170 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



Lark-nets together with the Field-Larks ; they readily 

 playing about the Looking-Glass Stale in the manner 

 of Larks. Since that I have seen them at least 20 

 in a flock, in our fields about Oxendon, together with 

 the lesser py'd Brambling, as has been noted above." 

 I have no doubt that the above refers to the Snow- 

 Bunting, though I must confess that our author's 

 " cut " of the Lesser " py'd Brambling," save in the 

 matter of the long hind claw, bears as much resem- 

 blance to the present species as to the Brambling 

 (Fringilla montifringilla), which bird it is, I believe, 

 intended to represent. In a list of birds of the 

 neighbourhood of Stamford, supplied by Mr. A. G. 

 Elliot, whom I have often previously quoted, I find 

 " Snow-Bunting, only a few," without dates or par- 

 ticulars of any sort. Besides the above, the only 

 notices I have of this bird as occurring in North- 

 amptonshire are contained in letters from Lady Mary 

 Thompson and the Rev. R. S. Baker, the former of 

 whom informs me that one of these birds, " in its 

 snowy plumage," was shot by Mr. Henderson near 

 Milton, about 1822-23, whilst Mr. Baker simply says, 

 " Snow-Bunting seen near Hargrave." The present 

 is a species with which I have very little acquaintance 

 in a wild state, having only occasionally met with a 

 few scattered individuals on the summits of a range 

 of hills in Inverness-shire, in the early part of October ; 

 but it is a well-known and, in some years, a very 

 abundant autumnal visitor to various parts of England, 

 notably to the Humber District in North Lincolnshire, 

 where, as I am informed by Mr. John Cordeaux, it is 

 often met with in flocks of some hundreds. 



This species occasionally breeds in the high- 

 lands of Scotland, and the nest and eggs have 



