WOODLARK. SNOW BUNTING. 237 



a tenant. In its favourite localities here, the woodlark may be 

 heard singing almost daily, (chiefly in the morning,) when the 

 weather is fine, from September till June. In the counties named, 

 it is not very uncommon in the warm sandy district of Mai one; 

 is occasionally heard about the Down shore of Belfast bay, and on 

 the sides of the Castlereagh hills; about Ballynahinch ; Lord 

 Londonderry's deer-park in the Ards; Rosstrevor, kc* This 

 species is enumerated as one of the birds of Dublin, in Butty's 

 Natural History of that county, and has a similar place in Smith's 

 History of Cork. Mr. E. Ball informs me, that in the latter 

 county it is not unfrequent, and being much prized for its song, 

 is greatly sought after by bird-catchers. It is found about Water- 

 ford.f A friend living near Belfast kept woodlarks for a year or 

 more in his aviary, in company with other birds, but they 

 never sang. 



The woodlark would seem to be only partially distributed in 

 England. Mr. Yarrell mentions the counties in which it is known 

 to occur, but in one which is not named — Oxfordshire — I met 

 with two or three of them in June, 1828, in the demesne at 

 Blenheim, the magnificent seat of the Duke of Marlborough. 

 To Sir Wm. Jardine or Mr. Macgillivray, it is not known as a 

 Scottish bird, but according to Mr. Heysham of Carlisle, is 

 occasionally taken by bird-catchers in the vicinity of Dumfries.;}: 



THE SNOW BUNTING. 



Tawny Bunting. Mountain Bunting. § 



Plectrop/ianes nivalis, Linn, (sp.) 

 Mmberiza „ „ 



Is a regular autumnal migrant to the more northern 



parts of Ireland. 

 Towards the south, this bird becomes gradually scarcer, and in 

 its extreme portions, — although the highest mountains in the 



* The Rev. G. Robinson, writing from Parkview, Tandragee (co. Armagh), on the 

 13th of October, 1848, stated, that two pair had frequented the neighbourhood of his 

 house for the preceding fortnight. 



t Burkitt. % Yarr. Brit. Birds, vol. i. p. 461, 2nd edit. 



§ These two names are applied to females and young males, the plumage of which 

 differs much from that of the adult male. 



