Wilson was of the opinion that these birds derive a considerable part of their food from the seeds of certain aquatic plants, and this he supposed one of the principal reasons why they prefer remote northern regions intersected with streams, ponds, lakes, and arms of the sea, abounding with such plants. On Seneca River, near Lake Ontario, in October, he met with a large flock feeding on the surface of the water, supported on the close tops of weeds that rose from the bottom. They were running about with great activity, and the stomachs of those he shot were filled not only with the seeds of that plant, but also with minute shell-fish that adhered to the leaves.
Richardson states that this species breeds in the most northern of our Arctic islands, and on all the shores of the continent, from Chesterfield’s Inlet to Behring Strait. The most southerly of its breeding-places known to him was Southampton Island, in the 62d parallel, where Captain Lyons found a nest on the grave of an Esquimaux child. Its nest was usually made of dry grass, neatly lined with deer’s hair and a few feathers, and is generally fixed in the crevice of a rock, or in a loose pile of timbers or stones. The eggs are described as of a greenish-white, with a circle of irregular umber-brown spots round the larger end, with numerous blotches of subdued lavender-purple. July 22, in removing some drift timber on a beach at Cape Parry, he discovered a nest on the ground, containing four young Snowbirds. Care was taken not to injure them, and while they were seated at breakfast, at a distance of only two or three feet, the parent birds made frequent visits to their offspring, each time bringing grubs in their bills. The Snowbirds are in no apparent haste to leave for the South on the approach of winter, but linger about the forts and open places, picking up seeds, until the snow becomes too deep. It is not until December or January that they retire to the south of the Saskatchewan. It returns to that river about the middle of February, by April it has reached the 65th parallel, and by the beginning of May it is found on the shores of the Polar Sea. At this period it feeds on the buds of the Saxifraga oppositifolia, one of the earliest of the Arctic plants. The young are fed with insects.
The Snow Bunting is also an inhabitant, during the breeding-season, of the Arctic regions of Europe and Asia, and the islands of the Arctic Sea. Scoresby states that it resorts in large flocks to the shores of Spitzbergen, and Captain Sabine includes it among the birds of Greenland and the North Georgian Islands, where it is among the earliest arrivals. Mr. Proctor, who
visited Iceland in 1837, found the Snowbird breeding there in June. He found their nests placed among large stones or in the fissures of rocks, composed of dry grass lined with hair and feathers. The eggs were from four to six in number. The male attends the female during incubation. Mr. Proctor states that he has seen this bird, when coming from the nest, rise up in the air and sing sweetly, with its wings and tail spread in the manner of the Tree Pipit. Linnæus, in his Tour in Lapland, mentions seeing these birds in that country about the end of May, and also in July. He also mentions that this bird is the only living thing that has been seen two thousand feet above the line of perpetual snow in the Lapland Alps. This bird also breeds on the Faroe Islands. Mr. Hewitson found its nest in Norway. It contained young, and was built under some loose stones. Young birds have also been noticed early in August among the Grampians, in Scotland, rendering it probable that they breed in that locality, and perhaps in considerable numbers. As the severity of winter increases, they leave the heaths where they have fed upon the seeds of grasses, and descend to the lowlands, frequenting the oat-stubbles, and, when the snow is deep, approaching the coast. Their call-note is pleasing, and is often repeated during their flight, which they make in a very compact body. Before settling on the ground they make sudden wheels, coming almost into collision with each other, uttering at the same time a peculiar guttural note. They run on the ground with all the ease of Larks, and rarely perch. Temminck states that they are very abundant in winter along the sea-coast of Holland.
Their appearance in Massachusetts is usually with the first heavy falls of snow, in December and January. They are most abundant in the open places near the sea-coast, and formerly were very numerous in the marshes between Boston and Brookline. A wounded male in full adult plumage was taken by me, in 1838, and kept some time in confinement. It would not accustom itself to a cage, and a large box was prepared in which it could run more at large. It fed readily on grain and cracked corn, delighted to bathe itself several times in the day, but would not be reconciled to my near presence. On my approach it would rush about its prison, uttering its peculiar call-notes, blending with them a loud guttural cry of alarm. As the spring approached, it warbled occasionally a few notes, but uttered from time to time such mournful cries, as if bewailing its captivity, that it would have been released, had its crippled condition permitted it to take care of itself. It was given in charge of a friend, but did not live through the heat of the ensuing summer.
It is stated that a nest of this bird was found among the White Mountains by Mr. Kirk Boott, of Boston, in the summer of 1834. It contained young birds. This, if the identification was correct, was probably an accidental occurrence. None have been noticed there since, nor have I ever been able to find any of the permanent residents among the mountains that have met with these birds in that region, except in winter.
The only authenticated nest and eggs (10,433) in the Smithsonian collection were received from Mr. R. MacFarlane, with the parent, taken on the Arctic coast east of Fort Anderson, and having on the label, “Nest situated in a cave in a sand-bank.” The nest is deeply saucer-shaped, and composed of wiry grass-stems, with a few feathers in the lining; external diameter 3.75 inches, internal about 3.00; depth, 2.50 externally and 1.50 internally. The eggs, five in number, are of a dull white, with perhaps a faint bluish cast, sprinkled and spattered with dilute yellowish-rufous, the markings most numerous toward the larger end; they measure .95 of an inch in length by .64 in breadth.
Plectrophanes lapponicus, Selby.
LAPLAND LONGSPUR.
“Fringilla lapponica, Linn. Fauna Suecica, 1761, sp. 235.”—Ib. Syst. Nat. I, 1766, 317. Forster, Phil. Trans. LXII, 1772, 404. Emberiza (Plectrophanes) lapponica, Sw. F. B. Am. II, 1831, 248, pl. xlviii. Emberiza lapponica, Aud. Orn. Biog. IV, 1838, 473, pl. 365. Plectrophanes lapponicus, “Selby,” Bon. List, 1838.—Aud. Syn. 1839, 98.—Ib. Birds Am. III, 1841, 50, pl. 152.—Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 433.—Dall & Bannister, Tr. Ch. A. S. I, 1869, 283 (Alaska).—Cooper, Orn. Cal. 1, 178.—Samuels, 300. “Centrophanes lapponicus, Kaup, Entw. Gesch. Europe Thierw. 1829.”—Cabanis, Mus. Hein. 1851, 127. “Fringilla calcarata, Pall. Itin. 710, sp. 20,” French ed. III, 1793, 464, pl. i. Centrophanes calcaratus, Gray, List Gen. 1841, App. 1842, 11.