SNOW BUNTING. 213 



A few solitary adult birds are occasionally seen weeks before 

 the main bodies put in an appearance ; an early date is 26th 

 August 1888, when two or three were seen at Spurn ; on 

 i6th September 1889, an old female was shot at the Teesmouth, 

 and I saw an adult female on the 2Oth of the same month 

 in 1883 near Redcar, and procured it on the following day. 

 The first flocks consist chiefly of young birds and a few females, 

 rarely any old ma>es, though as the season advances the 

 proportion of adult birds increases. Their departure takes 

 place early in spring, a few sometimes remaining until April 

 and occasionally even into May ; one was seen on the 3rd 

 of that month in 1899 at Flamborough ; and in 1882 several 

 lingered on the sand-banks near the Teesmouth as late as 

 the iyth of May. As a rule they prefer the coast line, and 

 are very common in most seasons on the dunes and reclaimed 

 lands near the estuaries of the Humber and Tees, being 

 also found in more or less numbers along most of the seaboard 

 between those two places, particularly at Scarborough, 

 Flamborough, Bridlington, and the sand-hills of Holderness. 



The distribution of the Snow Bunting inland is very 

 uncertain and irregular, and, contrary to what is the case 

 on the coast, depends greatly on the character of the season ; 

 in severe winters it is found fairly frequently in several 

 inland districts, in other years being extremely rare. It has 

 occurred in the neighbourhood of some of the large towns 

 in most unlikely places ; in 1878-9 a flock was seen within 

 the borough of Leeds, in one of the busiest parts, and in 

 1 88 1 as many as a hundred were killed near Huddersfield. 

 It is met with commonly on the Wolds in the East Riding, 

 feeding on the stubbles ; occasionally on the high moorlands 

 of the north and north-west, and in the valleys of the central 

 and northern parts of the county. An early record for the 

 Tees valley is given by Tunstall, who stated that he had 

 one in his possession " killed in this neighbourhood " [Wycliffe- 

 on-Tees] (Tunst. MS., 1783). 



This species figures annually in all the Migration Reports 

 from the Yorkshire light-stations, in numbers varying greatly 

 from year to year, and its appearance seems to be influenced 



