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THE LAPLAND BUNTING; AN ADDITION TO
THE AVIFAUNA OF ESSEX.
By REV. H. A. MACPHERSON, M.A.
I HAVE great pleasure in adding the Lapland Bunting (Plectro-
phanes lapponicus) to the list of birds that have occurred in Essex.
On May 22nd of the present year (1890), I purchased at Stevens',
"Lot 187," which contained a young male of the Lapp Bunting,
a very good skin. It had previously belonged to the late Mr. Fred-
erick Bond, and the label attached bears his record, "Caught near
Waltham, Essex, 1872, male," in his own handwriting. In conversa-
tion with Mr. Bond a few years ago, he then told me that he had
obtained several specimens of this Bunting from birdcatchers near
London, and he seemed to think that it was by no means as rare in
the southern counties of England (during the winter) as many per-
sons have supposed. I have had at least two live birds myself (one
of them a beautiful male) from the county of Kent, and others have
occurred; but though at one time I saw a good many birds caught
in Essex, I never heard or saw a Lapp Bunting taken in that county.
Mr. Christy excludes the species from his catalogue of the birds of
Essex. We may therefore reasonably conclude that it has hitherto
been overlooked.
Summer Migrants at Maldon.—The following are the dates on which I
have myself first seen or heard our migrant birds this year. In one or two in-
stances I have been told of earlier occurrences, notably as to the cuckoo.