LAPLAND BUNTING. 17 



the Bluethroat, the northern form of Yellow Wagtail, the 

 Red-throated Pipit and the Titlark ; but this Bunting will 

 also frequent higher levels than any of those birds, the last 

 only excepted, and may be found in colonies where the 

 cloudberry and the dwarf birch form the prevailing vege- 

 tation. Arriving from the south at such bogs, so soon as 

 the surface-soil is thawed, the cock-birds are fond of display- 

 ing their gay plumage to the best advantage on any elevated 

 perch, and rising in the air deliver, while hovering on the 

 wing and then gently gliding to another station, a song that 

 though not marked by any brilliant notes has a tone of 

 sweetness ; yet the gesture by which it is accompanied 

 supplies its principal attraction. When not singing they 

 mostly occupy themselves in chasing or being chased by one 

 another, or, sitting on the most prominent position avail- 

 able — and it must be said that any prominent position on a 

 bog of this kind is comparatively humble — from time to 

 time utter a rather harsh though plaintive note. The pre- 

 liminaries to the breeding- season being ended, this species 

 is usually seen in pairs, but the several pairs do not evince 

 that dislike of their neighbours' society which is so cha- 

 racteristic of the Snow-Bunting, and thus the same suitable 

 moss or portion of a moss, often of very limited area, will 

 accommodate a dozen or more pairs which, the exciting 

 period just mentioned being past, soon enter peaceably 

 upon the work of nest-building. For this purpose the 

 shelter of a thick tussock of grass, the base of a ligneous 

 shrub or any inequality the ground itself may present is 

 chosen, and the foundation is laid with the usual rough 

 materials. Within this a cup-shaped nest is formed, 

 chiefly of the stems of dry grass, and then a bedding of 

 soft feathers is superimposed. This lining, according to 

 the Editor's experience, invariably* distinguishes the nest 



* Richardson, however, writing of this bird in Arctic America, says that the 

 " nest is lined very neatly and compactly with deer's hair." He was an observer 

 so scrupulously accurate that one can hardly doubt his word, yet it is to be 

 remarked that it seems just possible for him to have mistaken the nest of one of 

 the allied North-American species (Plectrophanet pictus, which is said not to 

 use feathers, for example) for that of the Lapland Bunting. Nests of this last 

 VOL. II. D 



