BLACK-HEADED BUNTING, 67 



much the same colour as in the male, hut the middle of 

 the back, scapulars and least wing-coverts are very much 

 duller and the feathers streaked with dark brown along the 

 shaft ; the quills of the wings and tail are as in the male ; 

 beneath, the chin and throat are dull white slightly tinged 

 with yellow, passing on the breast into pale buffy-brown in- 

 termixed with yellow ; sides of the breast patched with bay ; 

 belly pale dull brown mingled with yellow, especially in the 

 middle ; lower tail-coverts dirty yellow. 



The whole length of the male is about six inches and 

 four-fifths ; the wing measures three inches and three- 

 quarters : the second primary is slightly longer than the 

 third or fourth and is consequently the longest in the wing. 

 The female is a little smaller. 



The separation of this species from the genus Emheriza 

 seems to be advisable, its straight and powerful bill, almost 

 devoid of any palatal knob, its essentially granivorous habit 

 and the character of its eggs affording fair grounds for so 

 doing ; and it is worthy of remark that it was not referred 

 to that genus by either of the two distinguished Russian 

 naturalists who treated of it many years ago — Giildenstadt 

 (N. Comm. kc. Petrop. xix. p. 466) making it a Tanagra, and 

 Pallas (Zoogr. Eosso-Asiat. i. p. 428) a Xanthornus, or, as we 

 should now say, an Icterus. Two other beautiful species of 

 the Old World have been generally, and most likely properly, 

 assigned to the genus Euspiza — the E. aureola of North- 

 eastern Europe and of Asia, and the E. luteola of Central 

 Asia and of India — as well as the E. americana of the New 

 World, though whether this last is rightly included the writer 

 does not feel himself competent to declare.* 



* The occurrence in Great Britain of two examples of the North-American 

 White -throated Sparrow {Zonotrichia alhicoUis) — the one near Aberdeen, August 

 17th, 1867, the other near Brighton, March 22nd, 1872 — has been recorded by 

 Mr. Angus (Proc. N. H. Soc. Glasg. i. p. 209) and Mr. Rowley (Proc. Zool. Soc. 

 1872, p. 681) respectively. The genus to which this species belongs is allied 

 to if not one of the true Emhcrizidcp, but as a land-bird of the New World it 

 does not come within the scope of this book. 



