EMr.ERIZIX.^.. 



197 



s^>^ 



BLACK-HEADED BUNTING. 

 Emberiza melanocephala, Scopoli. 



The Black-headed Bunting — not to be confounded with our com- 

 mon Reed-Bunting, which is sometimes called by this name — -is an 

 inhabitant of the south-eastern portions of Europe ; but from time to 

 time it wanders in a westerly direction, and, owing to the increased 

 attention now paid to ornithology, its presence has already been 

 detected on three occasions in Great Britain. The first example, 

 an adult female, identified by the late Mr. Gould, and now in 

 the collection of Mr. T. J. Monk of Lewes, was shot near Brighton 

 while following a flock of Yellow Buntings, about November 3rd 

 1 868. The Rev. J- R- Ashworth has recorded (Zool. 1886, p. 73), 

 the acquisition of an identified specimen in June or July 1884, 

 stated to have been shot in Nottinghamshire. The third example 

 was said by the dealer from whom it was purchased to have been 

 captured alive near Dunfermline about November 5th 1886, and 

 was recognized by the Rev. H. A. Macpherson at the Bird Show 

 of February 15th 18S7, held at the Cr}-stal Palace (Zool. 1887, 

 p. 193), where I saw it again in the present year (iSSS). when in 

 nearly adult male plumage. The fact that the females and young 

 are dull-coloured birds, not likely to be imported, favours the 

 assumption that these histories are substantially correct. 



On Heligoland the Black-headed Bunting has been obtained, as 

 Mr. Gatke informs me, upwards of fifteen times — in May and June, 

 and also in September and October ; but, strange to say, I do not 

 find it recorded from Northern German)-, although it sometimes 



