224 LAPLAND BUNTING. 
to 75° N., in Jan Mayen, Arctic Europe (Kolguev abundantly, 
Vaigatch, Novaya Zemlya and Franz Josef Land sparingly), Arctic 
Asia to the Lidkov Islands, and in Arctic America. To Iceland, 
however, it is merely a wanderer from Greenland, while it has not 
been recorded from Spitsbergen. It is only at considerable eleva- 
tions, such as the Dovrefjeld in Norway, that it is found breeding 
to the south of the Arctic circle; but it becomes abundant in 
Lapland, while in Northern Siberia it is, perhaps, the commonest 
bird on the ¢uzdras. In Asia it migrates further south than in 
Europe, and reaches 30° N. lat. in China; whereas it is rare in 
South Russia or Northern Italy, and unknown in Spain. In Central 
Europe its occurrences are accidental, but further north they are 
more frequent, and are regular on Heligoland in autumn. In 
North America this species breeds up to lat. 73°, and winters in 
South Carolina, Kansas and Colorado. 
Swampy moorlands—beyond the limit of forest growth—with 
tussocks of grass and stunted willows or birches, are the favourite 
summer-haunts of the Lapland Bunting, but occasionally it inhabits 
dry and bushy spots. The nest, built early in June, is placed in a 
hollow of some little mound or grass-clump, and is made of dry 
bents and roots, but its thick lining of feathers at once distinguishes 
it from nests of the Red-throated Pipit and other birds frequenting 
such localities. The 4-6 eggs are pale greyish- or reddish-brown, 
spotted, blotched and slightly scrawled with darker shades of brown: 
measurements ‘82 by ‘58 in. The song of the male is generally 
uttered on the wing; the bird rising from some low bush, and 
hovering above it, like a Tree-Pipit. The call-note is a plaintive 
whistle. The food consists of insects as well as seeds in summer, 
and of the latter, with larvee, in winter. 
The adult male in summer has the crown, cheeks, throat and 
breast black ; a broad white streak over each eye and down the 
sides of the neck ; hind neck broadly banded with bright chestnut ; 
feathers of the back, rump, wing-coverts and secondaries tawny- 
brown, with blackish centres and paler margins ; quills dull brown; 
tail-feathers dark brown, with long white patches on the inner webs 
of the two outer pairs ; belly white, with broad black streaks on the 
flanks; bill yellow, with the point black; legs black; hind claw 
nearly straight, and longer than the toe. Length 6-25 in.; wing 3°6 in. 
In the female the crown, ear-coverts and chestnut collar are streaked 
with brown and black ; the upper parts paler ; throat white, with an 
irregular blackish gorget. The young bird is still duller in colour. 
In winter both sexes have pale rufous margins to the upper feathers. 
