KMHKRIZIN.I'". 



205 



THE ORTOLAN. 



EiMBERIZA HORTULANA, LinnOJUS. 



This Bunting was first described as a visitor to t^ngland from a bird 

 taken alive in Mary-le-bone Fields, a little before 1776 ; which, with 

 another specimen caught on board a collier off the Yorkshire coast 

 in May 1822, is now in the Museum of Newcastle-on-Tyne. In 

 November 1827, a male was killed near Manchester. In Sussex 

 four or five examples have been taken in spring and autumn since 

 1841 ; and an immature bird was killed in the Scilly Islands early in 

 October 185 1. Several have been captured near London since 

 1837, but from that time onwards such increasingly large numbers of 

 Ortolans have been annually imported from the Continent that 

 occurrences in the home-counties are open to suspicion. In June, 

 a few years ago, I saw an adult male in Hyde Lark Street, which 

 had undoubtedly escaped from a neighbouring poulterer's, where at 

 the time there were cages full of these birds. One was killed on 

 Lowestoft Denes in May 1S59 ; and Mr. F. D. Power shot an im- 

 mature male from among some Linnets, at Cley, Norfolk, on Sep- 

 tember 1 2th 1884, about the time that enormous numbers were seen 

 on Heligoland. On May 3rd 1883, Mr. J- Cordeaux watched with 

 his binoculars a female feeding on the scattered grain in a newly- 



