LAPLAND BUNTING SNOW BUNTING. 125 



"sang very sweetly, rising from the dead projecting limb of an 

 oak, and, after making a circle, singing as he went, would return 

 again to his starting point, near which, I think, the female was 

 sitting." 



The most northern locality for the occurrence of the Wood 

 Lark that I have been able satisfactorily to trace is Orkney, a 

 specimen having been shot in Mr Dunn's garden at Stromness on 

 20th February, 1844. A manuscript note by one of the authors of 

 the Fauna Orcadensis states that it has occurred in Shetland, but 

 neither date nor locality is given. 



INSESSORES. EMBERIZID^. 



CONIROSTRES. 



THE LAPLAND BUNTING. 



PLECTROPHANES LAP PON 1C A. 



A SPECIMEN of this bunting, shot in Caithness many years ago, is 

 in the collection of the late Mr E. S. Sinclair of Wick. Mr 

 Shearer, in referring to this specimen, states that the species has 

 been found twice in that county, but gives no particulars. (See 

 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society, Edinburgh, vol. ii., 

 p. 338). 



THE SNOW BUNTING. 



PLECTROPHANES NIVALIS. 

 Eun an t' sneachdai. 



IN the winter season the Snow Bunting may be said to be a very 

 common species over the whole of the western counties, arriving 

 generally in October and taking its departure in April. A few 

 stragglers remain some weeks later, and are occasionally taken on 

 the low grounds in May, but these are exceptional cases. In the 

 Outer Hebrides it is, so far as I can ascertain, strictly migratory, 

 and does not prolong its stay beyond a few weeks in the early part 

 of winter. I have obtained specimens from Benbecula and other 

 islands, chiefly in the month of October. The flocks there are not 

 large, seldom exceeding eighty or an hundred birds; they always 

 come with westerly winds, and pitch upon the low grounds on the 



