248 EGGS OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



the markings are underlying ones, and the surface-spots are very 

 deep in colour. The spots are generally most numerous at the 

 larger end of the egg, sometimes forming an irregular zone or 

 often a semi-confluent mass. They vary from l - 05 to 082 inch 

 in length, and from 067 to 06 inch in breadth. 



THE LAPLAND BUNTING. 



(Emberiza lapponica .) * 



Plate 57, Figs. 11, 12. 



The Lapland Bunting is a circumpolar bird, occurring in Great 

 Britain occasionally in winter, and breeding on the tundra of 

 both hemispheres beyond the limit of forest-growth, and in a 

 similar climate at high elevations in Norway as far south as 

 Dovre Fjeld, about lat. 62°, where it nests in the willow-region 

 above the birch-region. 



The nest is almost always placed in some hole in the side of 

 one of the little mounds or tussocks which abound on the marshy 

 parts of the tundra ; it is composed of dry grass and roots, and 

 profusely lined with feathers. 



The eggs are from four to six in number, and differ very much 

 both in size and colour. They vary in ground-colour from pale 

 grey to pale brown, more or less obscured by a profusion of under- 

 lying blotches and streaks, which vary in colour from yellowish- 

 brown to reddish-brown ; the overlying markings are generally 

 much fewer, and are principally streaks mixed with a few blotches 

 and spots of dark reddish-brown. They vary in length from 0'87 

 to 075 inch, and in breadth from 068 to 057 inch. The only 

 eggs with which they are likely to be confounded are those of the 

 Tree Pipit and Bed-throated Pipit, neither of which use feathers 

 in lining their nests. 



THE EEED BUNTING. 

 (Emberiza schaniclus) . 



Plate 57, Figs. 13, 14. 



The Beed Bunting is one of the most widely distributed of the 

 British Buntings. It is found throughout the greater part of the 



* Galcarius Lipponicus — Saunders, Manual, p. 213 ; Sharpe, Handb., I., p. 78. 



