220 LITTLE BUNTING. 



Von Middendorfl^ was the earliest discoverer of the eggs of the 

 Little Bunting. Seebohm found the species extremely abundant in 

 the valley of the Yenesei from June ist onwards, before the snow had 

 sufficiently melted to make the forest penetrable, and took his first 

 nest on the 23rd of that month, on the south bank of the Kuraika, a 

 tributary of the Yenesei. The structure was in a hole made in the 

 dead leaves, moss and grass, carefully lined with fine dry bents, and 

 contained 5 eggs; two other nests afterwards obtained were lined 

 with reindeer-hair, and contained respectively 5 and 6. Those of 

 the first clutch are described as almost exact miniatures of Corn- 

 Bunting's eggs : the ground-colour being of a pale grey, with bold 

 twisted blotches and irregular spots of very dark grey, and equally 

 large underlying shell-markings of paler grey ; the others were 

 redder or browner in ground-colour ; measurements "63 by '56 in. 

 Mr. H. L. Popham obtained a far larger series on the Yenesei in 

 1895, and again in 1S97 ; the variation in colour and markings 

 being remarkable. As a rule the bird was extremely tame in its 

 breeding-haunts, though in winter the late W. R. Davison found it 

 excessively wild in Tenasserim, when in flocks ; in summer it appears 

 to be partial to the younger woods composed of a mixture of pines, 

 firs, alders and birches. All travellers, who have had the opportunity 

 of observing it, describe its song as low and sweet, more like that of 

 a Warbler than of a Bunting, while the call-note resembles the 

 words tick, tick, tick. The food consists of insects in summer and 

 of seeds in winter. 



The adult male in breeding-plumage has the crown and sides of 

 the head rich rust-colour, with a broad black stripe from above 

 each eye to the nape, behind which is a dull whitish collar ; mantle 

 and rump reddish-brown with blackish streaks ; wing-coverts brown, 

 tipped with buffish-white ; quills ash-brown ; tail-feathers the same, 

 with longitudinal white terminal patches on the two outer pairs ; 

 chin and throat pale chestnut ; upper breast and flanks dull white, 

 thickly streaked with black ; belly whitish ; bill horn-brown ; legs 

 pale brown. Length 5*25 in. ; wing 275 in. In the female the black 

 on the head is duller, the median stripe is less pronounced, and the 

 general tints are paler. Li the young bird the central stripe on the 

 crown is buff, and the two side stripes are reddish-brown with dark 

 streaks ; the secondaries are broadly edged with rufous-brown, and 

 the under parts are more streaked and mottled with black. 



