166 TRINGILLIDiE. 



Subfamily EMBERIZINJi. 



790. Emberiza fucata, Pall. The Gmj-headed Bunthuj. 



Emberiza fiicata, Pall., Jerd. B. hid. ii, p. 375. 



Citrinella fucata (P«//.), Hi'^me, Rovyh Draft X. ^S' -E. no. 719. 



The Grey-headed Bunting breeds throughout the valleys of the 

 Sutlej and Beas, and the hills west\\ards of this to Hazara, at 

 elevations of from 0000 to SOOO feet. 



It lays from the middle of May to the middle of July, so far as 

 I yet know, and very possibly both earlier and later. 



The nest is usually placed on the ground, at the root of some 

 little dense tuft of grass or stunted bush, or under some large stone 

 well concealed by the surrounding herbage : but 1 have had one 

 nest brought to me said to have been found in a bush nearly a 

 cubit from the ground. 



The nest is saucer-shaped, or, perhaps I should rather say, shallow 

 cup-shaped, composed almost entirely of dry grass, and lined with 

 A^ery fine grass-stems and a little hair. It is perhaps a neater and 

 certainly a denser and heavier nest than that of E. strachei/i, but 

 both are much the same size and very similar in other respects. 



Four seems to be the regular complement of eggs. 



Sir E. C. Buck writes :— " On the 25th June, 1869, I found a 

 nest of the Grrey-headed Bunting above Kotcgurh. It was placed 

 under a small fiu'/y bush on the ground, and was constructed of 

 dry grass, coarse and loose outside, fine and tolerably close inside. 

 The exterior diameter was 4 inches, the interior diameter 2] inches, 

 and the depth If inch. It contained three fresh eggs." 



It has been remarked that " this species, which is one of the 

 most curious of its genus, is distinguished from all the others by 

 the length of the tertiaries, which cover the primaries throughout 

 nearly their whole length, and by the claw of the hind toe being a 

 little longer and less curved than ordinary, which latter circum- 

 stance, recallin;/ to our minds the Larlcs, Pipits, Wcujtails, and 

 other birds 7vhicJi mostly frequent the ground, leads me to suppose 

 that this Bunting differs in its mode of life from all the other 

 members of the genus, which, as is well known, give the preference 

 to trees. Pallas indeed says that it inhabits the islets and meadows 

 of 7>/Hy?«." Now the eggs of this species are by no means of the 

 ordinary Bunting type. Tlie only Bunting's egg of which I have 

 seen a ligui'e which they at all resemble is tliat given by Bree of 

 the egg of the Jilack-headed Bunting {Easpiza meJanoccphala). 

 Like the eggs of Melophns melanictcrn^, there is something of a 

 Pi])it and Lark-like character about them. In sha])e tliey are long 

 regular ovals, somewhat pointed towards tlie small end. The 

 ground-colour is a very pale greenish grey or white tint/ed with 

 greenish grey, and they are speckled and freckled pri^tty well all 

 over, but far more densely at the large end, whore tliere is an 



