SNOW-BUNTING — EEED-BUNTING. 81 



THE SNOW-BUNTING. I 'f 



Plectrophanes nivalis. 



The Snow-Bunting" is an occasional winter visitor of 

 rare occurrence. The Messrs. Matthews record it as ' seldom 

 making" its appearance except in the severest seasons/ and of 

 late years two occurrences only have been reported. A bird- 

 dealer in Oxford purchased a female from a local bird-catcher 

 a few years ago (H. A. Macpherson 3IS.), and on the 8th 

 December, 1878, Mr. C. M. Prior shot an adult specimen at 

 Bloxham, where it was feeding in a stubble field in company 

 with Chaffinches [in lit.). About a month after, an adult male 

 was shot in Northamptonshire at Aston-le-Walls, but a short 

 distance over the county boundary. 



Considering the abundance of the Snow-Bunting on the 

 east coast of England (the shores of the Wash in Lincolnshire 

 for instance, where I have seen as many as five hundred in a 

 flock), it is curious that it does not visit us more frequently, 

 but it seems that the Snow-Bunting rarely wanders far inland 

 in winter, and even in North Northamptonshire the visits of 

 this species are rare (Lord Lilford, Notes on the Birds of North- 

 amjitonshire, p. 106). 



THE REED-BUNTING. ? U 



Emheriza scJiceniclus. 

 The Reed or Black-headed Bunting is a resident, breeding 

 commonly along the sides of our streams and pools wherever 

 reeds and aquatic herbage or bushes and osiers are found, and 

 is naturally more abundant in the larger valleys, where such 

 conditions exist in greater profusion. Here in summer the 

 male, with his russet plumage, black head, and white collar, is 

 a conspicuous object, as, perched on some twig overhanging 

 the water, he chants his attempt at a song, consisting of only 

 a few unmelodious and rather monotonous notes. In winter 

 the Reed-Buntings still haunt the streams to some extent, but 

 range in the daytime over the higher arable fields where, and 



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