238 
EMBERIZIDiE. 
island are situated there, — can only be called a rare and occasional 
visitant. Its numbers are stated similarly to decrease from the 
north to the south of England. The island of Achil is said to be 
regularly visited by the snow-bunting;* and small flocks are re- 
ported as frequent in Connemara in very severe winters.! In a 
catalogue of the birds of the south, kindly drawn up for my use 
some years ago, by Dr. Harvey of Cork, the snow-bunting was 
noticed merely as having been met with at Dunscombe wood, 
near that city. In the Eauna of Cork since published (1844), 
he states that it is not very uncommon, in immature plumage, in 
winter: but one adult bird had been seen by him. In a com- 
munication made to me in 1841, by Dr. Burkitt of Waterford, 
the species was noticed as visiting that neighbourhood only in 
January, 1832. In 1837, I was informed by Mr. T. E. Neligan, 
that he had never met with it in Kerry ; but in the winters of 
1840-41, and 1842-43, Mr. B. Chute became aware of its visit- 
ing different parts of that county. All that can be said of it by 
my correspondents in Tipperary and Wexford is, that one was 
shot on a mountain to the south of Clonmel on the 25th of Dec., 
1841, at which time four or five more were seen; { and that the 
species was first observed in the latter county in the winter of 
1846-4 7. § 
The snow-bunting is truly a most attractive bird, not only from 
its pleasing form and finely-varied plumage, but as one of the 
very few species met with in the depth of winter on the mountain- 
top, where, flitting overhead, uttering its pleasingly wild chirp, 
the far-distant region within the arctic circle, whence it may have 
come, is brought before the mind. Its earliest appearance about 
Belfast noted by me, is the middle of October, 1831 and 1844, 
and the 23rd of that month, in 1833. At the end of October, it 
has been killed on the shore of Dublin bay. The latest date 
noted of its remaining about Belfast is the 21st of March, 1832. 
Although their haunts, in mild weather, are chiefly the mountain- 
tops, one night's severe frost has been known to drive them to the 
nearest roads for food : a friend has seen them here in frosty morn- 
* Dr. W. R. Wilde. f M‘Calla. £ Mr. Davis. § Mr. Poole. 
