LITTLE BUNTING. 145 
with in Germany, Austria, Turkey, Asia Minor, and Syria. Loche records 
a solitary example from Algeria. The Little Bunting has no very near 
ally, but most closely resembles the Rustic Bunting, E. rustica. The 
males in breeding-plumage are perfectly distinct, and after the autumnal 
moult they may easily be distinguished by the points already noticed in 
the article on the Rustic Bunting as characterizing the females of the 
two species. 
The Little Bunting is a migratory bird, and breeds in the high north. 
Like the preceding species, it migrates east in autumn, and is another of 
those Asiatic birds which have apparently recently extended their breeding- 
range into Europe. I first made the acquaintance of this charming little 
bird on our expedition to the great river Petchora in 1875. In this valley 
it was one of the latest birds of passage to arrive at its breeding- grounds. 
We obtained the first example on the 31st of May, in lat. 66°, eleven days 
after the ice began to break up; and we afterwards found them common 
down to the tundra. A few even reach the willow-swamps on the islands 
of the delta, as far north as Alexievka. It was most common in the pine- 
and birch-forests, and was frequently seen feeding on the ground on the 
mossy and marshy open spaces in the woods, on the swampy edge of the 
forest tarns, searching for insects in company with Green and White 
Wagtails, Temminck’s Stints, Fieldfares, Blue-throated Warblers, and 
other Arctic birds. Two years afterwards I again met with the Little 
Bunting in the valley of the Yenesay, nearly a thousand miles further east. 
Summer may have been unusually late that year; for on the Arctic circle 
the ice on the river did not begin to break up until the Ist of June, when 
migratory birds arrived in great numbers. On the 7th of June the Little 
Bunting arrived, in company with the Golden Plover, the Wood-Sandpiper, 
and Temminck’s Stint, nearly in the middle of the great spring migration. 
Alston and Harvie-Brown met with the Little Bunting, in the summer 
of 1872, in the neighbourhood of Archangel. They found it a very common 
bird, but somewhat local in its distribution. It frequented the pine-woods 
of large growth and thickets, but seemed to prefer the younger woods 
composed of a mixture of pine, fir, alder, and birch trees. They often heard 
its low sweet song, which they compare rather to that of a Warbler than of 
a Bunting, and they describe its call-note as resembling the words fick, tick, 
tick. They did not, however, succeed in finding any nests, although they 
obtained the young in several stages of plumage. Professor Lilljeborg 
also met with it near Archangel, and describes it as a very lively bird, 
incessantly moving and gliding about amongst the bushes and reeds. He 
also describes its song as very sweet, most nearly resembling that of the 
Robin, and uttered as the bird sits perched on the top of a bush, where it 
can easily be seen. 
The Little Bunting pairs soon after its arrival at its breeding-grounds. 
VOL. II. L 
