SNOW BUNTING. 
329 
where more valuable game is abundant, they hold out no 
temptation to the sportsman or hunter ; and except the few 
caught by boys in snares, no other attention is paid to them. 
They are, however, universally considered as the harbingers 
of severe cold weather. How far westward they extend I am 
unable to say. One of the most intelligent and expert hunters 
who accompanied Captains Lewis and Clark on their expe- 
dition to the Pacific Ocean, informs me that he has no 
recollection of seeing these birds in any part of their tour, 
not even among the bleak and snowy regions of the Stony 
Mountains ; though the little blue one was in abundance. 
The Snow Bunting derives a considerable part of its food 
from the seeds of certain aquatic plants, which may be one 
reason for its preferring these remote northern countries, so 
generally intersected with streams, ponds, lakes, and shallow 
arms of the sea, that probably abound with such plants. In 
passing down the Seneca River towards Lake Ontario, late in 
the month of October, I was surprised by the appearance of 
a large flock of these birds feeding on the surface of the 
water, supported on the tops of a growth of weeds that rose 
from the bottom, growing so close together that our boat 
could with great difficulty make its way through them. They 
were running about with great activity ; and those I shot and 
examined, were filled, not only with the seeds of this plant, 
but with a minute kind of shell fish that adheres to the leaves. 
In these kind of aquatic excursions they are doubtless greatly 
assisted by the length of their hind heel and claws. I also 
observed a few on Table Rock, above the Falls of Niagara, 
seemingly in search of the same kind of food. 
According to the statements of those traders who have 
resided near Hudson’s Bay, the Snow Buntings are the earliest 
of their migratory birds, appearing there about the 11th of 
April, staying about a month or five weeks, and proceeding 
farther north to breed. They return again in September, stay 
till November, when the severe frosts drive them southward.* 
* London Philosophical Transactions, lxii. 403. 
