THE SNOW HUNTINC;. 
1)5 
‘d far higher price tliaii I had offered. Tlie nest was very 
similar to the previous one, hut was a little thicker, and con- 
tained a few pieces of fern in the walls. Tlie eggs were not so 
strongly marked as in Mr Hewitson’s figure, and, unlike the 
first specimens, had the ground sliglitly tinged with brown ; the 
markings were of a pale A^an dyke brown colour, and there were 
also smaller marks of purplish grey, and a few deep brown 
dots. The eggs do not appear so round in form as those of 
the common buntings ; their average size is fifteen-sixteentlis 
by eleven-sixteenths of an inch. 
THE BUNTING. 
Emberizct miliaria. 
CORN-BILL. 
This is a common winter visitor, appearing in flocks about 
the middle of September or early in October, and leaving in 
May. I have, however, observed flocks of considerable size as 
late as the middle of June. That the same flocks visit the 
same localities year after year, there can be no doubt. For 
several winters in succession, an individual having a large 
white mark on the back appeared at Halligarth with the first 
flock as regularly as the season came round. The very few 
which remain to breed do not begin laying earlier than the 
middle of May. Although shy on their arrival, they become 
extremely bold as winter advances, resorting chiefly to corn- 
yards, where they make great havoc among the stacks, pulling 
out the straws in order to get at the ears. Macgillivray 
denies their ability to do this ; but in Shetland, as a rule, the 
stacks are small, and very loosely put together. In the garden 
also they do much damage, pulling up the young j>eas, and 
nipping off the young buds, — not for the sake of the grubs they 
may contain, but for food, as I have ascertained by shooting 
the birds in the very act. They are fond of sitting in the 
