124 BRITISH BIRDS, WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS 
ear-coverts, and is continued downwards on the sides of the neck; across the back 
of the neck is a broad collar of bright chestnut; the remainder of the upper 
surface (including the wing-coverts and secondaries) is blackish, the feathers 
bordered with tawny-buff, or creamy-whitish; the primaries and tail-feathers deep 
brown, with narrow ashy margins, the two outer pairs of tail-feathers with elon- 
gated dull white patches on the inner webs: remainder of under surface creamy 
white, with black streaks on the flanks: beak yellow, tipped with black; feet 
blackish-brown; iris hazel. The female is paler above and without the defined 
collar on the nape, the feathers of the crown have tawny margins, and a whitish 
stripe runs down the centre of the head: the ear-coverts are brown, partly edged 
with blackish; the cheeks and under-surface are creamy-white: a black line run- 
ning below the cheeks to the upper throat, where the feathers are also black, 
though partly concealed by broad whitish borders. After the autumn moult all 
the feathers have pale tawny borders, but the distinguishing characteristics of the 
male are not wholly lost. The young nearly resemble the female, but are more 
tawny and more uniformly streaked above. 
There is always a chance of anyone familiar with the appearance of this 
species being fortunate enough to observe and recognize it upon our coasts during 
the autumn or spring migrations: since the completion of Howard Saunders’ 
Manual, numerous examples have been either killed or noticed. Even as late in the 
year as the 11th May, Mr. John Cordeaux (‘‘ Zoologist,” 1893, p. 225) observed 
an adult male in full summer dress on the short herbage at the edge of the 
Bempton Cliffs, in Yorkshire. Mr. Cordeaux, who was accompanied by Mr. M. 
Bailey, of Flamborough, says :—‘‘ We both observed it for some little time through 
our glasses, about half a dozen yards away, till it flew down the cliff-face amongst 
a crowd of Guillemots and other rock birds, and did not after this show itself 
again. What particularly struck me when watching this bird was the intense 
black of the dark parts as contrasted with the yellow bill, broad white streak over 
and backward from the eye, and chestnut collar.” 
Judging from Seebohm’s account of this species it is, as might be expected, a 
late breeder, he says:—‘‘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. 663", 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, principally in company with Shore- 
Larks; they passed through on migration for about a fortnight, the latter flocks 
being almost entirely composed of females. They seemed to be entirely ground- 
