LITTLE BUNTING. 145 



with in Germany, Austria, Turkey, Asia Minor, and Syria. Loche records 

 a solitary example from Algeria. The Little Bunting has no very near 

 ally, but most closely resembles the Rustic Bunting, E. rustica. The 

 males in breeding-plumage are perfectly distinct, and after the autumnal 

 mQult they may easily be distinguished by the points already noticed in 

 the article on the Rustic Bunting as characterizing the females of the 

 two species. 



The Little Bunting is a migratory bird, and breeds in the high north. 

 Like the preceding species, it migrates east in autumn, and is another of 

 those Asiatic birds which have apparently recently extended their breeding- 

 range into Europe. I first made the acquaintance of this charming little 

 bird on our expedition to the great river Petchora in 1875. In this valley 

 it was one of the latest birds of passage to arrive at its breeding- grounds. 

 We obtained the first example on the 31st of May, in lat. 66°, eleven days 

 after the ice began to break up ; and we afterwards found them common 

 down to the tundra. A few even reach the willow-swamps on the islands 

 of the delta, as far north as Alexievka. It was most common in the pine- 

 and birch-forests, and was frequently seen feeding on the ground on the 

 mossy and marshy open spaces in the woods, on the swampy edge of the 

 forest tarns, searching for insects in company with Green and White 

 Wagtails, Temminck's Stints, Fieldfares, Blue-throated Warblers, and 

 other Arctic birds. Two years afterwards I again met with the Little 

 Bunting in the valley of the Yenesay, nearly a thousand miles further east. 

 Summer may have been unusually late that year; for on the Arctic circle 

 the ice on the river did not begin to break up until the 1st of June, when 

 migratory birds arrived in great numbers. On the 7th of June the Little 

 Bunting arrived, in company with the Golden Plover, the Wood-Sandpiper, 

 and Temminck's Stint, nearly in the middle of the great spring migration. 



Alston and Harvie-Brown met with the Little Bunting, in the summer 

 of 1872, in the neighbourhood of Archangel. They found it a very common 

 bird, but somewhat local in its distribation. It frequented the pine-woods 

 of large growth and thickets, but seemed to prefer the younger woods 

 composed of a mixture of pine, fir, alder, and birch trees. They often heard 

 its low sweet song, which they compare rather to that of a Warbler than of 

 a Bunting, and they describe its call-note as resembling the words tick, tick, 

 ■ tick. They did not, however, succeed in finding any nests, although they 

 obtained the young in several stages of plumage. Professor Lilljeborg 

 also met with it near Archangel, and describes it as a very lively bird, 

 incessantly moving and gliding about amongst the bushes and reeds. He 

 also describes its song as very sweet, most nearly resembling that of the 

 Robin, and uttered as the bird sits perched on the top of a bush, where it 

 can easily be seen. 



The Little Bunting pairs soon after its arrival at its breeding-grounds. 



VOL. II. ^ 



