90 PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 



DISTRIBUTION OF THE CORN BUNTING IN ENGLAND. 



To the Editor of the Naturalist. 

 Sir, — In every ornithological work which has fallen under my notice, your 

 Song Birds excepted, the Corn Bunting (Ember iza miliaria) is boldly stated to 

 be extremely common throughout Britain. Now I have travelled a good deal in 

 this country, and have found the bird very much scarcer, and far less generally 

 known, than the Yellow Bunting, which, indeed, appears to abound and super- 

 abound in every part of our island. In many of the midland and northern 

 counties of England, the Corn Bunting may undoubtedly be called a rare species, 

 and it is probably nowhere very common. In Derbyshire, Yorkshire, Northum- 

 berland, &c, I have passed days and weeks without observing a single indivi- 

 dual, and I have seldom been able to find the nest in those counties. It has 

 been the custom, ever since Ornithology became a science, to consider the Corn 

 Bunting a common bird in England, and therefore, probably, little trouble has 

 been taken to ascertain the truth of the assertion, relative to a species supposed 

 to be so abundant ; and, to casual observation, many brown birds might pass for 

 the Bunting. In some parts of Scotland, I should be inclined to say that it was 

 of more frequent occurrence than in England. I invite the attention of our orni- 

 thologists to the subject, and should be glad if correspondents in different parts 

 of the country would favour us with their observations on this point, through 



the medium of the Naturalist. 



Yours, very truly, 



Bristol, April 16, 1837. Charles Liverpool, M. D. 



PROCEEDINGS OF NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETIES. 



BOTANICAL SOCIETY. 

 March 16.— J. E. Gray, Esq., F. R. S., President, in the Chair. Various dona- 

 tions were announced ; among others, that of a new Moss found on a Moor near 

 Malkham Farm, Yorkshire, by Mr. R. Ley land, and named by him Cinclidium 

 styrzicum; an extensive series of French plants, from Mr. G. E. Dennes, said 

 to have formed a part of the collection of the celebrated botanist M. J. J. Rous- 

 seau ; and some plants from Port Mahon, near Minorca. — A paper by Mr. J. 

 Reynolds was then read, on the plants of China, being translated from a French 

 memoir. The curious property of the China Rose changing colour twice a day, 



