OCCURRENCE OF THE LITTLE BUNTING IN ORKNEY 15 



On the i 5th October, Mr. John R. Laurence wrote to 

 me from the Pentlancl Skerries Lighthouse asking me to 

 identify several birds, which he enclosed in the flesh, killed 

 or captured at that station. These were a Goldcrest, a 

 Mealy Redpoll, a Garden Warbler, a Blackcap, a Brambling, 

 and the remains of a Bunting which had been rescued from 

 a cat which had captured and partly eaten the bird. This 

 occurred on the morning of the 1 5th October. The 

 remains of the Bunting consisted of the head, wings, 

 tail, and legs of a bird of the year of Emberiza pusilla, a 

 species which has only twice before been detected in Great 

 Britain, namely in the counties of Sussex and Durham. 

 There can be little doubt that the other birds sent had been 

 killed about the same time, for they were quite fresh in 

 condition on reaching Edinburgh on the 2Oth. 



The Little Bunting is a summer visitor to the northern 

 portions of the Old World, and though a breeding species 

 as far westwards as the government of Olonetz in N.W. 

 Russia, it does not appear, according to our knowledge of 

 its distribution, to have winter quarters in either southern 

 Europe or in Africa, or indeed in Asia westwards of India. 

 It occurs, however, on migration in S.E. France and Italy 

 with some regularity, which would seem to indicate that the 

 bird has winter retreats somewhere in the southern portion of 

 the Western Palsearctic Region. On the autumn passage the 

 bird has somewhat frequently been obtained at Heligoland, 

 and on several occasions on the coasts of Holland and 

 Belgium. It has twice been recorded for Algeria. In all 

 probability it is not quite such a rare visitor to our own 

 shores during the autumn as is at present supposed, but at 

 that season its plumage is inconspicuous and renders it 

 much liable to be overlooked ; this is especially the case as 

 regards the birds of the year, which have a superficial 

 resemblance to the Lesser Redpoll of a similar age. 



This species was added to the British avifauna on the 

 strength of a specimen captured in a clap-net near Brighton 

 on the 2nd November 1864 ("Ibis," 1865, p. 113). From 

 that date until 1902, however, no other example had been 

 detected in our Islands; but on the iith October in that 

 year one (a female) was shot on the Durham side of the 



