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does not yet appear to have been found in Algeria. Its eastern limit seems to be Western India ; 

 but it does not make that country its winter home, for this season of the year would appear to be 

 passed in North-eastern Africa. 



Its occurrence in England is only occasional, and it is probable that all the birds yet procured 

 have been escaped specimens. Yarrell mentions four instances of its capture ; besides which 

 Sharpe has heard of four examples having been killed near Cookham, as mentioned by him in 

 Mr. Alexander Clark Kennedy's ' Birds of Berks and Bucks.' It should, however, be stated that 

 these birds were not preserved, and there is no positive authenticity concerning them, though he 

 has every reason to believe that they really were rightly identified. In August of this year 

 (1871) we received from Mr. Davy, a well-known bird-fancier in the Kentish-Town Road, several 

 specimens of Ortolan Buntings, which he had sent to him alive from Yarmouth. Out of this 

 consignment nearly a dozen old and young birds went to the Zoological Gardens, and we 

 secured for our collection four more specimens. We suspect, however, that they were not 

 really caught wild, but were brought over to Yarmouth in some ship, and we do not feel 

 confidence in adding the Ortolan to the list of Norfolk birds on such slender authority. As 

 yet we have been unable, even with Mr. Davy's cooperation, to trace out the circumstances 

 connected with the capture of these birds at Yarmouth. Besides the above-mentioned instances, 

 Mr. Rodd, in his ' Birds of Cornwall,' records one specimen as having been killed on a wall at 

 Trescoe Abbey, in Scilly, in 1851. Mr. It. Collett writes as follows: — "Breeds only in the 

 southern and eastern portions of our country ; and in some parts of the provinces of Christiania 

 and Harnar it is scarcely less numerous than the Yellow Bunting. Northward of the fell-ridge 

 it is common about Trondhjem and at CErkedal. In the province of Christiansand it breeds 

 near Christiansand, but seems to be wanting all along the west coast. At Etne, in Hardanger, 

 it has only been occasionally observed in the spring. On the sides of the fells it sometimes 

 extends to the upper part of the conifer region, where it is found on the Hemsedalsfjeld and on 

 the Dovre." Nilsson says that in some parts of Scandinavia the Ortolan breeds numerously. It 

 particularly affects mountain-ridges where granite or other stony ground is but thinly covered 

 with trees and bushes, but is sometimes found in dense birch-woods or the skirts of the forest. 

 In parts of Skane, Halland, along the coast, and in Bohuslan it is common. In some parts of 

 Wermland it occurs, is common in Dalarne, and abundant in Lapland as high as the fells ; but 

 on parts of the east coast and islands, as for instance on Gottland, it is rare. Dresser when 

 travelling along the east coast of Sweden, from Tornea to Stockholm in the early summer, found 

 it nearly everywhere, and particularly numerous near Lulea and Skelleftea, where many must 

 have been breeding. It has not been noticed by Pastor Sommerfeldt at the Varanger Fjord ; 

 and at Quickjock, in Lapland, Wheelwright records it as very rare, and says he could only 

 find one nest. Travelling up the coast of Finland in the early spring, Dresser first observed 



o 



the Ortolan above Abo, and noticed it oftener as he travelled northward. This agrees with the 

 statements of Von Wright and Von Nordmann, that it is common in Northern, but rare in 

 Southern and Central Finland. Near Uleaborg, and between there and Tornea, Dresser found it 

 very abundant, generally observing them sitting on the fences by the road-side amongst the open 

 grass- or grain-fields, or perched on the small barns which are scattered about the meadows. 

 Numbers breed in the north of Finland, extending to within the Polar circle. 



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