154 BRITISH BIRDS. 
Altai Mountains; thence it extends westwards through Turkestan and 
Persia to Palestine and Asia Minor. In all these countries it is a summer 
migrant, and in the two latter it is principally known as passing through 
on migration, though a few retire to the mountains to breed. This appears 
to be the case also in Greece and Italy ; but to the rest of Europe, south of 
the northern limits above mentioned, it is a regular summer visitor. A 
few remain to breed in North-west Africa, but the majority pass south- 
wards in autumn and doubtless winter somewhere in West Africa. It also 
passes through Egypt on migration, and winters in Abyssinia: a few also 
winter in North-west India. ‘The nearest ally of the Ortolan Bunting is 
E. cesia, which only differs in not having the slate-grey head, ear-coverts, 
and breast suffused with yellowish green, and in having the yellow of the 
throat replaced by pale chestnut. 
It is somewhat remarkable that a bird so common on the Continent, in 
all the countries adjacent to the British Islands, should be so rare in 
this country. I found the Ortolan Bunting breeding on the mountains in 
the pine-regions both of Greece and Asia Minor. When I was at Val- 
conswaard, we constantly heard its plaintive monotonous song, as it sat 
perched for a long time on the branch of a tree in the lanes, or in the 
hedges that surround the fields close to the village; and in the wilder 
districts of Norway, when driving in our carioles from Lillehammer towards 
the Dovre Fjeld, it was by no means uncommon in the trees by the road-— 
side. It is not a shy bird, and frequently remains for a very long time on 
the same twig, generally near the top of the tree, especially in the evening, 
when its simple song harmonizes with the melancholy stillness of the out- 
skirts of the country village. The song begins somewhat like that of the 
Yellow Hammer, but ends quite differently. It may be roughly expressed 
by the words tsee-ah, tsee-ah, tsee-ah, tyur-tyur. Sometimes there is only 
one tyur at the end. It seeks most of its food on the ground, where it 
hops with great ease, and probably picks up small seeds and insects of 
various kinds. 
Throughout Europe it is a strictly migratory bird. In Greece and Asia 
Minor, where the season of spring migration may be said to be the months of 
March and April, it appears during the second week of April amongst the 
later migrants. Further north, in South-west Russia, Goebel gives the 
second half of April (new style) as the date of its arrival. In South 
Holland, the season of 1876 was a somewhat late one, and the arrival of 
migratory birds began during the last week of March and ended during the 
last week of May; and it was not until the middle of the latter month 
that we heard the song of the Ortolan Bunting. These birds leave Europe 
in September, arriving in North Africa in large flocks. On their way — 
south great numbers are caught in nets and fattened for the table, and 
many are sent to this country alive from Holland and Belgium. 
