PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 165 



can be distinguished from females by the ashy white wing-coverts, and the greater 

 extent of white on the outer tail feathers. The secondaries as in adults of both 

 sexes are deeply notched at the tip, and show a variable amount of white around 

 the margins, the rest of the feathers being dull black, which is gradually replaced 

 by white extending from the base of the feathers downwards. The major coverts 

 are black, as also are the primaries. As age advances the primaries develop white 

 bases, and later white gradually replaces the black of the major coverts. Immature 

 birds, furthermore, have a more or less well-marked pectoral gorget of rust colour, 

 and faintly striated flanks. The fledgling has the upper parts brownish grey, 

 inclining to tawny on interscapulars, faintly striated with dull black on the crown, 

 and distinctly so on the back. The under parts are grey, the throat, fore-neck, and 

 flanks being more or less distinctly striated with dull grey-black, [w. p. P.] 



2. Distribution. The Arctic regions of both hemispheres. In Europe 

 it breeds not only in North Scandinavia and North Russia, but also in Novaya 

 Zemlya, Waigatz, Spitsbergen, Franz-Josef Land, the Faeroes, and Iceland, and 

 in the British Isles nests in the Shetlands and also in the Scottish Highlands, 

 especially in the Cairngorm range. It is now known to breed at least as far south 

 as the spurs of the Grampians between Rannoch and Glen Lyon ( Vertebrate Fauna 

 of Tay Basin, etc., p. 133). [r. c. B. J.] 



3. Migration. Whether the comparatively small numbers that nest in the 

 Highlands migrate southwards on the approach of winter or merely seek lower 

 levels, it is not possible to say. Disregarding these, the snow-bunting is a winter 

 visitor to the British Isles, keeping chiefly to the coast districts, and becoming 

 rather irregular in Wales and the south-western parts of England, and the southern 

 half of Ireland. At the end of September, or oftener early in October, the flocks, 

 chiefly young birds at first, but sometimes preceded by a few straggling adults, 

 begin to arrive in the north. Immigration continues through October and 

 November, and may persist till January in some seasons. The numbers that 

 visit us appear to depend on the severity of the winter in the northern regions 

 whence they come, and are very variable, great " rushes " occurring in some years 

 (cf. Nelson, B. of Yorks., 1907, p. 204). The return migration is at its height in 

 March, but a few birds may linger till April, or exceptionally till May, and 

 stragglers are occasionally obtained in summer in localities where the species 

 does not breed. There is some ground for believing that birds reach the south- 

 east of England direct from the Continent (cf. Ticehurst, B. of Kent, 1909, 

 p. 182). From the llth to the 14th of October 1902, numbers were reported 



Y 



