EMBERIZA MILIARIA 231 



it may pick up in and about houses. The song of the male bird is 

 low, soft and twittering, as a rule, but at times poured forth brightly 

 and con amove, and although not very varied it is distinctly pleasing. 

 I used often to stop and listen to one of these little songsters as it sat 

 perched on top of a mud wall, within a few feet of me, singing and 

 preening its feathers alternately, its mate probably being on her nest 

 close by. The call notes of the male bird may be fairly rendered by 

 the syllables " zweet, zioeet-a-twee," to which the female replies 

 " zeeioit." 



The nesting season of this species, as a rule, commences about the 

 end of March and is continued throughout the months of April and 

 May, but in some years, after a fine dry winter, it begins earlier. 

 During the first fortnight of April I have found numerous nests at 

 Gafsa, some with eggs and others with young birds in them, and, as 

 above mentioned, I have met with fully-grown young birds on the 

 wing, in the mountains near the Oued Seldja, even before the middle 

 of April. The nest, which is generally placed in a hole or crevice in 

 a wail, is small and very shallow, being composed of fine fibres and 

 dry grasses, lightly lined with horse and goat-hair, and occasionally 

 with a little wool. In the Gafsa mosque, above alluded to, I found 

 several nests placed in small indentures in the capitols of the columns 

 of the building. The eggs are usually three or four in number, and 

 resemble diminutive examples of those of the House- Sparrow, being 

 of a pale bluish-white colour, speckled with grey and brown, the 

 spots often forming a zone at the larger end. The eggs vary a good 

 deal both in size and shape, but their average measurements may be 

 given as 19 X 14 mm 



EMBERIZA MILIARIA, Linn^us. 

 COEN-BUNTING. 



Emberiza miliaria, Linn. Syst. Nat. i, p. 308 (1766) ; Malherbe, Faune 

 Orn. de I'Alg. p. 20 (1855) ; Eoenicj, J. f. 0. 1888, p. 233 ; id. J. f. 0. 

 1893, p. 54 ; Whitaker, Ibis, 1894, p. 92 ; Erlanger, J. /. 0. 1899, 

 p. 458. 



Miliaria miliaria, Shariic, Cat. Birds Mas. xii, p. 552. 



Cynchramus miliaria, Lochc, Expl. Sci. Alg. Ois. i, p. 168 (1867). 



