72 FAUNA AND FLORA OF PALESTINE. 



132. Emberiza striolata. (Licht. Verz. Doubl., p. 24.) Strlolated 

 Bunting. 



The Strlolated Bunting occurs on the bare desert hills and rocky 

 ravines round the Dead Sea, remaining there throughout the year. Of 

 course we should not expect to find a bird so strictly of the rocky desert 

 in any other district. The Strlolated Bunting has been found in restricted 

 localities and in small numbers throughout the desert belt which girds 

 the Old World from the Western Morocco coast to North-west India. 



133. Emberiza pusilla. Pall. Reis. Russ. Reichs. iii., p. 697. The 

 Little Bunting. 



Rather a straggler than an inhabitant of the Lebanon, where I only 

 know of one undoubted instance of its capture. 



The Little Bunting is an inhabitant of North-east Europe and Siberia, 

 migrating southwards in winter, principally to India, very few straggling 

 westwards. 



134. Emberiza eia. Linn. Syst. Nat. i., p. 310. Meadow 

 Bunting. 



Emberiza cia, certainly not a Meadow Bunting in Palestine, is found 

 in the mountain regions in summer and winter alike, but in small numbers. 

 We found it on Mount Carmel, about Galilee, on Hermon, and all through 

 Lebanon. It is an inhabitant of the mountain districts of Southern 

 Europe as far as the Caucasus, and in the Atlas range. The Taurid and 

 Palestine appear to be its Eastern limits. 



135. Emberiza cccsia. Cretzschm. in Riipp. Atlas, p. 15. Cretzsch- 

 maer's Bunting. 



Cretzschmaer's Bunting, which takes the place of our Yellow Hammer, 

 returns simultaneously in great numbers about the third week in March, 

 and peoples in pairs every part of the country, except the woods and olive- 

 groves, preferring the scrubs or bare hill-sides or rocky wadys. It builds 

 a neat nest on the ground under a tuft, or low bush, and its eggs are 

 easily distinguished from those of any other species. It is very tame, 

 continually flitting in front of the traveller. 



This Bunting appears to be restricted in summer to Greece, Asia 

 Minor, and Syria, and in winter to North-east Africa. 



