BIEDS OF EGYPT. 145 



end of that month, when I generally met with it in small 

 flocks. 



Upper parts and ear-coverts pale brown, with a gi-eyish 

 shade on the back, the centres of the feathers being dark 

 brown except on the rump ; wings and tail dark brown, with 

 pale edgings to the feathers ; feathers round the eye, and 

 underparts, cream-colour, spotted with brown on the throat, 

 chest, and flanks, mostly so on the sides of the throat and 

 crop ; beak brownish flesh-colour, shading into dark brown 

 on the culmen ; legs flesh-colour ; irides brown. 



Entire length 6'5 inches; culmen 0'5; wing, carpus to 

 tip, S'Q ; tarsus 0"95. 



Fig. Sharpe and Dresser, B. of Eur. part viii. 



112. Emberiza hobtulana, Linn. Ortolan Bunting. 



The Ortolan is only a bird of passage in Egypt, and I am 

 not aware of its having been captured in Nubia, although 

 according to Von Heuglin (Orn. N. O. Afr. p. 662) it is very 

 plentifid in Abyssinia from September to April, and occa- 

 sionally breeds there. 



I have shot it on several occasions in Middle Egypt in 

 April. It arrives on its northward migration about the end 

 of March, and returns through the country in the autumn. 



Male. — Head and neck yellowish grey ; throat, feathers 

 round the.eyes, and under the ear-coverts pale yellow ; back, 

 scapulars, and wing-coverts pale chestnut, with the centre of 

 the feathers dark brown ; primaries dusky brown, narrowly 

 edged with pale yellowish brown ; tail, two exterior feathers 

 on each side having the apical half white, with a streak of 



