BLACK-HEADED BUNTING. 65 



Unlike the two other species of the family admitted to 

 this work in the present Edition, that which is now under 

 consideration is far from possessing a high northern range, 

 and its claims to recognition as a " British Bird " are of the 

 slightest. Still the fact that it has reached Heligoland, 

 where Mr. Gatke has obtained three specimens in as many 

 successive years (Ibis, 1875, p. 183), favours the possibility 

 of its voluntary appearance in England, though the season 

 of the year at which the example recorded by Mr. Gould 

 occurred proves that it must have been a chance wanderer, 

 for even in the south-east of Europe it is only a summer- 

 visitant and in the south-west it seems never to shew itself. 

 The Heligoland birds were met with at the end of May or 

 in June. It is said to have been taken some six or seven 

 times near Marseilles, all the examples but one, which was 

 procured in autumn, being obtained in April or May. Ac- 

 cording to Dr. Salvadori and others it is not of frequent 

 occurrence in Italy, though it is captured almost every year 

 in Liguria, has been discovered breeding in the Veronese 

 province and is still less rare in Venetia, no doubt passing 

 over from Dalmatia, which has long been known as a country 

 in which it is abundant. Further to the southward it has 

 been once obtained at Bimini, once in Sicily and occasionally, 

 according to Mr. Wright, in Malta. Several examples are 

 said to have been killed near Vienna,* and one in Bohemia, 

 while its occurrence near Kiev in Russia has been recorded. 

 Turning to the south-east the bird becomes abundant in 

 Turkey, Greece, Asia Minor and the Caucasus, whence it 

 retires on the approach of winter to the North-west Provinces 

 of India and the Deccan, where it is found in immense flocks. 

 Though a summer-visitant to the Cycladcs, Crete, Cyprus 

 and Palestine, it is unknown in Egypt, or for the matter of 

 that in any part of Africa. 



This species is said by Canon Tristram to have in 

 Palestine nothing in its habits and appearance to recall 

 the true Buntings, but on the other hand Mr. Robson in a 



* Naumann had infonnati E a male, said fco have been shot near Leipzig, 



but was unable to satisfy himself of its truth (Yog. Deutsch. iv. p. '2-U, note). 

 VOL. II. K 



