18 EMBERIZIDJE. 



of the Lapland Bunting from that of any other bird fre- 

 quenting the locality, and therefore deserves especial men- 

 tion, since the eggs, from five to seven in number, not 

 uncommonly so closely resemble those of the Red-throated 

 Pipit (Anthus cervinus), Titlark and even the Reed-Bunting 

 (which occasionally finds its way to the breeding-haunts of 

 the present species) that they cannot always be picked out. 

 They measure from *87 to '78 by from -61 to *55 in., and 

 have a clay-coloured or pale greyish-chocolate ground, suf- 

 fused with darker reddish-brown, on which are seen spots, 

 blotches and curved lines of a darker shade of the same 

 tint, in many places distinct, but the larger markings gene- 

 rally with blurred edges. 



When the young have left the nest they accompany their 

 parents for some time, and the family-parties unite towards 

 the end of the summer, but it does not appear that this 

 species ever forms very vast congregations indeed it is 

 hardly anywhere sufficiently numerous to do so, being 

 generally a local bird. In Europe its breeding-range 

 seems not to extend further southward than lat. 62 N., and 

 that only in the mountain-districts of Norway, while in 

 Sweden, Finland and Russia its summer-limit, though from 

 want of information not to be determined, must lie much 

 more towards the north. In Asia also it cannot be said to 

 be known to breed outside of the Arctic Circle, but in 

 Eastern Siberia it is apparently more abundant than else- 

 where in the Old World, since in autumn Mr. Swirihoe 

 found it in the market at Tientsin by thousands which had 

 doubtless been bred to the northward. In the New World 

 it breeds on the most western of the Aleutian and on the 

 Prybilov Islands, as well as in Alaska. The Hepburn 

 Collection in the Museum of the University of Cam- 

 bridge contains a specimen in full summer-plumage from 

 Fort Simpson in British Columbia, which is perhaps the 



obtained by Mr. H. W. Elliott on the Prybilov Islands are said to have con- 

 tained feathers, and those from Greenland, of which the Editor has seen several, 

 are profusely lined with them. It may here be mentioned that eggs of this 

 bird from Greenland are on the average distinctly larger than those from 

 Lapland . 



