ing to Eversmann, is very common on the Kirgis Steppes.
Thence we have no intelligence as to the extent of its
winter-migrations till we come to China, its appearance in
the northern • parts of which country has been already
noticed. In America the limits of its range at the same
season are also uncertain, hut it would seem not to reach
California on the west, further to the southward than the
Upper Missouri in the interior, or Kentucky and Pennsylvania
for the eastern part of the continent. Richardson
never met with this species in the Fur-countries during
winter, but in 1827 it appeared on the plains at Carlton
House about the middle of May and on the newly-ploughed
land at Cumberland House, which is a little further to the
north, a few days later; but in the preceding year many
were seen early in May at Fort Franklin, though that is
situated within a degree of the Arctic Circle. The latest
collections, made by Kennicott and others, in this part of
the Dominion of Canada speak to the abundance of the
Lapland Bunting near the Mackenzie River and the Great
Slave Lake.
In its fondness for swampy places and its general appearance
this bird much resembles our common Reed-Buntinff,
so that it may have been often mistaken for that species;
but, though frequently perching on bushes, it runs on the
ground as does the Snow-Bunting; and, except in the breeding
season, has many times been observed in company with
the latter or associated with the Shore-Lark. As to its
food little has been ascertained. The crops of those killed
at Fort Franklin were filled, says Richardson, with the
seeds of Arbutus alpina, hut the Chinese, according to
Mr. Swinhoe, take them in springes baited with the small
maggots which are. ..found in decaying millet-stalks, these
birds must therefore have a strong fancy for animal food
even in winter. Herr Collett found only small insects and
gravel in the stomachs of those which he examined during
the summer in Norway.
The adult male in full breeding-plumage has the bill
yellow, with the point black: irides hazel: the whole of
the head velvet-black*, with the exception of a streak of
yellowish-white which, beginning at the nostril, runs on
either side over the eyes, where it becomes a broad stripe,
and passes above and behind the ear-coverts to the sides of
the neck whence it turns downward to the throat; beneath
this stripe a collar of bright chestnut, widest on the nape of
the neck, extends forward to a point on either side; the
back, rump and upper wing-coverts, dark brown with lighter
edges, those of the smaller wing-coverts being whitish, the
rest reddish-brown, which becomes almost chestnut on
those of the greater coverts and tertials; the other flight-
feathers blackish-brown, with a narrow light outer margin;
the tail-feathers also blackish-brown, with narrow lighter
edges, but the two outer pairs have an angular patch of
white and a brown shaft-mark towards their tip ; beneath, the
black of the head descends to the throat and upper part of
the breast, where it forms a fine gorget surrounded by the
white stripe already described; the rest of the lower parts
dull white, the sides of the breast and flanks being streaked
with black : legs, toes and claws, pitch black.
The whole length is about six inches and a quarter.
From the carpal joint to the end of the wing, three inches
and five-eighths.
The female differs in wanting the conspicuous black head
and gorget, and in having the top of the head blackish-brown,
the feathers tipped with wood-brown, the under portion of
the ear-coverts and a stripe from the corner of the mouth
black—the rest dull yellowish-white ; the chin and throat
dull white with a black line descending from each corner of
the lower mandible, which there uniting with the stripes from
the mouth forms an ill-defined patch on the upper part of
the breast; the chestnut collar is smaller and less bright
than in the male and is more or less mottled with dark
brown; the rest of the plumage is nearly alike in both
sexes.
After the autumn-moult the male has those parts which
* If the plumage be not quite perfect there is generally a trace of a light
median streak on the occiput.