A LIST OF THE BIRDS OF BERWICK-ON-TWEED 87 



where it was found in company with some of the Common Crossbills 

 (see "Hist. Berw. Nat. Club," vol. xii. p. 532). 



This is an important addition to the Birds of Berwickshire, as 

 well as to the Eastern Borders. 



CORN BUNTING, Emberiza miliaria, Linnaeus. A common 

 resident, breeding on the " Meadows " close to the town, and 

 throughout the surrounding district. In winter it assembles in 

 considerable flocks, thirty or forty being sometimes seen together, 

 and then associates in the fields and stackyards with Larks, 

 Finches, etc. 



YELLOW HAMMER, Emberiza ritrinella, Linnaeus. Abundant 

 all the year round. 



CIRL BUNTING, Emberiza cirlus, Linnaeus. A specimen in the 

 Kelso Museum, referred to in Gray's "Birds of the West of Scotland," 

 p. 132, as having been shot at Greenhill, near Yetholm, about the 

 year 1840, seems to have escaped the notice of Mr. A. H. Evans, in 

 his paper in the "Scottish Naturalist," for 1891. 



This is a species I have always kept a look out for here, but have 

 not, so far, succeeded in thoroughly identifying, though I was almost 

 convinced that a pair of birds, which I met with at Castle Heaton, in 

 Northumberland, on ist January 1890, were Cirl Buntings. They 

 were feeding at some stacks, by the roadside, in company with Finches 

 and Yellow Hammers, but moved off at once, and, in the bad light 

 which prevailed at the time, I may have been mistaken. 



REED BUNTING, Emberiza sch&niclus, Linnaeus. A common 

 resident, breeding by the sides of the Tweed, and in other suitable 

 places, and associating in small companies with the flocks of Larks, 

 Finches, and kindred species on the " Meadows " in winter. 



SNOW BUNTING, Plectrophenax nivalis (Linnaeus). An abundant 

 winter visitant, assembling during hard weather in large flocks, 

 particularly about the Freemen's " Meadows " to the north of the 

 town. A few arrive about the middle of September, the flocks a 

 month or six weeks later ; and in the spring I have noticed single 

 birds as late as the 5th of April. The great dissimilarity in plumage, 

 as well as in the size, of these birds is very perplexing to our young 

 ornithologists. 



LAPLAND BUNTING, Calcanus lapponicus (Linnaeus). Has not 

 yet been obtained here, but, in the snowstorm of January 1893, I 

 met with considerable numbers on the coast, near Holy Island, about 

 a dozen miles south of our boundary. They remained there at any 

 rate up to i4th March following, on which date they were still 

 numerous. 



Large flocks of this species visited the eastern counties of 



