The

1846-47, the whole coast was covered with these birds. distance thence to England being so short, he is surprised they are not occasionally common in the latter country. But he is certain that they could not escape notice, owing to the "constantly upright position of the crest."

A specimen of this bird shot in the island of Paros, in June, 1841, came under my inspection. Alauda of some kind flew on board H.M.S. Beacon, on the 25th and 26th of April, 1841, between Malta and the Morea, but none of them being taken, the species cannot be announced with certainty. For the same reason, the species, or even genus of several Alaude or Anthi, which we saw near the summit of the highest mountain in the island of Syra, on the 7th of May, could not be positively told. They were similar in size to the titlark (Anthus pratensis), but of a lighter colour on the under plumage: legs flesh-colour. The beautiful pied wheatear, as already noticed, was in the same locality.

Very few examples of the SHORE LARK, Alauda alpestris, have been obtained in England: it has not yet been observed in Scotland (Jard. and Macg.) or Ireland. The SHORT-TOED LARK, Alauda brachydactyla, is only known as British, from a specimen taken near Shrewsbury. (Yarr.)

THE WOODLARK.

Alauda arborea, Linn.

Is a resident, but very local species,

AND one of those unobtrusive birds, little known except to the lover of nature, by whom it is perhaps valued the more on that account. It is not under any circumstances to be met with in flocks like the skylark. So very choice is the woodlark in the place of its abode, as to be singularly local. In the counties of Down and Antrim, it frequents districts where the soil is warm, the country well cultivated and wooded, or scenery, which, like its song, is of a sweet, soft character;-cold clay districts, though equally improved and sheltered, cannot, so far as known to me, claim it for

a tenant. In its favourite localities here, the woodlark may be heard singing almost daily, (chiefly in the morning,) when the weather is fine, from September till June. In the counties named, it is not very uncommon in the warm sandy district of Malone; is occasionally heard about the Down shore of Belfast bay, and on the sides of the Castlereagh hills; about Ballynahinch; Lord Londonderry's deer-park in the Ards; Rosstrevor, &c.* This species is enumerated as one of the birds of Dublin, in Rutty's Natural History of that county, and has a similar place in Smith's History of Cork. Mr. R. Ball informs me, that in the latter county it is not unfrequent, and being much prized for its song, is greatly sought after by bird-catchers. It is found about Waterford. A friend living near Belfast kept woodlarks for a year or more in his aviary, in company with other birds, but they never sang.

The woodlark would seem to be only partially distributed in England. Mr. Yarrell mentions the counties in which it is known to occur, but in one which is not named-Oxfordshire-I met with two or three of them in June, 1828, in the demesne at Blenheim, the magnificent seat of the Duke of Marlborough. To Sir Wm. Jardine or Mr. Macgillivray, it is not known as a Scottish bird, but according to Mr. Heysham of Carlisle, is occasionally taken by bird-catchers in the vicinity of Dumfries.‡

Is a regular autumnal migrant to the more northern parts of Ireland.

TOWARDS the south, this bird becomes gradually scarcer, and in its extreme portions,-although the highest mountains in the

*The Rev. G. Robinson, writing from Parkview, Tandragee (co. Armagh), on the 13th of October, 1848, stated, that two pair had frequented the neighbourhood of his house for the preceding fortnight.

+ Burkitt.

Yarr. Brit. Birds, vol. i. p. 461, 2nd edit.

§ These two names are applied to females and young males, the plumage of which differs much from that of the adult male.

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 reported 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 Fauna 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 communication 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. F. Neligan, that he had never met with it in Kerry; but in the winters of 1840-41, and 1842-43, Mr. R. Chute became aware of its visiting 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 1846-47.§

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 mountaintop, 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 mountaintops, 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 mornMr. Davis. § Mr. Poole.

* Dr. W. R. Wilde. † M'Calla.

ings for a mile along the highest part of a road crossing the Belfast mountains, picking like sparrows at the oats in the horsedung. When there is neither frost nor snow, they may be met with occasionally in the lower grounds and on the sea-shore; to the latter they are obliged to resort when the weather sets in very severe. During the great snow-storm, early in March, 1827, flocks appeared in the outskirts of the town of Belfast; and such numbers were killed on the sea-shore in its vicinity, that they were purchased by Mr. Sinclaire, as the cheapest food he could procure for his trained peregrine falcons. Although of regular passage to the Belfast range of mountains, snow-buntings are much more numerous in other, and less frequented, mountainous districts in the county of Antrim, as about Newtown-Crommelin and Clough. At the former of these places, where the Rev. G. M. Black was several years resident, he always observed them during the winter in very large flocks, in which not more than one in twenty were adult individuals. From the other locality, which is in the same district, examples have been brought to me by Mr. J. R. Garrett, who also supplied the following note. January the 4th, 1834:— "When shooting to-day about two miles from Clough, I met with an immense flock of snow-buntings, out of which I killed thirty at one discharge, as they flew past me. Their call resembled the chirping of the grey-linnet, and the number of wings made a considerable noise, as the flock, consisting of several hundreds, swept by some were nearly white, and others of a dark-brown colour." In any of the flocks which have come under my own observation, the adult males bore only a small proportion to the females and immature birds; but, except in very small flocks, they were always present throughout the winter.* This species is mentioned under the name of cherry-chirper!, in Rutty's Natural History of Dublin, as "found on the strand in December, 1747, and kept in a cage until December, 1748, and fed with oats, hemp-seed, and cuttlings."—Vol. i. p. 317.

* Mr. Macgillivray's observation accords with this (vol. i. p. 465). In some of the latest works on British ornithology (Yarr. p. 426, &c.), the adult birds are stated to appear in Great Britain only late in the winter, or when the weather is very severe. The earliest seen in two years (Oct. 18th and 23rd,) about Belfast, were adult males.

new

Since the preceding was written, snow-buntings have become greatly more numerous in the vicinity of Belfast. By the " cut" in the channel of the river adjacent to the quays, an extensive bank is left insulated, and being covered with a profuse growth of Atriplex patula and Chrysanthemum leucanthemum, these birds have, notwithstanding its proximity to a large town, come in great numbers to it at the beginning of every winter for a few years past. They remain there during the whole of that season, in all kinds of weather, and until early in spring, when they take their departure north-wards. In the winter of 1843-44, the plants just named covered this tract-called Dargan's Island—and these birds were remarkably abundant, about a thousand appearing in one flock. The island having since been partially levelled and sown with grass-seed, they have visited it in much smaller numbers, but from 200 to 300 have been seen there in a flock in the winter of 1845-46. In consequence of this "preserve," the species has been greatly more common than formerly about the shores of Belfast bay, where the short grassy margin is their favourite haunt. They are naturally easy of approach, allow one to come within a few yards of them, but become wild after continued persecution. Some adult males are always to be seen in the earliest large flocks that appear.

Immense numbers came to the main-land opposite Rough Island, Strangford, at the beginning of winter 1844-45, and throughout a range of several miles, committed great devastation by picking up the sown wheat, which they got at, along the edges of the ridges. The farmers were literally up in arms against them, and killed many, but the birds eventually became so wild, as not to admit of approach. They had never been seen there before, and were looked upon as some foreign species, that came to destroy the wheat crop, by picking the seed from the ground. They remained from early in November, until the beginning of March. About the shores of Dublin bay, these birds are often met with during winter, and sometimes in great numbers. The snowbunting, by thus frequenting the mountain-top and the sea-side, reminds us of certain plants which are only found in either locality.