98 THE BIRDS OF SHERWOOD FOREST. 
sparingly speckled with brownish grey, except at the 
larger end, where they accumulated, and on two of them 
formed a very distinct and well-defined zone. 
Of the family of the buntings I can enumerate five— 
viz., the snow, the common, the black-headed, the yellow, 
and the cirl. The Snow Bunting (Emberiza nivalis) is 
only a straggler with us; I have occasionally met with 
them during the winter, mingled with skylarks in the 
fields on the edge of the forest at Edwinstowe. Some 
individuals have been killed wearing the adult white 
livery, while others were in that immature plumage 
which has led them to be classed as a separate species, 
under the name of the tawny bunting. 
The snow bunting migrates regularly during the 
winter, appearing in large flocks on the shores of the 
Humber; but I have not seen it in numbers to the 
southward of this boundary, those occurring in our forest 
district being but stragglers from the main body. The 
proportion of adult males in these flocks is but small, 
the majority being either females, or the young of the 
first year in the tawny livery. At times the numbers 
to be met with on the Humber banks are very large ; 
they feed on the seeds of the dog-grass, the crops of 
those I have killed being literally crammed with them. 
They run along very actively, moving each foot alter- 
nately, and in the situations I have mentioned are very 
fearless, allowing you to approach within a few yards. 
If the weather continues severe, their visit is of some 
continuance ; but no sooner is any indication felt of a 
change of temperature than they depart at once for their 
nortkern homes. 
The Common Bunting (EZ. miliaria) is very plentiful 
on our arable lands, where its nest is placed on the 
