CH. IV.] VISITATION OF BUNTINGS. 197 



On my return from abroad (I think in the year 

 1845), I found that the western part of the Island 

 had been visited, about the month of March, 

 during a cold backward spring, by multitudes of 

 a small bird, which were described as about the 

 size of, and scarcely distinguishable from, Titlarks, 

 and to which the labourers gave the odd name of 

 "Norway Widgeons," why I never could under- 

 stand, nor they explain. They were subsequently 

 found dead in great numbers along the shore on 

 the south side of the Island, from which circum- 

 stance it would appear that they were immigrants, 

 who had come to us in transitu, and failed in their 

 attempt to proceed further. During their tern* 

 porary residence in the Island they caused great 

 havoc among the young green crops. I endea- 

 voured, but without success, to obtain a specimen 

 of them, and was therefore unable to ascertain 

 the species with any certainty. A friend of mine, 

 who saw them, imagines that they were Titlarks. 

 I am myself rather inclined to fancy they must 

 have been Buntings. 



The number of Woodpigeons has of late years 

 decidedly increased very largely in the Island ; nor 

 is this increase, I believe, confined to that locality, 

 as I have repeatedly heard the same fact noticed 



