74 LLOYD'S NATURAL HISTORY. 



Adult Female. — Similar to the male, but smaller. Total 

 length, 6*5 inches ; wing, 345. 



In winter the general colour of the plumage is much more 

 rufous. 



Range in Great Britain. — Nearly universal, extending even to 

 the Shetlands, but is somewhat local. 



Range outside the British Islands. — Pretty generally distributed 

 in Europe, but especially so in the southern and central parts 

 of the Continent. Mr. Howard Saunders says that in the 

 Spanish Peninsula and other great corn-producing countries of 

 the south, as well as in North Africa and the Canaries, it is 

 11 resident and extremely numerous." It does not extend very 

 high north, being only found in the south of Scandinavia, and 

 thence its range tends south-eastwards, its most northern limit 

 in Russia being the vicinity of Riga, and it is not known, 

 according to Mr. Seebohm, to occur near Moscow or in the 

 Urals. It is, however, found in the Caucasus, and its farthest 

 eastern range is Bushire, in the Persian Gulf. Its supposed 

 occurrence in Sind is not altogether authentic. The birds 

 from the more eastern localities are paler in colour than those 

 from Western Europe. 



Habits. — The name of "Corn" Punting for the present 

 species is decidedly appropriate, at least as far as the south 

 of England is concerned, for it is generally in the vicinity of 

 corn land that the Bunting is observed. Its peculiar note 

 attracts attention, as the bird sits on the top of a tree or bush, 

 or, as is often the case, on a telegraph-wire. Beginning Very 

 much like that of the Yellow Bunting it trails off into a feeble 

 ending, instead of the ascending note with which the last- 

 d bird finishes its song. The Corn-Bunting is, to a 

 certain extent, migratory, and flocks of the species are met 

 with in winter. 



Nest.— To be found towards the end of May, as the species 

 is a hue breeder. It is generally placed in a hollow in the 

 the ground, generally in a corn-field, hidden under a tuft of 

 or a small bush. It is an inartistic structure of bents or 

 dry grass, or made only of rootlets, with a fe.v finer ^ rashes or 

 hail s for lining. 



