64 



PASSERES. 



EMBERIZID/E. 



EMBERIZIDM. 



EUSPIZA MELANOCEPHALA (ScOpoH*). 



THE BLACK-HEADED BUNTING. 



EusPiZA, Bonaparte\. — Bill liai'd, straiglit, conical, rather long and jjowerful ; 

 mandibles about equal in size, their edges but slightly inflected and sinuated ; 

 the palate almost smooth. Nostrils oval, basal and placed somewhat near the 

 culmen, but quite clear of the feathers. Gape angular. Wings rather long : 

 first primary finely attenuated and so small as to seem wanting ; second, third 

 and fourth nearly equal and one of them the longest in the wing. Tail rather 

 long and slightly forked. Tarsus scutellate in front and at the lower part of the 

 sides, which are elsewhere covered by an undivided plate, forming a sharp ridge 

 behind, rather longer than the middle toe. Claws but slightly curved, that of 

 the hind toe of moderate length. 



This is the third species of Bunting whose first aj^pear- 

 ance in England it has been Mr. Goukl's fortune to bring to 

 the notice of ornithologists. He states (Ibis, 1869, p. 128) 

 that a very fine old female specimen was submitted to 

 him by Mr. Robert Brazener of Brighton, who had shot it 

 on the racecourse near that town about November 3rd, 18G8, 

 while it was following a flock of Yellow^ Hammers. 



* Emberiza melanocephala, Scopoli, Annus I. Historico-Naturalis, p. 142 

 (1769). 



+ Supplemento alio Specchio comparative delle Ornitologie di Roma e Fila- 

 delfia, p. 10 (1832). 



