NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA 



and may be seen in the company of other species of finches. 

 They pair off in the early spring. Their food consists of the 

 seeds of grasses and weeds. Berries are their favourite diet, 

 the hard seeds of which they crack with their strong, stout bills. 

 The nest is small, neat, and cup shaped. It is made of grass 

 and the stems of small plants, and is lined with fine grass or 

 rootlets, and thistle-down or wild cotton. The nest is usually 

 placed in a low bush or in the crown of an aloe. Clutch, 4. 

 Eggs white, or with a bluish shade. The eggs are sometimes 

 unspotted, but more usually with a few black spots and zigzag 

 markings near the larger end. The nesting period is September 

 and October. 



Golden - breasted Bunting {Ember iza flaviventris). 

 (Vol. I., p. 216.) 



Description. — Male : back chestnut-red. Top of the head 

 black with a white streak down the centre. Another white streak 

 above the eye, and another below. A streak through the eye 

 black. Nape chestnut with a grey tinge. Feathers of the tail 

 black margined with grey, the outer four tipped with white. 

 The outer web of the outside feathers white with a black spot. 

 Under parts yellow. Chest tinged with orange. Iris brown. 

 Upper part of bill black, the lower brown. Legs and feet dull 

 brown. 



Length, 6.50 ; tail, 2.90 ; wing, 3.20. 



The female is deeper chestnut on the back, and the upper 

 part of the back is streaked with black. 



Distribution. — From the eastern side of Cape Province, 

 north through Natal, Orange Free State, and Transvaal to 

 East Africa and Nyassaland, and west to Damaraland and 

 Benguela. 



Habits. — The golden-breasted buntings associate in small 

 flocks of about a dozen individuals during the autumn and 

 winter, and feed on the ground, usually in open bushy country, 

 on small beetles, various other insects, and the seeds of weeds 

 and grasses. Like all the buntings in South Africa, they are 



86 



