EMBERIZIN.li:. 



BLACK-HEADED BUNTING. 



Emberiza melanocephala, Scopoli. 



The Black-headed Bunting — not to be confounded with our com- 

 mon Reed-Bunting, which is sometimes called by this name — is an 

 inhabitant of the south-eastern portions of Europe ; but from time to 

 time it wanders westward, and, owing to the increased attention now 

 paid to ornithology, its presence has been detected on four occasions 

 in Great Britain. The first example, an adult female, identified by 

 the late Mr. Gould and now in the collection of Mr. T. J. Monk of 

 Lewes, was shot near Brighton while following a flock of Yellow 

 Buntings, about November 3rd 1S68. The Rev. J. R. Ash worth has 

 recorded (Zool. 1886, p. 73) the acquisition of an identified speci- 

 men in June or July 1884, stated to have been shot in Nottingham- 

 shire. A third example, said by the dealer from whom it was 

 purchased to have been captured alive near Dunfermline about 

 November 5th 1886, was recognized by the Rev. H. A. Macpherson 

 at the Bird Show of February 15th 1887, held at the Crystal Palace 

 (Zool. 1887, p. 193), where I saw it again in 1888, when in nearly 

 adult male plumage. Mr. W. R. Butterfield has recorded (Zool. 

 1897, p. 273) the occurrence of an adult female, picked up near 

 Bexhill, Sussex, on November 3rd 1 894. The fact that the females 

 and young are dull-coloured birds, and therefore not likely to be 

 imported, favours the assumption that these histories are substantially 

 correct. 



On Heligoland the Black-headed Bunting has occurred about 



