104 BRITISH BIRDS, WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS. 
partial migrant. It is a resident in the Caucasus and Western Turkestan, and 
there “is an example in the museum at Omsk, said to have been obtained in the 
neighbourhood. It is a resident in the Canaries and North-western Africa; but 
in Egypt and Arabia Petrza it is only found during winter, whence it probably 
migrates to Central Europe to breed. It is a resident in Palestine, Asia Minor, 
and North Persia, as far south as Shiraz.” (Hist. Brit. Birds, Vol. II, pp. 148-9). 
In Great Britain the Corn-Bunting is very local in its distribution, being 
most abundant in well-cultivated grain-producing districts. In the south of England 
it perhaps deserves its name of “Common Bunting,” though it is by no means so 
abundant as the Yellow Hammer, but northward it is rarer and far more local; in 
Scotland it occurs most generally on the western lowlands during the summer, but 
becomes much commoner in the eastern districts during the winter; westwards 
its range extends to St. Kilda, and notthwards to the Outer Hebrides. In Ireland 
it is local, but common in suitable districts. In October flocks of Corn-Buntings 
migrate to our shores, considerably adding to the numbers of our home-bred birds. 
The adult male Corn-Bunting has the feathers of the upper surface pale 
brown, with blackish central streaks; the wing-coverts and innermost secondaries 
dark brown, bordered with warm buff and with whitish tips; quills dark smoky 
brown, the first primary with yellowish margin to the outer web; tail blackish- 
brown, with pale edges to the feathers; lores and a superciliary line buffish-white; 
under parts buffish-white, the throat sparsely spotted with black, and separated 
from the cheeks by a moustachial line of dark brown spots; breast numerously 
marked with triangular black dashes, which are somewhat rufescent at the sides; 
centre of breast and abdomen whitish, sides streaked with dark brown; beak with 
the upper mandible dark horn-brown, edged with yellow; lower mandible ochre 
yellow; feet pale flesh-brownish; iris hazel. The female is slightly smaller than 
the male, and greyer in colouring. The young are more richly coloured, the 
wing-coverts and secondaries more prominently bordered with fulvous, the spotting 
blacker and the under parts tinged with buff. After the autumn moult the adult 
birds are generally more rufescent than in summer. 
Owing to its sombre colouring and its habit of roosting on the ground, this 
species has sometimes been mistaken for a Lark, and in autumn and winter it is 
frequently netted in company with Skylarks: possibly for this reason it often 
receives the name of Bunting-Lark. 
The Corn-Bunting chiefly haunts open and cultivated districts, more especially 
where cereals are freely grown. It is not a nervous bird, and I have frequently 
stood within a few yards criticizing its ungainly figure and miserable apology for 
a song as it sat perched upon a scraggy bush, stump, or fence, apparently quite 
