EMBERIZA. 683 



697. EMBERIZA PUSILLA Pallas. 



LITTLE BUNTING. 



Emberiza pusilla Pallas, Reise Pviss. Reicha (1776), 697; Sharpe, Cat. 

 Birds Brit. Mus. (1888), 12, 487; Grant, Ibis (1894), 517; White- 

 head, This (1899), 240; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 

 104. 



Luzon {Whitehead) . Northern Europe, Siberia, and northern China; in winter 

 to Tenasserim, Assam, Burma, and the Himalayas. 



"Adult male in breeding plumage. — General color above rufous-brown, 

 with broad black centers to the feathers, the rump rather duller brown ; 

 the scapulars chestnut with black centers; lesser wing-coverts brown; 

 median and greater coverts black, externally edged with pale rufous- 

 brown, with narrow white tips; bastard-wing, primary-coverts, and quills 

 blackish, externally fringed with brown, the primaries margined with 

 ashy brown, the secondaries with rufous; tail-feathers blackish brown, 

 edged with lighter brovni, the penultimate feather with a long wedge- 

 shaped mark of white on the inner web; the outer feather for the most 

 part white, with an oblique blackish mark on the inner web, and a small 

 dusky mark near the end of the outer web; center of crown vinous- 

 chestnut, with a broad black streak along each side, forming a band ; 

 a superciliary line, lores, sides of face, ear-coverts, and throat vinous- 

 chestnut, with a moustachial line of black along the under margin of the 

 cheeks, running behind the ear-coverts; hind neck paler than the crown, 

 and streaked with whitish like the sides of the neck ; remainder of under 

 surface of body from the lower throat do\vn wards dull white; tlie center 

 of the breast, abdomen, and under tail-coverts uniform ; the lower throat, 

 fore neck, and breast, as well as the sides of the body, streaked with 

 black; under wing-coverts and axillars white; quills dusky below, ashy 

 along the inner web. 'Bill brown, the lower mandible whitish; feet 

 reddish gray; iris brown.' (David.) Length, 122; culmen, 10; wing, 

 71; tail, 52; tarsus, 20. 



"Adult female in breeding plumage. — Scarcely differs from the male, 

 but is not quite so richly colored on the throat, and less distinctly 

 streaked with black below. 



"In winter plumage the adults are more rufous than in summer, with 

 nifescent edges to the feathers of the upper surface, especially on the 

 quills and tail-feathers; the black mark behind the ear-coverts is more 

 distinct and not so broken up as in the breeding plumage; the under 

 surface is suffused with ochreous-buff, and the black streaks are less 

 pronounced. 



"Young. — Resembles more the adult female in winter plumage, but has 

 scarcely any vinous tinge about the face; head rufous-brown, streaked 

 with black, with a slight band of fulvous down the center of the crown; 



