"4 BRITISH BIRDS, WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS 



ear-coverts, and is continued downwards on the sides of the neck ; across the back 

 of the neck is a broad collar of bright chestnut ; the remainder of the upper 

 surface (including the wing-coverts and secondaries) is blackish, the feathers 

 bordered with tawny-buff, or creamy-whitish ; the primaries and tail-feathers deep 

 brown, with narrow ashy margins, the two outer pairs of tail-feathers with elon- 

 gated dull white patches on the inner webs : remainder of under surface cream}' 

 white, with black streaks on the flanks : beak yellow, tipped with black ; feet 

 blackish-brown ; iris hazel. The female is paler above and without the denned 

 collar on the nape, the feathers of the crown have tawny margins, and a whitish 

 stripe runs down the centre of the head : the ear-coverts are brown, partly edged 

 with blackish ; the cheeks and under-surface are creamy-white : a black line run- 

 ning below the cheeks to the upper throat, where the feathers are also black, 

 though partly concealed by broad whitish borders. After the autumn moult all 

 the feathers have pale tawny borders, but the distinguishing characteristics of the 

 male are not wholly lost. The young nearly resemble the female, but are more 

 tawny and more uniformly streaked above. 



There is always a chance of anyone familiar with the appearance of this 

 species being fortunate enough to observe and recognize it upon our coasts during 

 the autumn or spring migrations : since the completion of Howard Saunders' 

 Manual, numerous examples have been either killed or noticed. Hven as late in the 

 year as the nth May, Mr. John Cordeaux ("Zoologist," 1893, p. 225) observed 

 an adult male in full summer dress on the short herbage at the edge of the 

 Bempton Cliffs, in Yorkshire. Mr. Cordeaux, who was accompanied by Mr. M. 

 Bailey, of Flamborough, says : " We both observed it for some little time through 

 our glasses, about half a dozen yards away, till it flew down the cliff-face amongst 

 a crowd of Guillemots and other rock birds, and did not after this show itself 

 again. What particularly struck me when watching this bird was the intense 

 black of the dark parts as contrasted with the yellow bill, broad white streak over 

 and backward from the eye, and chestnut collar." 



Judging from Seebohm's account of this species it is, as might be expected, a 

 late breeder, he says : " In the valley of the Petchora we did not meet with it at 

 Ust Zylma, in lat. 66, until the i8th of May; and in the valley of the Yenesay, 

 on the Koorayika, in lat. 66^", a solitary Lapland Bunting appeared for the first 

 time on the 4th of June in each case at least six weeks after the arrival of the 

 Snow- Bunting. In both cases I had an excellent opportunity of watching their 

 habits. The first birds to arrive were males, principally in company with Shore- 

 Larks ; they passed through on migration for about a fortnight, the latter flocks 

 being almost entirely composed of females. They seemed to be entirely ground- 



