CHAPTER IV. 



CIRL BUNTINGS IN SUSSEX. 



ALTHOUGH the Cirl Bunting* is by no means a 

 rare bird in Sussex, it cannot be considered at all 

 a common one : for despite the fact of its being 

 met with at intervals from the extreme east to the 

 extreme west of the county, its almost exclusive 

 haunts embrace the environs of those villages, 

 together with their surrounding country, which 

 lie at no great distance from the coast, and which 

 are nearly always on the sea side of the South 

 Downs. When found to the north of them, the 

 bird practically always confines itself to a point only 

 just beyond the hills or to some valley inciding the 

 range, as at Lewes, and Steyning. In the Weald 

 of Sussex proper it is a very -rare bird indeed, even 

 in winter ; in fact, I possess but a single record 

 of its nesting there, and that rests on the identifica- 

 tion of an egg taken some years ago at Nuthurst 

 by a gentleman residing in Horsham. 



In spite of its quite broad distribution to the 

 south of the Downs, the Cirl Bunting is, with 

 small reason, it seems, capriciously local. To 



* Emberiza cirlus L. 



