SNOW-BUNTING. 
459 
familiar, and occasionally, even at this season, they 
chant out a few unconnected notes as they survey the 
happier face of nature. At the period of incubation they 
are said to sing agreeably, but appear to seek out the 
most desolate regions of the cheerless north in which to 
waste the sweetness of their melody, unheard by any ear 
but that of their mates. In the dreary wastes of Green- 
land, the naked Lapland Alps, and the scarcely habita- 
ble Spitzbergen, bound with eternal ice, they pass the 
season of reproduction, seeking out the fissures of rocks 
on the mountains in which to fix their nests, about the 
month of May or June. The exterior of this fabric is 
made of dry grass, with feathers, and the lining is usu- 
ally obtained from the scattered down of the Arctic Fox. 
The eggs are said to be 5, obtuse, whitish, marked with 
numerous spots of brown and grey. A few are known 
to breed in the alpine declivities of the White Mountains 
of New Hampshire. The nest is here fixed on the ground 
in the shelter of low bushes, and formed nearly of the 
same materials as that of the Common Song-Sparrow.* 
In Europe these birds sometimes migrate in winter in 
such numbers into Sweden, Siberia, Russia, and the 
Scottish Highlands, as nearly to cover the country for a 
great extent. They are less numerous in Britain, and 
chiefly remain in the North ; they also visit Germany, 
Holland, France, and some parts of Italy. At times 
they proceed as far south in the United States as the 
state of Maryland. They are here generally known by 
the name of the White Snow-bird, to distinguish them 
from the more common dark-bluish Sparrow, so called. 
They vary in their color, acccording to age and season, 
* For this interesting information, I am indebted to Wright Boott, Esq. who acci- 
dentally found a nest of this species, about the middle of July (1831), then containing 
young. 
