BIRDS. 



301 



it was \ ery common about Brora during the summer of 1892, 

 breeding in the corn and potato fields. 



They are certainly rare in the neighbourhood of Invergarry, and 

 were not observed by us at Guisachan. They are abundant along 

 the corn lands of East Ross-shire and the coast-line to Inverness 

 Mr. Craig says they occur about Glen Urquhart, but are getting 

 scarcer, breeding in one place only ; Muirhead observed them there 

 as far back as 1867, in exactly the same locality. 



In the southern parts this Bunting is resident. It is very 

 common in the Laigh of ^loray, especially in upland farms near 

 the coast, or in flatter haughs, but is more local up-country. It is 

 abundant on all the cultivated lands inland from the sandhills east 

 and west of the Findhorn : local, and not very common in the 

 districts visited by Hinxman, or along the inland valleys. Within 

 the watershed of Lower Deveron it is common, between Comhill 

 and Aberchirder, on rolling agricultural land long since reclaimed 

 from peat mosses and moors, but not so common there as in the flat 

 lands and Laigh of Moray. Albinos occur not infrequently. 



Emberiza citrinella, L. Yellow Bunting. 



Local Names. — Skite, Yite, Yeldie, Yella Yorlin. 



A resident and abundant species everywhere in the north of our area, 

 except on the high, open grounds: much more generally distributed 

 than the Common Bunting, and follows cultivation fitrther up the 

 glens. 



Southwards the Yellow Bunting is very abiuulant, and generally 

 distributed. It is common in all the divisions of Deveron from 

 Upper Cabrach down to Lower Deveron at Banff — even far up 

 amongst the dwarfed and cattle-cropped bushes of wild dog-i*ose 

 and birch on the hill grazings, to the whinny slopes of the coast, and 

 among the bushes of the ' dens ' of the north coast of Aberdeen- 

 shire. From the Carn districts to the Laigh, and Dalwhinnie and 

 Tomintoul to Forres, Nairn, and Banff, and from far-up Badenoch 

 down the whole coiu'se of Spey, the species is always present in 

 more or less abundance, according to the size of suitable areas, 

 vying with the flowers of the gurse and broom in richness and 

 intensity of the yellow of its plumage. 



[Ohs. — Emberiza cirlus^ L. Cirl Bunting.— So far all our 



