THE BIRDS OF HELIGOLAND 383 



183. — Red-headed Bunting [Braunkehliger Ammer]. 

 EMBERIZA LUTEOLA, Jcrdon.i 



Emheriza icterica. Eversmann, Addenda ad Pallasi /Coogr. Ross.-Asiat., ii. lo. 



Euspiza luteola. Jerdon, Birds of India, ii. 378. 



Emberiza luteola. Sewertzoff, Fauna of Turkestan; Ibis, 1876, 249. 



I have twice had the good fortune to come across this Bunting 

 in my garden, both examples being old males : the first on the 20th 

 of June 1860, and the second, a less handsomely-phmiaged speci- 

 men, some years later in September. Very probably this species had 

 been shot on a previous occasion by Oelrich Aeuckens ; but the bird 

 in question having been heavily wounded, half fluttered, half fell into 

 some shrubs, and, in spite of all efforts, could not be found again. 



It was described as a beautiful very yellow Bunting, the markings 

 round its bill being almost as red as those of a Goldfinch. 



The early summer of the above-mentioned year was a generally 

 rich one, even for Heligoland. On the 12th of May I obtained a 

 splendid old male of Saxicola aurita ; on the I7th, Turclus saxa- 

 tilis, fem. ; on the 3rd of June, Muscicapa albicollis, also a splendid 

 old male; on the ISth, Emberiza melanocephala, an old female; 

 and on the same day, Cliaradrius fulvus, an old female ; on the 

 20th, the above-mentioned Emberiza luteola ; and on the 14th of 

 July, Fringilla serimis, the first example of this species observed 

 here. 



This Bunting is at once distinguished from all related yellow 

 species in that the rump, the sides of the neck, upper breast, and 

 breast, as well as all the lower parts, are of the purest and richest 

 yellow, without spots of any other colour. The forehead, cheeks, 

 and throat are of a beautiful rust-red. The feathers of the 

 wings and tail are greyish brown, and have grey edges which, on 

 the lesser and greater wing-coverts, as well as on the posterior 

 flight-feathers, pass into broad whitish grey borders. As in the pre- 

 ceding species the outer tail-feathers have no white markings. 



This species breeds east of the Caspian Sea, — according to 

 Sewertzoff, in the whole of Turkestan — at elevations of from 4000 

 to 8000 feet. Herr R. Tancre has had large numbers of both the 

 bird and eggs collected in the Altai Mountains. Some of the eggs, 

 which he has kindly given to me, bear a strong resemblance 

 in colour and markings to those of E. melanocephala, but are 

 much smaller, and in general are not so much dotted with black 

 as those of this closely related species. They measure -82 in. (21 

 mm.) in length, and -63 in. (16 mm.) in breadth ; the ground-colour 

 ' Emberiza luteola, Sparmann. 



