LITTLE-BUNTING. 147 
In summer the food of the Little Bunting is probably principally com- 
posed of insects of various kinds; but in winter its diet is, like that of the 
rest of the Buntings, almost entirely seeds or grain. In winter the Little 
Bunting collects into flocks of greater or less extent; and Jerdon states 
that in India it frequents bare spots of ground studded with low bushes. 
In winter it is evidently much shyer than in the breeding-season. Davison, 
in his field-notes on the Birds of Tenasserim (‘Stray Feath.’ vi. p. 407), 
writes of this species :—‘ About the steep precipitous rocks, immediately 
below the cone of Mooleyit, I saw a few flocks of this Bunting. They 
were excessively wild, and it was with difficulty that I managed to secure 
a single specimen. They settled about the rocks and on the grass, and 
when disturbed separated, and generally settled on the tops of stunted 
trees growing about.”” In China Swinhoe also states that it is gregarious 
durifg the winter. It is sometimes kept in a cage. 
The male Little Bunting in full breeding-plumage has the entire head 
rich chestnut, with a broad distinct black band on each side of the crown, 
a narrow indistinct one round the ear-coverts, and an ill-defined mous- 
tachial line of the same colour on each side of the throat ; the feathers of 
the rest of the upper parts are brown with dark centres, those on the 
mantle and the scapulars, the innermost secondaries, and the greater wing- 
coverts having pale chestnut margins ; a bar is formed across the wing by 
the median wing-coverts having pale tips; the quills and tail-feathers are 
brown, the two outermost feathers of the latter with an elongated white 
stripe on the inner web running out at the tip of both feathers and onto 
the basal portion of the outside feather, but the white on the second 
feather is frequently absent ; the underparts are nearly white, shading into 
chestnut on the chin and upper throat, and conspicuously streaked with 
black on the breast and flanks. Bull dark brown, almost black ; legs, feet, 
and claws pale brown ; irides hazel. The female somewhat closely resembles 
the male, but the black on the head is duller and the chestnut paler. 
After the autumn moult the pale margins to the feathers partially conceal 
the black on the head, and cause the stripes both on the upper and under 
parts to be less distinct; and the breast, flanks, and under tail-coverts are 
slightly suffused with buff. The bill also becomes paler, especially the 
under mandible. Birds of the year scarcely differ from adults; but young 
in first plumage are much more streaked both on the upper and under 
parts. 
