234 BIRDS OF TUNISIA 



and particularly on the Zaccar. This statement, however, is preceded 

 by another, to the effect that the species is not common in Algeria. 

 My Tunisian collection includes but one example of the Yellow 

 Bunting, obtained by the naturalist Blanc, who informs me that he 

 has occasionally met with it in the neighbourhood of Ain-Draham and 

 Fernana in the north of the Eegency. He adds that although not 

 as a rule abundant, the species is fairly numerous in some winters. 

 From Marocco I have no example of the bird, nor any note of its 

 occurrence, and on the whole, I think that the species can only be 

 looked on as an occasional winter visitor to North Africa. 



Even in Southern Italy and the Mediterranean Islands this 

 Bunting is somewhat rare, although by no means uncommon in 

 autumn and winter in Northern Italy, and at times even in the 

 central districts of the Peninsula. 



In some of its habits the present species resembles the Girl 

 Bunting, but it is fonder of the open country than that bird. 



In winter, when this species is found in Tunisia, its food consists 

 chiefly of grain and the seeds of various wild plants. Its notes, so 

 familiar to us in North Europe, are rarely to be heard during the 

 colder months. 



EMBERIZA CIRLUS, Linnsus. 

 CIEL BUNTING. 



Emberiza cirlus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i, p. 311 (1766) ; Sharpe, Cat. Birds 

 Brit. Mus. xii, p. 525 ; Loche, Expl. Sci. Alg. Ois. i, p. 171 (1867) ; 

 Koenig, J. f. 0. 1888, p. 232 ; id. J. f. 0. 1893, p. 53 ; Whiiaker, Ibis, 

 1896, p. 95. 



Description. — Adult male, spring, from Ghardimaou, North Tunisia. 



Crown dusky-green, striped with blackish ; nape dusky green ; back 

 cinnamon, sparsely striped with blackish ; rump greyish-green ; tail brown, 

 with whitish margins to the feathers, the two outer pairs white on terminal 

 portion of inner webs ; quills brown, margined with yellowish on the outer 

 webs ; secondaries and greater wing-coverts broadly margined with cinnamon, 

 lesser wing-coverts olive-green ; lores, moustachial stripe, feathers around 

 and behind the eyes dark dusky green ; chin and upper throat black ; super- 



