272 EMBERIZIN”. 
IX, p. 417; Murray’s Vertebrate Zoology of Sind, p. 188; 
Swinhoe and Barnes, Central India; Ibis, 1885, p. 129. 
THE RED-HEADED BUNTING. 
Length, 6°75 to 7; wing, 3°5; tail, 3; bill at front, 0°5. 
Bill pale fleshy-yellow ; irides brown ; legs brown. 
The whole head, neck, and breast, rich chesnut; back and 
scapulars yellowish or greenish-yellow, with dark-brown striz ; 
rump and upper tail-coverts deep-yellow, faintly streaked ; quills 
and tail brown; the coverts and secondaries broadly edged with 
pale whity brown ; quills and rectrices narrowly edged with the 
same ; beneath, from the breast, including the sides of the neck, 
rich yellow. 
The Red-headed Bunting is a not uncommon cold weather 
visitant to all suitable portions of the Presidency. It is much 
addicted to frequenting cultivated lands. 
Genus, Melophus, Sws. 
Bill compressed, with the upper mandible slightly notched 
near the tip; wings rather short; tail even; hind-claw slightly 
lengthened ; head with an erectile frontal crest; otherwise as in 
Luspiza. 
Melophus melanicterus, Gm. 
724,.—Jerdon’s Birds of India, Vol. II, p. 3881 ; Butler, Guzerat ; 
Stray Feathers, Vol. III, p. 498; Deccan, Stray Feathers, 
Vol. IX, p. 417 ; Murray’s Vertebrate Zoology of Sind, p. 189 ; 
Swinhoe and Barnes, Central India ; Ibis, 1885, p. 129. 
THE CRESTED BLACK BUNTING. 
Length, 65; expanse, 10; wing, 3:25; tail, 2°75; bill at 
front, 0°5. 
Bill fleshy-brown ; irides dark-brown ; legs red-brown. 
Mule—The whole body, with crest, glossy blue-black ; wings 
and tail dark cinnamon, with dusky tips ; tail-coverts at their 
base, black and cinnamon. 
The female is dusky-brown above, the feathers edged light olive- 
brownish ; beneath rufescent-white, or pale brownish-fulvescent 
with dusky streaks ; quills and tail dull and paler cinnamon than 
in the male, dusky internally, and on the central tail-feathers. 
She is a little smaller, and the crest is not so highly developed. 
The Crested Black Bunting occurs more or _ less in suitable 
localities throughout the region;in many it is a permanent 
resident breeding during the rains, in banks, under clumps of 
ferns and grasses. The eggs, three in number, are rather broad 
ovals in shape, and are of a dull whitish-grey color, with a sprink- 
ling of light-brown spots ; the markings are always most dense at 
the larger end, and sometimes the markings are so closely set 
as to leave little of the ground-color visible. 
They average 0°79 inches in length by nearly 0°63 in breadth. 
