236 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol. ix. 



Stint's nest about two hundred yards away. To my 

 surprise even then the fussy Buntings could not let the 

 matter rest, but continually mourned all day long, even 

 though the Stint herself dozed on her eggs within 

 six feet of the camera. 



I was sorry not to study this Buntmg's feeding habits 

 close at hand, in order to find out whether the young 

 were fed by regurgitation like the Bullfinch and Green- 

 finch : by live food like the Yellow Hammer, or in both 

 ways like the Chaffinch. The nest, like that of the 

 Greenfinch, was always foul, and as I never saw food in 

 the bill of a bird which was feeding young, there is some 

 presumptive evidence that the chicks were fed by 

 regurgitation. The parents tended the young only for a 

 short time after they left the nest. In this they differed 

 from the Red-throated Pipits, which continued to feed 

 their broods to within a week or two of the autumn 

 migration. The fledgelings then flocked together, until 

 little parties of six to ten birds were formed towards the 

 €nd of July. These parties left the tundra and came 

 down to the river side. They were fond of haunting 

 the settlements, and in such situations they constantly 

 reminded me of Sparrows. Their buff and brown 

 plumage was not unlike the colouring of SpaiTows at a 

 glance, and their chirping while guzzling round the 

 fish stations was distinctly Sparrow-like. They never 

 associated with the Snow-Bvmtings which were common 

 in the same surroundings at this time, and this seemed 

 to me curious, for when on migration in this country 

 this species will join flocks of other birds. The adult 

 Snow-Buntings did not leave their broods, and birds of 

 all ages might be seen feeding together. ]\Iean while the 

 old Lapp Buntings went apart to moult. Occasionally 

 I saw a couple together during the first fortnight of 

 August, but for the most part they seemed to live singly. 

 It is only right, ho\\'ever, to say that the birds lie very 

 closely at this time, and for each one that I flushed 

 there may have been others lying undiscovered close by. 



