132 BRITISH BIRDS. 



South Russia and is only a straggler to Turkestan. The Lapland Bunting 

 has been met with as far south as New Mexico, on the American continent, 

 where it has several allies, from all of which it may easily be distinguished 

 by its black throat. 



The Lapland Bunting does not belong to the class of gipsy migrants like 

 the Snow-Bunting, but appears to have a distinct winter home and to be 

 comparatively regular in its migrations. It is, perhaps, the commonest 

 bird on the tundras. It is described as being extremely abundant in 

 Arctic America, from Alaska to Greenland. East of the North Cape 

 I found it very common in Lapland. Both at Ust Zylma on the Petchora 

 and at Koorayika on the Yenesay an almost endless succession of flocks 

 passed northwards on migration ; and on both sides of the Ural Mountains, 

 when we reached the tundra, we found it to be not only the commonest but 

 also the most widely distributed bird. The migrations of the Lapland 

 Biinting are, however, somewhat peculiar. Like the Petchora Pipit and 

 the Arctic Willow-Warbler, its winter home lies in the far east. Its 

 occurrence in Central and Southern Europe during winter appears to be 

 only accidental. Individuals wander westward — birds who have joined 

 the wrong stream of migration, and lost their way ; but the main flocks 

 migrate eastwards, crossing the Ural Mountains north of the valley of 

 the Kama, and, following their eastern slopes, cross the steppes to the 

 Altai Mountains, and find their way to Eastern Mongolia and North 

 China, where Prjevalsky and Swinhoe found them wintering in great 

 numbers. The East-Siberian birds probably winter in the same district. 

 Dybowsky states that they pass Lake Baikal on the spring migration 

 during the second half of April, and in autumn during the first half of 

 September. 



The Lapland Bunting is quite as much a bird of the tundra as the Snow- 

 Bunting, and, like that species, is only known to breed beyond or above 

 the limit of forest-growth. In many other of its habits it also resembles 

 the Snow-Bunting, and is equally gregarious, but does not breed quite so 

 far north. It is also much later in arriving at its breeding-o-rouuds. In 

 the valley of the Petchora we did not meet with it at Ust Zylma, in lat 66° 

 until the 18th of May; and in the valley of the Yenesay, on the Koorayika' 

 in lat. 661°, a solitary Lapland Bunting appeared for the first time on the 

 4th of June — in each case at least six weeks after the arrival of the Snow- 

 Bunting. In both cases I had an excellent opportunity of watching their 

 habits. The first birds to arrive were males, principaUy in company with 

 Shore-Larks; they passed through on migration for about a fortnight, 

 the later flocks being almost entirely composed of females. They seemed 

 to be entirely ground-feeders, and ran about very actively wherever there 

 was any bare ground ; but before the snow had entirely disappeared the 

 Lapland Buntings had also taken their departure, and we did not meet with 



