454 EMBERIZA SCHCENICULUS. 



ish-brown. The head and throat are deep black, the feathers 

 of the former with reddish, of the latter with greyish tips. A 

 line of white passes down the neck from the lower mandible. 

 A broad band of greyish-white crosses the back of the neck, 

 margins the black of the fore-neck, and blends with the white 

 of the lower parts, which on the breast is tinged with blue, and 

 elsewhere with ochre-yellow ; the sides streaked with dusky. 

 The general colour of the upper parts is bright chestnut, each 

 feather with brownish-black in the centre ; the rump bluish- 

 grey, streaked with black. The quills are blackish-brown, 

 margined with light red, as are the larger and smaller coverts. 

 The two middle tail-feathers like those of the back, the rest 

 brownish-black, slightly margined with reddish, excepting the 

 two outer on each side, which are obliquely marked with white, 

 their shafts black, and their tips pale brown. The entire leng-th 

 of the intestinal canal is eleven inches, of which the oesophagus 

 is two and a quarter, the intestine eight and three fourths. The 

 coeca are two twelfths of an inch in length, and about half an 

 inch distant from the vent. 



Length to end of tail 6i inches; extent of wings 9f ; bill 

 along the ridge ^^ ' along the edge of lower mandible 5^ 

 twelfths ; tarsus jH? ; middle toe and claw | ; wing from flexure 

 Sj% ; tail 2j%. 



Female. — The upper part of the head is pale reddish, each 

 feather brownish-black in the centre ; a pale yellowish-grey 

 streak over the eye ; auricular coverts dark brown margined 

 with paler ; a band of pale yellowish-grey over the back and 

 sides of the neck ; the fore- neck of the same colour ; the lower 

 parts in general brownish-white ; the fore-neck with two irre- 

 gular bands of blackish-brown, the breast and sides streaked 

 w^ith light reddish-brown ; the back, wings, and tail as in the 

 male, but paler ; the rump pale greyish, tinged with red. 



Length to end of tail 5i inches ; extent of wings 9 ; bill 

 along the ridge j^, along the edge of lower mandible 5i twelfths; 

 wing from flexure 3 ; tail 2j% ; tarsus ^% ; middle toe and 



