2l6 SIBERIAN MEADOW-BUNTING. 



summer and autumn at Krasnoiarsk, in lat. 56° N. on the Yenesei, 

 and accounts of its breeding in Southern Baikalia, Dai.iria, and Mon- 

 goha are furnished by Godlewski, Dybowski, and Prjevalski. The 

 nest, built in the second half of May, of dry bents with a lining of 

 hair and finer materials, is placed at the foot of a bush — frequently 

 a wild apricot — often on a ledge of some precipice or steep hill- 

 side. The eggs, usually 4 and seldom 5 in number, are white, 

 with a violet tinge, spotted and scrawled with dark brown or black : 

 measurements about "86 by '62 in. The song of the male is said to 

 be pleasant, though interrupted, like that of most Buntings. 



The adult male has the lores black ; crown and nape chest- 

 nut-brown ; a whitish stripe above and behind each eye ; cheeks 

 rather deeper in colour than the crown ; from the gape to the cheek 

 passes a dull white stripe, and below this a broad black moustache-like 

 streak ; chin and throat white, merging into grey on the sides of the 

 neck ; across the breast a deep chestnut band, flanks paler, belly 

 whitish ; mantle chiefly chestnut, streaked on the upper back ; inner 

 secondaries with blackish centres and warm buff edges ; quills ash- 

 brown ; middle tail-feathers chestnut, the next three pairs umber- 

 brown, and the two outer pairs black at their bases with white 

 terminal halves ; legs pale flesh-brown. Length 6 "5, wing 3 "4 in. 

 The female has little more than streaks of chestnut on the crown 

 and a very slight pectoral band, while her general colours are paler. 

 The young male is at first similar to the female, but by December 

 the warm chestnut-colour becomes marked and characteristic. 



