THE CIRL BUNTING IN GREAT BRITAIN. 17 7 



four miles of Wilts. Dr. Parsons, of Frome, informs me that an 

 example was obtained close to that town a few years since ; but 

 the Cirl Bunting appears to me only an occasional visitor to the 

 eastern part of Somerset." Mr. H. St. B. Goldsmith, of Bridg- 

 water, reports that " the Cirl Bunting is only fairly common 

 here. I have found its nest near the coast, and have seen eggs 

 taken on the hills on the east side of this town. I have hardly 

 ever seen it in winter, and I fancy it leaves this neighbourhood 

 then. I have not noticed it in the marshes, nor in the low-lying 

 parts where the trees are less numerous. It appears to frequent 

 certain localities, as those I have seen have been generally near 

 the same spots ; but I think nearer the coast they are more widely 

 distributed, judging from the nests I have known. I have eggs 

 taken on Aller Hill, at Langport [near Somerton], but not by 

 myself." In a subsequent letter, dated June 7th, 1891, he 

 mentions seeing three pairs on the hill to the east of Bridg- 

 water (towards Glastonbury) a few days before. Montagu records 

 it at Bridgwater in 1803, and that he himself observed a pair in 

 April, 1805, between Bridgwater and Glastonbury. 



Devon. — First discovered by Montagu (as a British bird) near 

 Kingsbridge, in the winter of 1800 ; he found it not uncommon 

 among flocks of Yellow Buntings and Chaffinches, and procured 

 several specimens of both sexes, killed in different places six or 

 seven miles from that place. He also found it at Teignmouth, 

 and discovered the nest (Orn. Dictionary). In his ' Supplement,' 

 Montagu mentions the observation of this species in some of the 

 inland parts of Devon, especially about Ashburton. The Rev. 

 Murray A. Mathew writes : — " It used to be a very common bird in 

 the neighbourhood of Barnstaple when I was a boy, now some forty 

 years ago. In a lane near our house I once detected four pairs 

 within a distance of a couple of hundred yards." Mr. W. E. H. 

 k Pidsley writes of the neighbourhood of Broadclyst, " It seems 

 to me to be fairly plentiful, nearly every year I find its nest." 

 The Rev. G. C. Green writes from Modbury Vicarage, S. Devon, 

 "The Cirl Bunting I occasionally see, and the neighbourhood 

 of Plymouth is, I fancy, one of its most frequented haunts." 

 Mr. Arthur H. Macpherson found it abundant in March, 1887, in 

 the neighbourhood of Newton Abbot; and in the spring of 1891 

 he noted it as fairly numerous in the neighbourhood of Hols- 



J worthy and in the cultivated districts through which he walked 

 zoologist. — may, 1893, ? 



