254 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



a small finch-like bird occupied in picking the scattered grains from the 

 surface, which were rapidly husked and then swallowed. It readily allowed 

 me to approach within ten yards, and sometimes nearer. On examining it 

 through the binocular I saw at a glance it was an adult female Ortolan. 

 I watched her for nearly half an hour, sometimes putting her up, after 

 which she never went far, not beyond thirty or forty yards, commencing to 

 feed greedily on alighting. It was astonishing the number of oats the little 

 creature managed to stow away within a short time. The head and nape 

 were light grey, and contrasted strangely with the rest of the upper plumage. 

 There was a patch of brown on the forehead, and streaky putches of the 

 same colour from the bill running below and beyond the eye; a dusky 

 brown spot also on each side of the breast, like the commencement of a 

 collar. In flight the outer tail-feathers showed a considerable proportion of 

 white. The Ortolan Bunting is a well-known migrant across Heligoland 

 in the latter part of April or early in May, and again in August and 

 September. Its ordinary line of migration is far to eastward of these 

 islands, and on the opposite side of the North Sea. I can only conjecture 

 that the very strong north-east winds of the last few days have blown it far 

 to westward of its course and on to our east coast. The first week in May 

 is just the time when this might happen. I visited the same field the next 

 morning, hoping to find the little stranger still there; the quest was, 

 however, not successful, although I was rewarded by watching five Dotterel 

 in the adjoining marsh. A very pretty group they formed, their exquisite 

 plumage relieved against the lush dark green of the pasture. — John 

 Cokdkaux (Great Cotes, Ulceby). 



Melanism in the Bullfinch. — A short time since I saw at the house 

 of an Edinburgh bird-fancier a Bullfinch (Pyrrhtda vulgaris] in singularly 

 abnormal plumage. It was wholly black, tinged with a silvery grey, except 



tlie crown of the head, which was snowy white. No data were forthcoming 

 as to when this change of plumage had been assumed, hut as it was 

 moulted in the house, it probably became black in its last moult. I have 

 seen other Bullfinches which had assumed a black and white garb ; but 

 never before saw a complete white crown, though I have twice known wild 

 hen Bullfinches caught iu Oxfordshire which had a sprinkling of white on 

 their black caps. With regard to melanism iu the Bullfinch, I have never 

 seen a black Bullfinch that had not become so wholly in confinement. It 

 is sometimes due to a hemp diet, by which I produced it in a fine male 

 myself; but melanism occurs in both Goldfinches and Bullfinches, and 

 also in Sky Larks, which have never been kept on hemp-seed. In the 

 Sky Lark, melanism seems to be wholly the result of artificial conditions; 

 the wings of black Larks are often partially white. In the Goldfinch, 

 melanism chiefly occurs in old birds, in a state of freedom ; but patches of 

 black feathers sometimes mottle the breast of wild finches, even of yearling 



