CIRL-BUNTING. 53 



Mr. E. Gray says that a specimen was shot near Yetbolra in 

 Roxburghshire about 1840, and one near Banchory in Aber- 

 deenshire in December 1863, while Mr. Edward notices the 

 occurrence of one in Banffshire (Zool. p. 6598), and the 

 shooting of one near Edinburgh was announced by the late 

 Prof. James Wilson so long ago as 1816 (Mem. Wern. Soc. 

 ii. p. 658). In Ireland its presence has been recorded at 

 Wexford by Mr. Blake Knox (Zool. s.s. p. 95). 



The Cirl-Bunting is most numerous in the southern parts 

 of Europe, and apart from Great Britain the most northern 

 limit it has reached seems to be Heligoland, where it is 

 known to have once occurred. In Belgium and Holland it 

 is rare, but it is said to be plentiful in the valleys of the 

 Moselle and the Rhine, and thence across to Thuringia and 

 Moravia. It has been obtained both in Bohemia and 

 Transsylvania, but is evidently scarce in each. In Turkey 

 it becomes more common, and is resident, which is not the 

 case with it in Central Europe, and though it only occurs rarely 

 on the steppes of Southern Russia it is plentiful in the 

 Crimea — especially on the mountains of its southern coast. 

 Further to the eastward we know it not ; but Strickland 

 met with it at Smyrna, where it appeared to him to take the 

 place of the Yellow-Bunting. In Greece also it occurs, 

 chiefly as a winter-visitant from the North, but Col. Drum- 

 mond-Hay found it breeding in Crete, though it was not 

 very abundant there. It is common in Sicily and is widely 

 dispersed throughout Italy and Switzerland. It occasionally 

 visits Malta in autumn, but in Algeria is common in such 

 localities as suit it and breeds in that country. According 

 to Capt. von Homeyer it also inhabits the Balearic Isles ; and 

 is said by Col. Irby to be very frequent on both sides of the 

 Straits of Gibraltar. In Portugal it is plentiful all the 

 year round, and it seems to be pretty generally distributed in 

 Spain. In France it is most abundant in the south, and but 

 seldom breeds in the northern departments. Such is a brief 

 and necessarily imperfect sketch of the distribution of this 

 species, to describe which properly would no doubt require a 

 personal knowledge of almost every district, for, when we 



