E. nivalis, Lin. Sce. The young have been described by Gmelin and Latham as distinct species, under the title.; Illustelina, Montana, and Glacialis. Snow Bunting, Sea Lark of Ray, Great Pied Mountain Finch, or Brambling, of Willoughby, Pied Mountain Finch, and Pied Chaffinch, of Albin. Prov. Snow bird, Snow-flake, Snow fowl, and Oat-fowl. Quills white; primaries black outwardly ; tail feathers black, with the exception of the three outer ones, which are white. In winter, the whole body of the snow bunting, with the exception of the back and middle co verts, often becomes white, or more or less so, according to the climate ; and in this state it has been sometimes mistaken for a white lark. It is somewhat larger than the chaffinch ; weighs about one ounce and a quarter ; mea sures nearly seven inches in length, and stretches its wings to ten or twelve inches. In summer it inhabits, in vast flocks, the north of Europe, Asia, and America, in the highest latitudes that have been explored ; but in winter it often moves to some warmer regions. Large bands of this species issue from Lapland, and spread over Podolia to the Carpathian mountains, returning to their more northerly haunts in February and March. In Ame rica they advance no further south than Virginia. Myriads of them have been seen on the ice on the coasts of Spitz bergen, and they are known to breed in Greenland, where the female nidificates in the fissures of the mountain rocks. The northern parts of this island abound with them ; and they have been traced in various districts of Northumber land and Yorkshire, but scarcely we believe farther south. Many thousands of them winter in the Orkneys, and part of them breed in the Highlands of Scotland; but flocks also migrate from that quarter by the Orkneys, Shetland, and Faroe Islands, to the extreme north—a wonderful flight for such small birds. When they first arrive in the
north of Scotland they arc much emaciated, but soon get plump ; and though they are distinct from the genuine ortolans, for which they have been mistaken, they may be termed the ortolans of the north ; for they are caught by the Laplanders and others in great quantities, and are reckoned very delicate food. Their arrival in this island is supposed to betoken a severe winter, or heavy falls of snow. These birds do not perch, but continue on the ground, and run about like larks, which they also resemble in size, and in the length of their hind claws, and by some authors they have been accordingly ranged with that fami ly ; but from the peculiar structure of the bill, they are now, with more propriety, referred to the tribe of buntings.
They are very wakeful, sleeping little during the night, and in the months of June and July beginning to hop about with the earliest dawn. The males sings feebly during the breeding season; his calling note is more agreeable, but that of alarm or anxiety is, on the con trary, loud and shrill. He sings from the middle of May till the end of July, and often during the night, which they always pass on the ground. The female builds in the crevices of rocks. constructing a nest of grass and feathers, lined with the hair or wool of the arctic fox or other quadruped, and laying five reddish-white eggs, spotted with brown, and nearly spherical. The male assists in the duty of incubation.