326 
SNOW BUNTING. 
peculiarities having been long familiarly known to the natu- 
ralists 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. 
66 These birds, ” says Mr Pennant, “ inhabit not only Green- 
land,* but even the dreadful climate of Spitzbergen, where 
vegetation is nearly extinct, and scarcely any but cryptogamous 
plants are found. It therefore 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 Spitzbergen.f They annually pass to this 
country by way of Norway ; for, in the spring, flocks innu- 
merable appear, especially on the Norwegian isles, continue 
only three weeks, and then at once disappear.^: As they do 
not breed in Hudson’s Bay, it is certain that many retreat to 
this last of lands, and totally uninhabited, to perform, in full 
perch. Their mode of progression is also the same, being by successive steps, 
and not the hopping motion used by all the true Emberizce. A power of 
flight, superior to that possessed by the true Buntings, is also indicated by the 
greater length of the wings and form of the tail feathers. In Plectrophan.es, 
the first and second quills are nearly equal in length, and the longest in the 
wing; in Emberiza , on the contrary, the second and third are equal, and longer 
than the first. The affinity of our genus to Emberiza , is shewn in the form of 
the bill, which, with the exception of being shorter and more rounded on the 
back, possesses the characteristic distinctions of that genus.” 
During the spring and breeding season, the plumage assumes a pure white 
on the under parts, and deep black on all the brown markings of the upper. 
The feathers are at first edged with brown, which gradually drop off as the 
summer advances. A third species is figured in the Northern Zoology , ( Plec - 
trophanes picta, Sw.) Only one specimen was obtained, associating with the 
Lapland Buntings, on the banks of the Saskatchewan. The description of 
the bird in the summer plumage, is nearly thus given: — “ Head and sides 
velvet black ; three distinct spots of pure white on the sides of the head, one 
bordering the chin, another on the ear, a third above the eye, a less distinct 
spot in the middle of the nape ; the neck above, wood brown, the dorsal 
plumage and lowest rows of wing-coverts, blackish brown ; the under plumage, 
entirely of a colour intermediate between wood brown and buff orange.” — E d. 
* Crantz, i. 77. 
f Lord Mulgrave’s Voyage, 188; Martin’s Voyage, 73. 
\ Leems, 256. 
