EMBERIZIN^. 



249 



of crown, and lores are black, margined with sandy brown ; the 

 remainder of the crown, nape, hind neck, and sides ot neck 

 brown, margined with sandy brown ; back and scapulars ashy 

 brown' with fulvous fringes and dark shafts ; rump ashy, each 

 feather delicately tipped with rosy red, the shafts dark ; upper 

 tail-coverts ashy, broadly tipped and margined with white and the 

 shafts dark ; wing-coverts pale ashy with darker shafts, the lesser 

 and median coverts fringed with rosy red, the greater coverts with 

 pale fulvous white; winglet, primary-coverts, primaries, and 

 secondaries black edged with white; tertianes ashy brown; tail 

 black edged with white ; sides of the head, chin, throat, and breast 

 ashy, the feathers edged with pale fulvous ; remainder ot lower 

 plumage pale ashy with darker shaft-streaks ; under wmg-coverts 

 and axillaries pale ashy white. The sexes appear to be alike. 



As the winter progresses, the margins of all the feathers get 

 worn away, and the whole head and mantle become dark blackish 

 brown ; the other parts are also much darker, and while the red 

 on the rump becomes more intense in colour, the red on the wmg- 

 coverts disappears by abrasion ; the wings and tail become nearly 

 uniform brown. . 



The young bird has very broad fulvous margins to the feathers 

 of the bead, and the margins everywhere more fulvous ; there is no 

 red on the wing-coverts, but the rump-feathers are rather broadly 

 margined with red or reddish yellow from the earliest period. 

 Bill, legs, and feet black ; iris brown (Hume). 

 Length about 7-5; tail 3'1 ; wing 4-8; tarsus -85; bill from 

 gape 



•55. 



Distribution. The Himalayas from GHlgit to Sikhim, extending 

 into Turkestan and Tibet. This species is found at high elevations 

 from 12,000 to 19,000 feet, but descends occasionally in winter 

 to the level of Grilgit. 



Subfamily EMBERIZINiE. 



The Emberizince comprise the Buntings, a very large group, of 

 which fifteen species are found in India, the majority visiting that 

 country in the winter and retiring north in the summer. A tew 

 remaiu to breed, but chiefly in the Himalayas. 



The Buntings have a conical and sharply pointed bill, with the 

 culmen straight or nearly so; the edges of the two mandibles 

 however, unlike those of the other Fringillidce, are not in contact 

 throughout their length, but form a gap or angle about midway 

 between the gape and the tip of the bill. The upper mandible, 

 moreover, has the palate furnished with a small hard process or 

 knob AVith this exception the Buntings conform in structure to 

 the Finches. Like them also they have a double plumage, caused in 

 most cases by the abrasion or dropping off of the margins of the 

 feathers in spring, while a few Buntings have m addition a partial 

 spring moult. 



