80 BIRDS OF LANCASHIRE. 



males often before the females. Mr. C. E. Reade says that 

 at Urmston, in the south of the comity, he sees it more 

 frequently in winter than at any other time, and that it 

 remains through the hardest frost ; being solitary in its 

 habits, and not more than one or two being generally 

 seen together. In summer it is found everywhere in 

 suitable localities, nesting oftenest in wet places near 

 pits and ponds, but not seldom among the long grass 

 of young plantations. Its four or five eggs are laid the 

 first fortnight in May. 



GENUS CALCAEIUS. 



LAPLAND BUNTING. 



Calcarius lapponicus (Linnseus). 



A rare winter visitor, of which I find only the following 

 occurrences noted. One {Mafi. Xat. Hist. , 1834) , supposed 

 to be a young male, shot near Preston, bought October 

 18th, 1833, in the Manchester game market, and after- 

 wards finding a place in the Museum of the Natural 

 History Society of that city. A young male, purchased 

 alive in the Liverpool game market, from among a cage- 

 ful of Sky-larks, by Mr. N. Cooke (ZooL, 1867) on the 

 27th of October, 1866, and kept in his aviary for some 

 time; it had been captured along with the Larks on the 

 Southport sand-hills. One, supposed to be a young 

 bird, shot in November 1865 on Whitemoss, near 

 Middleton, and now in the collection of Mr. James 

 Holland. One caught alive on the Formby coast in the 

 winter of 1881-82, and kept alive for some time by Mr. 

 C. S. Gregson, who informs me that it was a young bird, 

 and in the spring of 1882 moulted into male plumage. 



