THE CIRL BUNTING IN GREAT BRITAIN. 175 



birdcatcher in 1870. In that year a flight of these birds came 

 to a rough field at Hendon, and a few stayed about there for the 

 next two years. In 1871 Mr. Mitford found a nest in a hedgerow 

 in this field, and in 1872 saw one of the birds on Hampstead 

 Heath. Mr. G. E. H. Barrett-Hamilton has two eggs taken near 

 Harrow, which he believes are those of this species, but he did 

 not see the bird. The Rev. H. J. Torre informed him that a male 

 was caught near Harrow in the winter of 1837-8." 



Surrey. — H. L. Meyer, in 1846, had no doubt of the Cirl 

 Bunting being found sparingly in parts of Surrey, " having found 

 nests and eggs agreeing in every respect" with those of that 

 species. He had also seen birds he believed to be Cirl Buntings, 

 but had not proved their identity " by the only sure test, that of 

 shooting the bird from the nest " (' Coloured Illustrations of British 

 Birds and their Eggs,' vol. iii. p. 63). A pair bred in Godalming 

 Cemetery in May and June, 1887 (Rev. H. Benson, Zool. 1887, 

 p. 303). Surrey is one of the counties in which, in the last 

 edition of Yarrell, this bird is said to breed. Mr. J. Young has 

 met with it about Reigate in winter. 



Kent. — Mr. W. Oxenden Hammond, of St. Alban's Court, 

 Wingham, writes : — " I have never myself seen the Cirl Bunting, 

 but I have had specimens twice from Mr. Gordon, of the Dover 

 Museum, obtained in that neighbourhood ; and Mr. Dowker, in 

 his ' Birds of East Kent,' speaks of it as common, and gives 

 Mr. Gordon and Mr. Delmar as his authorities." This, how- 

 ever, does not agree with my correspondent's own experience. 



Sussex. — Mr. W. Borrer writes that this bird "is much more 

 local" than the Yellow Bunting, " but is found at intervals all 

 along the coast, though only in rare instances in the Weald, and 

 then not far north of the Downs." He mentions a male shot at 

 Cowfold. It was tolerably common in the neighbourhood of 

 Brighton, and he has met with it occasionally, from Hastings in 

 the east, to Bognor in the west. Mr. Borrer was shown a nest in 

 Mr. Booth's garden in the Dyke Road, Brighton, on which the 

 hen was sitting. It was placed among ferns on a rockery — a 

 situation in which the nest " has been found several times near 

 Brighton." According to Mr. Booth, as many as fifty or sixty of 

 this species have been seen together in a flock (' Birds of Sussex,' 

 p. 119). Mr. J. Young also has met with it near Brighton in 

 winter. Mr. Percy E. Coombe, of Rickmansworth, tells me he 



