ORTOLAN. 59 



dlesex, of which one is in Mr. Bond's collection. An adult 

 male was obtained May 5th, 1859, at Lowestoft (Zool. 

 p. 6602). It has been stated that in the summer of 1838 one 

 was killed at Earlham in Norfolk ; in April 1866 one is said 

 to have been netted at Yarmouth in the same county, and in 

 1871, six examples were sent to London from that place, 

 which were said to have been caught there on May 5th 

 (Trans. Norf. and Norw. Nat. Soc. 1871-72, p. 62). Two of 

 these were placed in the Zoological Gardens by Mr. Bond 

 (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1871, p. 775), and two were in Mr. R. 

 H. Gurney's possession. Further northward an example 

 was seen by Mr. J. C. Atkinson on the Guisborough Moors, 

 in Cleveland, 16th August, 1863 (Zool. p. 8768). In Scot- 

 land Mr. R. Gray mentions one killed not later than 1836, 

 in Caithness, and two in November, 1863, near Aberdeen. 

 In Ireland evidence of the occurrence of the species is 

 wanting. 



The Ortolan is only a summer-visitor to Europe, and the 

 examples which have been met with in Great Britain, if 

 they have appeared voluntarily, which in several instances 

 may perhaps be doubted,* must have strayed from the 

 wonted course of the species which hardly takes in the west 

 or north of France; but considering the high northern latitude 

 which it attains breeding, as it does, in Norway every year 

 so far as Throndjem, and occasionally according to HH. 

 Palmen and Sahlberg so far as Muonioniska on the frontiers 

 of Sweden and Finland one may perhaps be rather surprised 

 that more examples have not been recognized in this country. 

 Still the remarkably local distribution of the Ortolan through- 



* This species is every spring imported in great numbers into England for the 

 table, and it is unquestionable that some examples may occasionally get loose. 

 Tunstall imagined that his bird had escaped from a cage, which was not so 

 likely at that time as a similar case would be now. Blyth mentions (Mag, 

 Nat. Hist. N.S. i. p. 441) that live Ortolans were first brought to the London 

 market in the spring of 1837, and that they came from Prussia. Of late years 

 those we have the opportunity of eating are said to come from Holland, but 

 possibly they have been caught in Germany and sent down the Rhine to Hotter- 

 dam for exportation. As Blyth 's statement is no doubt to be trusted, specimens 

 obtained in or about Britain prior to 1837 may be fairly deemed free from the 

 taint that attaches to those suspected of being escaped prisoners. 



