EMBERIZINA. 207 
THE CORN-BUNTING. 
EMBERIZA MILIARIA, Linnzus. 
This species is frequently called the Bunting-Lark, and by many 
authors it has been styled the Common Bunting ; but the use of the 
latter name is hardly to be encouraged, as the bird, although widely 
distributed throughout the British Islands, is decidedly local and 
not nearly so common as the Yéllow Bunting. It is principally to 
be found where grain of some kind is grown, and when arable land 
is turned into grazing-ground the Corn-Bunting becomes scarce, or 
even disappears. Low lands and the vicinity of the sea are the 
districts most affected in Scotland and its islands, where it ranges as 
far west as St. Kilda ; while northward it is found breeding freely on 
the Shetlands, even on Foula, the remotest. In Ireland it is 
common in suitable districts, but local. In autumn our home-bred 
birds become gregarious, and to a certain extent migrants; at the 
same time considerable accessions are made to their numbers, 
especially on our east coasts, by visitors from the Continent. 
In Scandinavia the Corn-Bunting is only known in the extreme 
south ; but from Denmark and the hither side of the Baltic it is 
generally distributed over the open portions of Europe in summer, 
while partially migratory in winter from the northern and central 
districts. In the Spanish Peninsula and other grain-producing coun- 
tries of the south, as well as in North Africa and the Canaries, it is 
resident and extremely numerous ; it is also found in Palestine, Asia 
Minor, Persia and Western Turkestan ; and in winter as far south as 
