Remarks on Brandt's Siberian Banting. 295 



XXVIII. — Remarks on Brandt's Siberian Bunting (Emberiza 

 cioides). By Henry Seeboiim, F.L.S.^ F.G.S. 



Our Editor having requested me to furnish him with some 

 account of Brandt's Siberian Bunting [Emberiza cioides^, I 

 have had great pleasure in putting together my notes on this 

 species. Brandt's Siberian Bunting is a vei'y common bird in 

 the eastern half of Southern Siberia^ but it is not an Arctic 

 species. I did not meet with it in the valley of the Yenesay 

 during the several weeks which I spent on the Arctic Circle, 

 where I found the nests of the Little Bunting [Emberiza 

 pusiUa), and also shot examples cf the Reed Bunting [Em- 

 beriza schoeniclus) , the Little Reed Bunting [Emberiza pas- 

 serina), the Rustic Bunting [Emberiza rustica), the Pine 

 Bunting [Emberiza leucocephala) , and the Yellow-breasted 

 Bunting [Emberiza aureola), to say nothing of the Snow 

 Bunting and the Lapland Bunting, which passed through on 

 migration to breed on the tundras beyond the limits of forest- 

 growth- Brandt's Siberian Bunting is neither a bird of the 

 tundra, nor of the forest, nor of the steppe, but of the bare 

 places on the rocky hill-sides and the banks of stony streams. 

 I found it extremely abundant about ten degrees south of 

 the Arctic Circle, on the rough bare hills near Krasnoyarsk. 

 It was generally to be seen perched on the top of some tall 

 plant on the roadside- It is the eastern representative of 

 the Meadow Bunting {Emberiza cia), but appears to be quite 

 distinct from that species. The range of the Meadow Bunt- 

 ing extends from Spain, across Southern Europe and Tur- 

 kestan to South-west Siberia, as far east as Lake Saissan. 

 From the last-mentioned locality I have an example collected 

 by General Prjevalski, which does not differ from examples 

 that I collected in Greece. But, although the Meadow 

 Bunting does not seem to intergrade with Brandt's Siberian 

 Bunting, the latter species unquestionably iutergrades with 

 Giglioli's Chinese Bunting [Emberiza castaneiceps) , which is 

 regarded as a distinct species by Mr. Sharpe in the 'Catalogue 

 of the Birds in the British Museum.' The characters relied 

 upon are: — [a) that it is smaller; but my Yenesay examples 



