CORRESPONDENCE. 
89 
affixed your own remarks. The Hooded Crow ( Corvus cornix) does not, to my 
knowledge, build in Lincolnshire. The Carrion Crow ( Corvus corone ) is the 
species alluded to as sitting on the 10th of April. In the same article read Whist¬ 
ling Plover ( Charadriuspluvialis) for Stone Thicknee (( Edicnemus crepitans). 
Mr. Salmon is most probably right in his remarks on the structure of the King¬ 
fishers nest, as the one referred to by myself, at page 274, is the only specimen I 
have had an opportunity of examining, and which certainly appeared to me to be 
a regularly-formed nest. When remarking that it was not very unlike that of a 
Thrush, I alluded to the thickness of the walls of the nest, and the clay inter¬ 
mixed with the fishes* bones, and not to the compactness of the structure.—I 
hope, in accordance with Mr. Dillon’s wish, some further remarks will be made 
by your correspondents on the position of the Goldcrest’s nest. That it is open 
at the top, that it is built sometimes without the appearance of any cordage 
whatever, and also that in some positions it only uses the cord of moss partially 3 
is certain ; but that it never uses it entirely to support the nest, I believe I am 
not guilty of saying ; though certainly in the cases that I have examined it has 
not been so. 
Distribution of the Corn Bunting. 
Over every part of the North Wold of Lincolnshire the Bunting ( Emberiza 
miliaria) may be considered a common bird. And though I agree with Dr. 
Liverpool that it is a species much overlooked on account of the brown hue of 
its plumage, yet I cannot but differ from him in the effect which this produces. 
For as far as I can judge, E. miliaria is more frequently mistaken for Alauda 
urvensis (for the name of Lark is universally given to this species; vide also 
Jenyns’s Ornithology of Cambridgeshire , p. 16) than other brown birds for E. 
miliaria ; and to casual observers this would render the species more scarce than 
it is in reality. I cannot think either that any comparison can be drawn between 
this and the Yellow Bunting {E. citrinella ), in as much as the Corn Bunting 
is partially migratory, and in a great degree local. During spring this bird is 
numerous, particularly frequenting the cut hedge-rows near road-sides in which 
single bushes are left standing. From the top-most branch of one of these the 
Bunting may be heard pouring forth his song; when disturbed he flies, or rather 
soars, with his tail and wings expanded, and his legs hanging down until he 
approaches the next bush ; when commencing his song he rises slowly until he 
alights on the highest twig, where he finishes his short but not unmelodious 
strain. During July they become comparatively scarce; probably they retire to 
more unfrequented places to breed, for, as Mr. Salmon observes, “ they appear 
late in their nidification.” In the last week of August and during September 
the young collect in flocks, and may be found in almost every field in numbers. 
