THE OOLOGISTS' RECORD. 



Edited by KENNETH L. SKINNER. 



ALL RIGHTS RKSKRVKD. 



Vol. II-No. 3.] [Sept;ember 1, 1922. 



OOLOGICAL NOTES ON SOME OF THE BREEDING 

 BIRDS OF PALESTINE. 



By Capt. C. R. S. Pitman, D.S.O., M.C., M.B.O.U. 



{Continued from p. 91, Vol. I.) 



Emheriza calandra. Corn Bunting. 



The' group which interested me most in Palestine was that of 

 the Emberizinae ; consequently it is harrdly surprising to chronicle 

 that I had very little success in findiiTg the nests and eggs of the 

 three types of Buntings which breed in those parts. The most 

 common species, E. calandra, is a resident, though vast flocks of 

 winter visitors which are probably racially different haunt the 

 coastal plains during the winter months and early spring This 

 large Bunting is a common breeder amongst the grass and scrubby 

 cover at the edges of the marshes near the mouths of the Wady 

 Rubin and R. Auja in the coastal plain, while I believe similar 

 locahties in the Kishon valley near Haifa are equally favoured. 

 I was rather under the impression that they were not early breeders, 

 but I found plenty of old empty nests in June, and saw young birds 

 which were strong on the wing in May. In the latter part of June 

 and in July the young birds joined up into large flocks, which 

 disappeared a few weeks later and must have moved off elsewhere. 

 As far as I know, only one"~brood is hatched in the year. I had not 

 the time tq spare to find nests by watching the parent birds, and 

 my collectors were much too lazy to do this for me, so I did not 

 obtain a single egg! The nests are very well conce^ded, and are 

 similar to those of the Cirl' Bunting. They are usually placed in 

 bushy cover or in a tuft of grass, practically on the ground, and the 

 eggs are apparently laid in March or April. The nests were easily 

 found late in the season, after the crops had been cut and much of 

 the herbage had died down. The harsh and monotonous reehng 

 song of these birds, uttered frc^m the top of a bramble or tall reeds, 

 was quite one of the features of bird life in the marshes. Their 

 pecuhar aeroplane-hke flight is quite unmistakable, and always 



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