COMMON BUNTING. 507 



shire, frequent ; and in a note to his edition of White's 

 Selborne, Sir William Jardine states his belief that we 

 receive a considerable number at the great general migra- 

 tion, at the commencement of winter, most probably from 

 Sweden and Norway. Mr. William Macgillivray, of Edin- 

 burgh, mentions that it is common in the outer Hebrides, 

 where it is called Sparrow. In this gentleman's work, de- 

 tailing the anatomical peculiarities, as well as describing 

 minutely the external characters of a portion of our " British 

 Birds, Indigenous and Migratory," it is stated that this 

 Bunting is generally distributed, but not very common in 

 some districts, preferring grass and corn-fields to moors or 

 mountain pastures. Mr. Selby observed it in the cultivated 

 lower grounds of Sutherlandshire ; and Mr. Low, Dr. 

 Fleming, and Mr. Dunn, include it as a bird of Orkney and 

 Shetland. It inhabits Denmark and Sweden, and remains 

 there in considerable numbers during winter. It is found 

 on the European continent from Russia to the Mediterra- 

 nean, and is common in Corfu, Sicily, Malta, Crete, in 

 the Morea, at Smyrna, and at Trebizoiid. 



The upper mandible is small and dark brown, the lower 

 one pale yellow brown ; irides dark hazel ; the head, neck, 

 back, and upper tail-coverts, pale hair-brown, streaked lon- 

 gitudinally with dark brown, the dark line occupying the 

 centre of each feather ; all the wing-coverts and tertials 

 dark brown, broadly margined with pale wood brown ; 

 quill and tail-feathers dark brown, with lighter-coloured 

 edges ; tail slightly forked ; chin, throat, breast, and all 

 the under parts of the body, dull whitish brown, marked 

 on the sides of the neck and on the breast with conical spots 

 of dark brown ; the flanks marked with elongated lines of 

 dark brown ; legs, toes, and claws, pale yellow brown. 



The whole length of the adult bird is rather more than 

 seven inches. From the carpal joint to the end of the 



