RUSTIC BUNTING. 



PASSERES. 



29 

 EMBERIZIBJR. 



Emberiza rustica, Pallas*. 

 THE RUSTIC BUNTING. 



News of the first and hitherto the only known occurrence 

 in England of the beautiful Bunting above figured was com- 

 municated to ' The Ibis ' for 1869 (p. 128) by Mr. Gould in 

 a letter dated December 30th, 1868. The specimen, which 

 is now in the collection of Mr. Monk, was caught near 

 Brighton, October 23rd, 1867, and shewn while alive to Mr. 

 Rowley. Its portrait has been given by Mr. Gould in his 

 ' Birds of Great Britain.' 



The proper home of this species is the north-eastern part 

 of Europe and the most northern part of Siberia. Pallas 

 originally described it as arriving in March in the willow- 

 beds of Dauuria, afterwards adding that it is abundant 

 along the rivers of Transbaikalia, where it sits on the 

 ground and trees singing with a voice not unlike that of the 

 Reed-Bunting. Steller observed it in Kamchatka, as Kitt- 

 litz subsequently did. Nearer to us it was shot at Hapa- 



* Reisen durcli verscliiedene Provinzen dea Rnssisehen Reichs, iii. p. 698 (177'i». 



