moderate and slightly forked. Tarsus seutellate in front, covered at the sides
with an undivided plate, forming a sharp ridge behind, about as long as the
middle toe. Claws but slightly curved, that of the hind toe elongated.
W h a t e v e r differences of opinion once existed, it has
long since been ascertained that the Mountain-, the Tawny
and the Snow-Bunting of old authors, are only names for
one and the same species in different states of plumage; hut
to whom belongs the credit of establishing this fact beyond
dispute is by no means clear. Linnaeus indeed never faltered
in his opinion of their identity, though Pennant and,
after him, Latham for some time, took the contrary view.
Turton, in 1807, was perhaps the first British naturalist who
united the three supposed species into one. This was also done
on the continent by Wolf in 1810, by Temminck in 1815 and
by Koch in 1816; hut both at home and abroad they were
regarded as distinct by others, and Montagu maintained to
the last the separation of Emberiza montana, though allowing
that E. mustelina and E. nivalis might he specifically
identified, on the evidence apparently of his friend Foljambe,
an excellent practical ornithologist,—who in a letter to him
said “ a few years ago, I shot more than forty frorp the same
flock, during severe weather in the month of January, hardly
any two of which exhibited precisely the same plumage, hut
varied from the perfect Tawny to the Snow-Bunting in its
whitest state; the feathers of those of the intermediate
state being more or less charged with white.”
The Snow-Bunting or Snow-flake is generally considered
only a winter-visitor to this country, and to the other temperate
parts of Europe ; large flocks, consisting chiefly of
the young birds of the year, bred in high northern latitudes,
annually visiting our islands in autumn. But there is little
doubt that some pairs breed every summer in the Highlands
of Scotland, while the nest and eggs have been several times
found in Unst the most northerly of the Shetlands. Pennant,
during one of his tours in Scotland, learnt that they
bred on the summit of the highest hills in the same places
as the Ptarmigan, especially naming Invercauld, where he
had one shot for him on August 4th; and Thornton mentions
that he saw some Snow-flakes on the top of a Ptarmigan-
mountain near Lochaber August 29th, probably in 1784 ox-
1785.* It does not appear that the Snow-Bunting was
again observed in summer in this district until the
middle of July 1874, when Mr. Nicholas Cooke (who had
seen several birds on Ben-y-Bhean, one of the Ben Nevis
range, July 6th, 1866), as he kindly informed the Editor,
saw one in immature plumage on Craig Maige, a hill about
4000 feet high at Loch Laggan. On the other hand the
species has been frequently noticed in summer in the neighbourhood
specified by Pennant. Thus Macgillivray mentions
his having observed a beautiful male bird flitting about the
summit of Ben-na-muic-dhui- (4300 feet) August 4th, 1880,
and his meeting some days afterwards with a flock of eight
—evidently a family-party, near Lochnagarf (8700 feet) at
the top of which just twenty years later he again saw three
examples (Nat. Hist. Dee Side, p. 45), while he states on
the authority of three informants that the species breeds on
several other mountains in the vicinity. From his earlier
experience he had already inferred the probability of the
Snow-flake breeding, perhaps in considerable numbers, on
the higher Grampians, though he truly remarked that it was
impossible for the vast flocks seen on the lower grounds in
winter to be exclusively of Scottish origin. In 1859, Mr.
Edward asserted (Zool. p. 6597) that he had often met with
the bird in different places in Banffshire during summer,
but had never been able to detect it breeding. Mr. R. Gray
states that he has most satisfactory information as to the
species being seen throughout the year on the mountains
already named, as well as others near them in the counties
of Aberdeen, Banff and Inverness, adding that it was a
source of wonder to his informants that they had never
found the nest. On June 21st, 1870, Col. Drummond-Hay
saw a pair on Ben-na-muic-dhui where he had no doubt
* The year in 'which the Colonel’s expedition was made seems to be nowhere
stated in his hook, and the present Editor only gives it approximately from
internal evidence.
f It must not however he supposed that the “ Snow-flake” of Byron s poem on
this mountain refers to the bird.