EMBEKIZINiE. 379 



personata, apud Blyth (oHm) — Gandam, IT. in Central India. 

 — Dalchidi, Sindh — Pacha jimiioayi, Tel. 



The Ked-headed Bunting. 



Descr. — The whole head, neck, and breast, rich chesnut ; back 

 and scapulars yellowish or greenish-yellow, with dark brown 

 striae ; rump and upper tail-coverts deep yellow, faintly streaked ; 

 quills and tail brown, the coverts and secondaries broadly edged 

 with pale whity-brown ; quills and rectrices narrowly edged with 

 the same ; beneath, from the breast, including the sides of the 

 neck, rich yellow. 



Bill pale fleshy yellow ; legs brown ; irides brown. Length 

 nearly 7 inches ; wing 3i ; tail barely 3. 



The young, and perhaps the females also, want the rich chesnut 

 head and breast of the adult male ; the general colour is brownish 

 above, fulvous beneath, passing ro yellowish on the rump, and on 

 both upper and lower tail-coverts. 



The Red-headed Bunting is found in various parts of India, but 

 locally distributed. Beginning from the South, I have seen it 

 rarely in Coimbatore, in IVIysore, Cuddapah, and the edges of the 

 Eastern Ghats. j\Ir. Elliot obtained it abundant at Dharwar ; I 

 saw it near Nagpore, and tolerably abundant at Mhow and Saugor ; 

 but I never obtained it, nor saw it, that I am aware of, among 

 the thousands of E. melmiocepliala, that yearly visit the corn-fields 

 about Jalna. ]\Ir. Blyth has obtained it from Central India, 

 and from the Upper Provinces, and it occurs also in Scinde and 

 the Punjab, during the harvest season, but never in the Himalayas. 

 Out of India it has been found in Affghanistan and other parts of 

 Central Asia, but not in Western Asia, nor in Europe. Like the 

 last, it is only a cold weather visitant to India, but does not, in 

 general, appear in the vast numbers that E. melanocephala does in 

 the Deccan ; yet I have observed considerable flocks near Saugor, 

 and seen them netted there. This Bunting prefers cultivated 

 land, with bush jungle near, to which it can retreat during the 

 middle of the day, and it is also frequently seen about hedges. 



It appears to breed in Afighanistau, for Hutton says — It arrives 

 at Candahar the beginning of April, and departs in autumn. Adams 

 states that It has a sweet and melodious sono-. 



