THE SNOW BUNTING. 
79 
by the assistance of more complete or voluminous 
works. 
The cold and icy regions of Labrador and Green- 
land are inhabited by a number of beautiful birds, 
which are very rarely seen except during their short 
stay among us in winter, when the severity of the 
northern climate and the scarcity of food compel 
them to remove to a warmer latitude. Among these 
are the Lapland Longspur and the Snow Bunting. 
They are both quite abundant in the Western States 
during winter, but the former is seldom met with 
near the Atlantic coast, confining itself principally 
to the region of country lying north from Kentucky 
and west of Pennsylvania. In Nova Scotia and the 
States of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont, the 
Snow Buntings make their appearance in large flocks, 
about the time of the first fall of snow, and spread 
themselves over great tracts of country in search of 
grubs, larvae of insects, seeds, and any other sub- 
stance that will answer the purpose of food ; as the 
severity of the season advances, they proceed south- 
ward, occasionally, though rarely, as far as the vicin- 
ity of Philadelphia. In Summer these birds not only 
inhabit Labrador, Greenland, and Iceland, but even 
the piercing climate of Spitzbergen, where the in- 
tensity of the cold is such that vegetation is nearly 
extinct. Indeed, they seem to make the whole coun- 
try within the limits of the Arctic Circle, their home, 
from whence they spread themselves in vast numbers 
southward on both continents, upon the opening of 
the Arctic winter. 
