EMBERIZIN^. 



■^5 



THE SIBERIAN MEADOW-BUNTING. 



Emberiza cioiDES, Brandt. 



In 'The Ibis' 1889, pp. 293, 294, Canon Tristram stated that 

 Mr. R. W. Chase, of Birmingham, had lately obtained a specimen 

 of this species obtained at Flamborough, Yorkshire. It was said to 

 have been taken by a fisherman named William Gibbon, in November 

 1886, and was mounted from the flesh by Mr. Matthew Bailey, the 

 well-known bird- preserver at Flamborough (Yorkshire ' Naturalist ' 

 1889, p. 356). I have lately had an interview with Mr. Bailey, 

 and the history of the specimen appears to be quite satisfactory. 



The Siberian Meadow-Bunting has not yet been obtained on 

 Heligoland, nor in any part of the Continent. Taczanowski says 

 that it is widely distributed in Turkestan, Western and Eastern 

 Siberia, Mongolia, Manchuria, Corea, and over a great part of China. 

 It must be mentioned, however, that the bird which breeds at 

 Kiukiang on the Yangtse (see Styan, 'Ibis' 1891, p. 354) is dis- 

 tinguished by some ornithologists as E. castaneiceps, and Seebohm 

 ('Ibis' 1889, p. 296) expressed an opinion that the Flamborough 

 specimen approached the Chinese rather than the typical Siberian 

 form. I have examined many examples in the Natural History 

 Museum, and, without expressing an opinion as to the very fine 

 distinctions, I treat the two forms as constituting one species in the 

 present article. 



Mr. Kibort, who collected for Seebohm, obtained this Bunting in 



