SNOW FINCH.
Fringilla nivalis, Lenn.

Le Gros-bece niverolle.

Tus species of Finch approximates so closely in form and general style of colouring to one species of the
genus Plectrophanes, that it has been with some difficulty we have decided upon following the arrangements
of M. Temminck in still retaining it in the genus Pringilla. We find that this bird, as it departs from its
more typical relations, exhibits the same differences, and assumes almost the same characters and general
appearance, as the Snow Bunting, Plectrophanes nivalis: the construction of its bill, however, which more
strictly resembles that of Hringilla, denotes its true situation, and a more beautiful link could not be con-
ceived, uniting as it does in the most complete manner the species of two genera, viz. the Buntings and Finches.
Still it cannot be denied that the Snow Finch has as great a claim to a new generic title as the Snow
Bunting, possessing as it does characters so essentially different from the true Finches.

We are led to believe from its form and the imperfect accounts published respecting its history, that its
habits are in a great measure terrestrial, although it chooses the most elevated situations, such as the Alps,
Pyrenees, and other mountainous districts of Europe, the British Isles excepted. In these wild and barren
regions, upon the very verge of perpetual snow and ice, it dwells in unmolested security, and there finds that
food which nature has destined for its support. This, according to M. Temminck, would seem to be of a
mixed nature, consisting of seeds of various kinds, often that of the fir cone, and various species of insects.
It builds its nest in crevices of the rocks, laying four or five eggs of a light green, irregularly sprinkled with
ash-coloured dots, intermingled with blotches of dark green.

The sexes offer but little difference in plumage; neither does the summer and winter dress exhibit much
variation, the beak being more or less yellow in winter, but deep black in summer.

In the male the top of the head, the cheeks and back of the neck are of a blueish ash; the scapulars
and the two secondary feathers nearest the body are deep brown; all these feathers being bordered with
a lighter colour; the remainder of the secondaries, the wing-coverts and the coverts of the tail are pure
white ; tail white, with the exception of the two centre feathers, which are blackish, and the whole tipped
with the same colour ; quill-feathers deep black ; the under parts are white or whitish according to age ;
feet brown. This description applies to the female also, except that we find in her the ash colour of the head
tinged with rusty brown, and the quill-feathers brown instead of black.

We have figured a male in summer plumage, and a female in that peculiar to winter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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