114 



FOREIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. 



coverts also ash-grey; middle coverts white, black at 

 base ; greater coverts black edged with grey and tippc<i 

 with white; flights black edged with white excepting 

 the inner secondaries which are edged with chestnut ; 

 tail-feathers black e<lged with grey, the four outermost 

 tipped with white, the outermost of all with white web 

 and a black spot; head black, with a mesial streak on 

 the crown, the lores, and an eyebrow-stripe, a stripe 

 below the eye across the ear-covorts, a patch on sides of 

 neck, and the chin white; remainder of under surface 

 yellow, the chest inclining to orange ; sides and thighs 

 grey ; flanks, under wing-coverts, axillaries, inner 

 margins of flights and under tail-coveits white ; upper 

 mandible black, lower mandible brown ; feet dusky flesh- 

 colour; irides brown. Female with the chestnut of the 

 upper parts deeper and streaked with black. Habitat, 

 South Africa from Cape Colony north-eastward to 

 IS'yasaland and German East Africa. 



Messrs. Stark and Sclater ("Birds of South Africa," 

 Vol. 1., p. 185) give the following account of the habits 

 of this Bunting: " The^e handsomely marked little 

 Buntings are usually met with during summer and 

 winter in .small flocks of ten or a dozen. They are 

 extremely tame and fearless in tlieir habits, like all the 

 South African Buntings I have met with, feed much on 

 the ground in open bush country, but are sometimes 

 found in thickly wooded localities, and if disturbed only 

 fly for a few yards before settling again on the ground. 

 (July occasionally do they perch on low bushes or trees, 

 much oftener on stones or rocks. They feed largely 

 upon insects, especially upon small beetles, less fre- 

 quently upon seeds. In spring the brilliant cocks .<<'ing 

 their simple Bunting-like notes from the summit of low 

 bushes or stones, a monotonous and oft-repeated 

 ' zizi-zizi-zee.' with the stress on the last syllable. About 

 the middle of October the female proceeds to build her 

 nest of dry grass-stalks, lined with finer grass and hair, 

 in a low bush at the foot of a rock, or among the roots 

 of herbage on a ledge, and towards the beginning of 

 November lays four or five eggs. 



" These are smaller than those of the Cape Bunting 

 (Frin/jillaria capenfis), and differ completely in colour. 

 They are white, thickly marked all over with scrawls 

 and hair-like zig-zag lines of very dark purplish-brown 

 or blac'c. They measure 0.75 by 0.58." 



Captain Horsbrugh presented an exajnple of this 

 pretty Bunting to the London Zoological Gardens in 

 August, 1906; by some lapsus calami it is entered in 

 the Report of the Society and in the Journal of the 

 S.A.O.U. as " Gold-crested Bunting." 



RED-HE.4DED BuNTiNG (Embcriza lutcola). 



Scapulars and upper back olive-yellow voth black 

 streaks; lower back and rump yellow, the latter tinged 

 with chestnut; upper kiilcovcrts dark brown washed 

 with yellow ; wing and tail feathers dark brown edged 

 with whity-brown ; head, neck, and breast rich 

 chestnut ; remainder of body below rich yellow ; beak 

 bluLsh-grey, dusky at tip of upper mandible ; feet 

 fleshy-brown; irides brown. Female above pale ashy- 

 brown streaJiod with blackish ; lower back and ninip 

 without streaks, the rump with a yellow tinge ; lores and 

 feathers round eye whitish ; ear-coverts pale brown ; 

 cheeks and under surface .sandy grey, the abdomen and 

 sides of breast faintly washed and the under tail- 

 coverts strongly, with yellow. Habitot, Sibt'ria and 

 Central Asia, southward to Persia, Afghanistan, and 

 India. 



Jerdon {" Birds of India," Vol. II. p. 379) observes : 

 "This Bunting prefers cultivated land, with bush jungle 



near, to which it can retreat during the middle of the 

 day, and it is ahso frequently seen about hedges. 



'■ It appears to breed in Afghanistan, for Button says 

 it arrives at Candahar the beginning of April, and 

 departs in autumn. Adams states that it lias a sweet 

 and melodious song." 



The following I quote from Hume's " Nests and Eggs 

 of Indian Birds," 2nd edition. Vol. II., p. 170: — 

 " Major Wardlaw Ramsay says : ' I cannot find any 

 account of the nidification'of this Bunting, which breeds 

 so plentifully in the Uaruib valley. The first nest found 

 was on June 19th, and I was somewhat surprised that 

 neither ne.st nor eggs were at all like those of other 

 Buntings. The nest in question was built in a small 

 bush about 2i feet from the ground ; it was cup-shaped, 

 and composed of dried grass, stalks of plants, shreds of 

 juniper bark, and lined with a few goat's hairs. It 

 contained four eggs, of a pale bluish-white colour, 

 finely spotted with purplish stone-colour, the spots 

 beconiing larger at the thicker end. The eggs not 

 having arrived from India, I cannot give their exact 

 dimensions.' 



" And Dr. Scully, years ago, recorded the following 

 note on the breeding of E. lutcola in Turkestan :—' At 

 least half a dozen nests of this species were seen in May 

 and June. The nest is usually placed either in small 

 bushes about a couple of feet above the ground, or 

 touching the ground at the edges of cornfields and 

 sheltered over by a small shrub. The nest is round, 

 from 4.5 to 5.5 inches in diameter, the side-wall about 

 1 inch thick, the bottom 1.5. Externally it is made of 

 coar.se fibres, leaves, and twigs loosely put together ; 

 but the egg-cavity is lined with fine fibres wound round 

 and round, the eggs commonly lying on a bottom-lining 

 of horsehair.' " 



This .species lias frequently been imported and a good 

 many e.xamples have, from time to time, been exhibited 

 at the London Zoological Gardens.* 



Yellow-breasted Bunting (Embcriza aureola). 

 Above deep maroon ; the mantle and back with 

 feathers blackish in centre and with paler sandy 

 margins in winter; lesser coverts similar; median 

 coverts white ; greater coverts maroon with black 

 bases and white tips ; remainder of wing dark brown, 

 the secondaries maroon, the flights with whitish 

 margins; upper tail-coverts brown, tinte<l with maroon 

 and edged with ashy ; tail similar, but <\'ithout the 

 maroon tint, the two outer feathers with a broad 

 oblique white patch occupying most of the feather, the 

 next pair with a narrow patch on the inner- web close to 

 the shaft; crown-of head uniform maroon with a black 

 frontal band ; tho eyebrow, sides of face, oar-coverts 

 and upper throat are also black (in winter the throat 

 becomes yellow) ; lower tliroat yellow succeeded by a 

 dark maroon collar; the remainder of body l)elow 

 yellow, becoming white on the vent and under tail- 

 coverts; the sides of upp.-r breast streaked with 

 chestnut, of the lower breast and abdomen with brown ; 

 under wing-coverts white ; axillaries pale yellow ; 

 flights du.sky whitish along inner web ; upper mandible 

 dark horn-brown ; lower mandible and feet pale fleshy 

 horn-colour ; irides wood-brown. Female above brown 

 streaked with black ; eyebrow and under parts fulvous 

 yellow, paler on posterior part of body to dull white, 

 sides of body pale brownish, .streaked witii blackish ; 

 axUlaries pale brownish. Habitat, North and South 

 Europe and Siberia, Yezzo and North China ; wintering 



•A dead example sent to me for identification in 1905 wa?. 

 supposed to have been caught near Dover in 1900. 



