2o8 Transactions of the [Sess. 



prominent as to prevent confusion between the sexes. The curious 

 scribbled egg is unfortunately too weU-known an object to every 

 bird-nesting youth. The old but now almost obsolete idea of the 

 origin of these strange markings is founded, according to Yarrell 

 and other naturalists, upon the belief that his Satanic majesty — 

 in a fit of unwonted generosity, no doubt — presents the Yellow- 

 Bunting every May with half a drop of his own blood, and hence 

 the dark-purple streaks on the egg. To comment upon such 

 idiotic nonsense would, of course, be waste of time. The nest is 

 placed on, or very near, the ground ; but instances have occurred 

 when the usual order of things has been departed from — the most 

 singular of which that I am personally aware of being lately com- 

 municated to me by a friend, Mr John Thomson of Stobo, Peebles- 

 shire. The following is a sentence from his letter : " Several 

 years ago I found a Yellowhammer's nest built in a stack of oat- 

 straw in the stackyard here [Stobo], containing four or five eggs : 

 the outer material of the nest was all of straw, to assimilate with 

 its surroundings." It is not unusual for birds to accommodate 

 themselves to existing circumstances where their more natural 

 habitats cannot readily be procured, but this was a case where their 

 ordinary sites were easily attainable, and on that account the choice 

 of situation was all the more exceptional and interesting. The 

 same gentleman also mentions seeing upwards of thirty feeding 

 together in a field during winter, no other species being near. 

 This, however, is not so worthy of record as his remark about the 

 nest, although he is correct in saying that, while gregarious, they 

 almost always mix with other birds, such as Greenfinches, Shilfas, 

 &c., and rarely appear in such numbers entirely by themselves. 



The last and most important on our list is the Snow-Bunting. 

 This most attractive species is a migrant, and visits our islands 

 during winter, leaving latitudes in and near the Arctic Circle 

 for that purpose. Instances have been recorded of its remaining 

 to nest in this country, but only in mountain solitudes such as the 

 Grampians and similar elevated ranges ; and though it is quite 

 possible that some few are constant residents in Scotland, these 

 undoubtedly form the exception, and not the rule. Desultory 

 examples occur almost every summer, and a communication has 

 lately reached me from a friend who observed a pair in June on 

 Craig Na, a precipitous rocky hill in Glen Urquhart, Inverness- 

 shire ; but though convinced they were breeding, he could 

 not discover the nest. During winters of unusual severity, im- 

 mense flocks descend on the sea-shores, and scatter in bands over 

 the muirs and upland districts. These bands again divide into 

 small parties, and may be seen hunting about the same localities, 

 until the occurrence of a sudden storm causes them to reunite, and 

 descend to the verge of cultivation in the hope of finding a supply 



