the months of December and January that it retires to the southward of mee. a a
reaches that river again about the middle of February; two months afterwards it me “ae fth
parallel of latitude ; and in the beginning of May it is found on the coast of the Pay Sea. ‘ this period
it feeds upon the buds of the Saxfraga oppositifolia, one of the most cally ‘ os “a Pee during
the winter its crop is filled with grass-seeds. In the month of October, Wilson found a large ock running
over a bed of water-plants, and feeding, not only on their seeds, but en the shelly mollusca which adhered
to the leaves ; and he observes that the long hind claws of these bunds afford them much support when
so engaged. The young are fed with insects.”—Faun. Bor.-Am. vol. Ho 1D 246. i

In his ‘ Notes on the Ornithology of Lapland,’ the late Mr. Wheelwright aa Although ine Snow-
Bunting did not appear to remain during the winter, we obsenzed small flocks oa during our whole journey
up north of Hernosand ; and very soon after we arrived at Quickiock I shot specimens in nearly pure winter
dress ; they seem to leave the lowlands for the fells early in ye We never found a nest, although the
bird breeds abundantly among the fells, and we shot old birds in their summer dress as well as young thers
in the end of July, and one of the latter as early as the 6th of that month. Iam not surprised that we did
not find the nee for the wildest and most desolate spots on the fells appeared to be their summer home.
On these fells there are thousands of acres, we might say many miles, covered with nothing but loose shingly
slate and ironstone, and boulders of erratic rock, which are most difficult to traverse ; and here we always
saw the Snow-Bunting during the breeding-season ; but when the young could fly they appeared to descend
lower down on the fells.”

During the months of September and October the British Islands are visited by numbers of these birds,
the eastern coast particularly, the great promontory of Norfolk being a favourite place of resort; but it is
less numerous in the southern and western parts of our islands. That it proceeds still further south is
evident, Mr. Frederick Du Cane Godman having seen it in the Azores; it is said that it also visits the
Canaries. I believe we have no direct evidence that the bird has ever bred with us; but we may reasonably
assume that a few now and then remain for that purpose ; for Macgillivray states, in his ‘ Natural History
of the Deeside and Braemar,’ that he “ met with this species early in August in the corry and on the summit
of Lochnagar, on the Glas-mheal, in the western corry of Cairn Toul, on the summit of Ben-na-muic-dhui,
and in several other localities. Mr. Cumming and Mr. Brown inform me that it resides there all summer
and breeds. In winter it frequents the valleys from Castletown to Ballater in small flocks. According to
Mr. Stewart it breeds on Ben Aun.”

“Seen against a dark hill-side or lowering sky,” says Mr. Saxby, in the ‘ Zoologist,’ “a flock of these
birds presents an exceedingly beautiful appearance, and it may then be seen how aptly the term ‘ Snowflake’
has been applied to the species. I am acquainted with no more
than that afforded when a number of these birds, backed by a dar
the ground, to the music of their own sweet tinkling voices.”

So much diversity occurs in the colouring of the Snow-Bunting
that examples have been described as pertaining to differ
place which transforms the bird amazingly ; Jet-black
of the male, while that of the female is browner
has much less white on the shoulder ; the unde
sexes at this season are jet-black.

The young, as may be seen in the accompanying Plate, are very unlike the adult, being olive-brown above,
streaked with black, while the belly is tawny and the white shoulder-marks slightly tinged with the same hue.
The Plate represents a male, a female, and a nest of young, of the natural size, in summer plumage. The

reduced tawny-coloured figure represents the dress in which the birds are frequently seen in autumn and
winter. The red-flowering Lichen is the Cladonia cornucopioides.

pleasing combination of sight and sound
k grey sky, drop as it were in a shower to

during its progress from youth to maturity
ent species, besides which a seasonal change takes
and snow-white is the characteristic of the breeding-dress
, with streaks of darker hue on the head and back, and she
r surface, however, is white as in the male; the bills of both