LAPLAND BUNTING. 131 



EMBERIZA LAPPONICA. 



LAPLAND BUNTING. 



(Plate 15.) 



Fringilla montana, Briss. Orn. iii. p. 160 (1760). 



Fringilla lapponica, Linn. Syat. Nat. i. p. 317 (1766) ; et auctorum plurimorum — 



Gmelin, Latham, {Nilsson), {Boriaparte), (Salvadori), (Degland S^ Gerbe), (Savi) 



{Dresser), {Newton), &c. 

 Fringilla calcarata, Pall. Seise Huss. Reichs, ii. p. 710, pi. B (1773). 

 Plectrophaiies calcaratus (Pall.), Meyer ^ Wolf, Taschenh. i. p. 176 (1810). 

 Hortulanus montanus (Sriss.), Leach, Syst. Cat. Mamm, Sec Brit. Mus. p. 16 (1816). 

 Passerina lapponica {lAnn.), Vieill. Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. xxv. p. 12 (1817). 

 Emberiza calcarata {Pall.), Temm. Man. d'Orn. i. p. 322 (1820). 

 Passer calcaratus {Pall.), Pall. Zoogr. Posso-Asiat. ii. p. 18, pi. 39 (1826). 

 Plectrophanes lapponicus (Linn.), Selby, Trans. Linn. Soc. 1827, xv. p. 1-56. 

 Centrophanes lapponicus (lAnn.), Kaup, Nat. Syst. pp. 158, 192 (1829). 

 Plectrophanes groenlandicus, Brehm, Vog. Deutschl. p. 307 (1831). 



The first instance of the occurrence of the Lapland Bunting in this 

 country, to which it is only a rare accidental winter visitor, was early in 

 the year 1836^ the fact being announced by Selby to the Linnean Society. 

 This specimen was discovered in Leadenhall Market, where it had been 

 sent with Larks from Cambridgeshire. Since that date about a score 

 solitary examples have been obtained in Great Britain, most of them in 

 the southern counties ; but it is not known that any flock of these birds 

 has ever reached our islands. In Scotland it appears hitherto to have only 

 been detected in Caithness, where it has twice been found. It has not yet 

 occurred in Ireland. It is very rarely observed in Iceland, and has never 

 been known to visit the Faroes. 



The Lapland Bunting is a circumpolar bird^ breeding ou the tundras of 

 both hemispheres beyond the limit of forest-growth, and in a similar 

 climate at high elevations in Norway as far south as Dovre Fjeld, about 

 lat. 63°, where it breeds in the willow-region above the birch-region. It 

 does not go so far north as the Snow-Bunting, and is apparently absent 

 from Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla ; but Middendorff found it breeding on 

 the Taimur river in Siberia, about lat. 73°, and in Greenland it breeds at 

 least as far north as lat. 70°. It winters in Mongolia, North China, and 

 the Northern States of America, a few individuals straying every year into 

 Central and Southern Europe. It has occurred in South Scandinavia, 

 Denmark, Holland, Germany, France, and Austria. It has not been known 

 to visit the Spanish peninsula, but during severe winters is occasionally 

 observed in Northern Italy. It does not appear to visit Turkey, Greece, 

 or Asia Minor or ever to cross the Mediterranean^ and is very rare in 



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