CARL VANDOREN.
or a large bunting (Plectrophenax nivalis), com mon in the northern regions of both hemi spheres, and visiting the United States and cen tral Europe in flocks during the winter. They haunt the open, treeless wilds, and place their nests on the ground or in the crevice of a rock throughout northern regions. Their long hind claws serve to distinguish them from the true buntings, giving them a certain similarity to the larks, which they also resemble in running swiftly and in never perching (see LONG sPuRs). In winter the plumage of the male is almost or quite pure white. The summer dress exhibits a tawny brown hue, spotted with white, the back darker. The average length is about seven inches. The song is sweet, but faint. The Laplanders account the flesh of these birds a great delicacy; and in Greenland they are caught and dried in great numbers. They subsist largely on seeds.
any one of the 50 or more cultivated varieties of the genus Galanthus (Antaryllidacece), the most common being the European snow-drop (G. nivalis), famous for its midwinter blooming. They are small, low plants, with bulbous roots, narrow leaves and nodding white flowers, touched with green. The
corollas are somewhat bell-shaped, having six segments, the three outer concave and spreading, and the others straight and shorter. Galanthus etwesii is one of the largest flowered varieties. Although usually very early spring bloomers, giving the bees their first supplies of honey, some varieties appear in the autumn, and were, for a while, rare plants.
any one of the species of Leucojum, a genus of the Amaryllidacece, re sembling the snow-drops, but larger and having the six segments of the perianth equal. They are graceful, nodding flowers, pure white, ex cept where touched with green at the tips of the petals, and are low and bulbous, with narrow leaves. L. venum blooms soon after the snow drops and crocuses, while L. cestivum, the sum mer snow-flake, a species of continental Europe, blooms still later, and has several flowers on a stalk. Propagation is by offsets, and these are best removed when the leaves are dry.
an Arctic goose (Chen hyberboreus). See GEESE.