account the Dalecarlians 
“ call them illwarsfogel, or bad- weather birds. The Uplanders 
“ hardwarsfogel, expressive of the same. The Laplanders style 
“them Alaipg. Leemst remarks, I know not with whatfoun- 
‘‘ dation, that they fatten on the flowing of the tides in Finmark; 
“ and grow lean on the ebb. The Laplanders take them in great 
numbers in hair-springs for the tables, their flesh being very 
“ delicate. 
They seem to make the countries within the whole Arctic 
“circle their summer residence, from whence they overflow 
‘‘ the more southern countries in amazing multitudes, at the set- 
“ ting in of winter in the frigid zone. In the winter of 1778 - 9 , 
“they came in such multitudes into Birsa, one of the Orkney 
“ islands, as to cover the whole barony; yet of all the numbers 
“hardly two agreed in colours. 
“ Lapland, and perhaps Iceland, furnishes the north of Bri- 
“ tain with the swarms that frequent these parts during win- 
“ ter, as low as the Cheviot Hills, in lat. 52 ° 32 '. Their rest- 
“ ing places the Feroe isles, Schetland and the Orkneys. The 
“ highlands of Scotland, in particular, abound with them. Their 
“ flights are immense, and they mingle so closely together in 
“form of a ball that the fowlers make great havoc among them. 
“They arrive lean, soon become very fat, and are delicious 
“ food. They either arrive in the highlands very early, or a 
* Faun. Greenl. 118. 
t Finmark, 255. 
