174 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE CIRL BUNTING 

 IN GREAT BRITAIN. 



By 0. V. Aplin, M.B.O.U. 

 (Concluded from page 128.) 



Buckinghamshire. — Capt. A. Clark Kennedy was informed 

 by the Eev. H. Harpur Crewe that on June 4th, 1864, he flushed 

 a female Cirl Bunting from her nest with three eggs, on a rough, 

 grassy down in the parish of Drayton Beauchamp ; that he had 

 on two other occasions observed a male bird in the same parish ; 

 that a pair which had been caught at Pitstone were brought to 

 him alive in the winter of 1862-3 ; and that a birdcatcher of that 

 neighbourhood informed him (Mr. Crewe) that he occasionally 

 caught birds of this species in his nets during the autumn and 

 winter months, and obtained a ready sale for them in London. 

 Capt. Kennedy records also one shot at Risborough in 1839, and 

 adds that Mr. Burgess informed him he fully believed he had seen 

 the Cirl Bunting near Amersham ('Birds of Berks and Bucks,' 

 p. 176-177). 



Hertfordshire. — Mr. P. E. Coombe informed me that a 

 Cirl Bunting was seen at King's Langley, by a competent observer, 

 in November, 1878. One was shot near Royston, February 14th, 

 1881 (the late Mr. J. E. Littleboy, Trans. Herts Nat. Hist. Soc). 

 Mr. Howard Saunders says it is fairly common, although very 

 local, on the chalk hills of Hertfordshire (' Manual of British 

 Birds'). Mr. J. Young writes that he has worked round St. Albans 

 and Bushey, but never met with it. 



Middlesex. — Mr. J. E. Harting wrote, in 1866, "Only an 



occasional visitant It has been observed and shot at 



Peckham, and more than once near Harrow. Two specimens 

 have been killed at Hampstead Heath ; one by Mr. Dugmore, jun., 

 in April, 1855 ; the other by Mr. R. Power, in the spring of 1860. 

 I have seen a bird of this species that was shot near Kingsbury 

 Reservoir, and two others in the collection of Mr. Mitford, of 

 Hampstead, which were obtained in that neighbourhood. A nest 

 with three eggs of the Cirl Bunting was taken near Wembly Park 

 in May, 1861, and one of the eggs, with the nest, is now in my 

 collection" (' Birds of Middlesex,' p. 77). He now adds, " Mr. F. 

 Bond had one which was caught near Harrow by a London 



