THE SNOW BUNTING. 239 



ings for a mile along the highest part of a road crossing the 

 Belfast mountains, picking like sparrows at the oats in the horse- 

 dung. When there is neither frost nor snow, they may be met 

 with occasionally in the lower grounds and on the sea-shore ; to 

 the latter they are obliged to resort when the weather sets in very 

 severe. During the great snow-storm, early in March, 1827, 

 flocks appeared in the outskirts of the town of Belfast ; and such 

 numbers were killed on the sea-shore in its vicinity, that they were 

 purchased by Mr. Sinclaire, as the cheapest food he could procure 

 for his trained peregrine falcons. Although of regular passage to 

 the Belfast range of mountains, snow-buntings are much more 

 numerous in other, and less frequented, mountainous districts in the 

 county of Antrim, as about Newtown-Crommelin and Clough. At 

 the former of these places, where the Rev. G. M. Black was 

 several years resident, he always observed them during the winter 

 in very large flocks, in which not more than one in twenty were 

 adult individuals. Prom the other locality, which is in the same 

 district, examples have been brought to me by Mr. J. E. Garrett, 

 who also supplied the following note. January the 4<tA, 1834: — 

 " When shooting to-day about two miles from Clough, I met with 

 an immense flock of snow-buntings, out of which I killed thirty 

 at one discharge, as they flew past me. Their call resembled the 

 chirping of the grey-linnet, and the number of wings made a 

 considerable noise, as the flock, consisting of several hundreds, 

 swept by : some were nearly white, and others of a dark-brown 

 colour." In any of the flocks which have come under my own obser- 

 vation, the adult males bore only a small proportion to the females 

 and immature birds ; but, except in very small flocks, they were 

 always present throughout the winter.' 35 ' This species is men- 

 tioned under the name of cherry-chirper !, in Butty's Natural 

 History of Dublin, as "found on the strand in December, 

 1747, and kept in a cage until December, 1748, and fed with oats, 

 hemp-seed, and cuttlings." — Vol. i. p. 317. 



* Mr. Macgillivray's observation accords with this (vol. i. p. 465). In some of 

 the latest works on British ornithology (Yarr. p. 426, &c), the adult birds are stated 

 to appear in Great Britain only late in the winter, or when the weather is very severe. 

 The earliest seen in two years (Oct. 18th and 23rd,) about Belfast, were adult males. 



