77 



SUBFAMILY EMBERIZIN^.— GENUS EMBERIZA. 



COEN-BUNTING. 



Emberiza miliaria, Linnaius. 



Local Names — BantitKj, Grey BuntiiKj. 



Eesident, migrator}' in some districts, and moving 

 about in winter in company with Larks and Yellow- 

 hammers. It is very locally distributed, and being 

 seldom seen except where grain is grown, it is com- 

 monest on the flat lands in the southern half of the 

 county. It is not so plentiful on the ploughed country 

 drained by the Kibble and Wyre, and Mr. E. J. Howard 

 says that of late years it has become much less 

 numerous in the neighbourhood of Eufford and Tarle- 

 ton, where formerly it was not uncommon. It l)reeds 

 sparingly near Preston, and nests have been taken at 

 Newsham and Cockerham, but in the Fylde generally it 

 is rarely met with. With the conversion, in the north- 

 east, of most of the arable into grazing land, it has dis- 

 appeared during the last twenty years from the Black- 

 burn district, w'here Mr. W. L. Constantine used to find 

 it frequenting Eevidge ; and higher up the Eibble it is 

 not known. Mr. W. A. Durnford writes of it as resident 

 in small numbers in Furness, and Dr. Parker considers 

 it fairly numerous in the portion adjoining the county 

 of Cumberland, whilst nearer the Winster, Mr. J. Wat- 

 son says it is common. According to Mr. John Hardy, 

 it is a late breeder, and its nests, of which he has seen 

 more during the last thirty years than of any other of 

 the Buntings, are placed further into the fields. Though 



