44 CIRL BUNTING. 



mouth. In Hampshire, it has been met with in plenty, in 

 the Isle of Wight, also near Alton and the neighbouring 

 parish of Selborne, with which the name of WHITE will ever 

 be associated; Thomas Bell, Esq. has known them to breed 

 there in the year 1847. In Surrey, near Godalming, though 

 rarely; Wiltshire and Devonshire, where it was first discovered, 

 in considerable plenty, by Colonel Montagu, in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Kingsbridge, in the winter of the year 1800. In 

 the adjoining county of Cornwall, W. P. Cocks, Esq. records 

 in 'The Naturalist,' vol. j, page 112, that it is not uncommon 

 in the neighbourhood of Falmouth; it occurs also near St. 

 Germain s, Penzance, and Penryn. It is taken occasionally in 

 the neighbourhood of London; in Sussex, near Rye, where 

 J. B. Ellman, Esq. shot one in April, 1849; and near Chichester, 

 where Mr. Gould observed it in abundance. 



A. E. Knox, Esq. says that it affects the neighbourhood 

 of the coast, seldom venturing many miles into the interior; 

 that it is common during the summer months near Chichester, 

 Bognor, Worthing, and Brighton, but is not met with on 

 the northern side of the Downs of West Sussex. William 

 Knapp, Esq., of Harts Cottage, Alveston, near Bristol, records 

 in the 'Zoologist,' page 3174, that it is a constant resident 

 in that part of Gloucestershire throughout the year, breeding 

 there in the summer; also near Bridgewater, Glastonbury, 

 Bath, and Bristol. In the adjoining county of Somerset he 

 also relates that he has long known it to be abundant in 

 the winter. In Norfolk it appears to be very rare; J. H. 

 Gurney, Esq., of Easton, has known one killed in that county 

 in the beginning of November, 1849. In Scotland one was 

 procured near Edinburgh. 



There is no mention of the occurrence of this bird so far 

 north as the Orkneys, in the Natural History of those islands, 

 before referred to, published by W. B. Baikie, Esq., M.D., and 

 Mr. Heddle. 



The following is a certain author's theory of the distribu- 

 tion of this species: 'The whole plumage is indeed more soft 

 and loose, and less fitted for contending with the winds than 

 that of the other Buntings, and much more so than that of 

 the species which breeds in the distant north.' 'As these 

 birds fly much in company with the Yellow Buntings in 

 winter, they might be looked for in warmer places a little 

 farther to the north than they have hitherto been found; 

 though as they are in a great measure corn-land birds in their 



