166 FRINGILLID^. 



Subfamily EMBERIZIN^E. 



790. Emberiza fucata, Pall. The Grey-headed Bunting. 



Emberiza fucata, Pall., Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 375. 



Citrinella fucata (Pall.), Hume, Rough Draft N. fy E. no. 719. 



The Grey-headed Bunting breeds throughout the valleys of the 

 Sutlej and Beas, and the hills westwards of this to Hazara, at 

 elevations of from 6000 to 8000 feet. 



It lays from the middle of May to the middle of July, so far as 

 I yet know, and very possibly both earlier and later. 



The nest is usually placed on the ground, at the root of some 

 little dense tuft of grass or stunted bush, or under some large stone 

 well concealed by the surrounding herbage ; but I have had one 

 nest brought to me said to have been found in a bush nearly a 

 cubit from the ground. 



The nest is saucer-shaped, or, perhaps I should rather say, shallow 

 cup-shaped, composed almost entirely of dry grass, and lined with 

 very fine grass-stems and a little hair. It is perhaps a neater and 

 certainly a denser and heavier nest than that of E. stracheyi, but 

 both are much the same size and very similar in other respects. 



Four seems to be the regular complement of eggs. 



Sir E. C. Buck writes : " On the 25th June, 1869, I found a 

 nest of the Grey-headed Bunting above Kotegurh. It was placed 

 under a small furzy bush on the ground, and was constructed of 

 dry grass, coarse and loose outside, fine and tolerably close inside. 

 The exterior diameter was 4 inches, the interior diameter 2| inches, 

 and the depth If inch. It contained three fresh eggs." 



It has been remarked that " this species, which is one of the 

 most curious of its genus, is distinguished from all the others by 

 the length of the tertiaries, which cover the primaries throughout 

 nearly their whole length, and by the claw of the hind toe being a 

 little longer and less curved than ordinary, which latter circum- 

 stance, recalling to our minds the Larks, Pipits, Wagtails, and 

 other birds which mostly frequent the ground, leads me to suppose 

 that this Bunting differs in its mode of life from all the other 

 members of the genus, which, as is well known, give the preference 

 to trees. Pallas indeed says that it inhabits the islets and meadows 

 of Dauria" Now the eggs of this species are by no means of the 

 ordinary Bunting type. The only Bunting's egg of which I have 

 seen a figure which they at all resemble is that given by Bree of 

 the egg of the Black-headed Bunting (Euspiza melanocephala}. 

 Like the eggs of Melophus melanicterus, there is something of a 

 Pipit and Lark-like character about them. In shape they are long- 

 regular ovals, somewhat pointed towards the small end. The 

 ground-colour is a very pale greenish grey or white tinged with 

 greenish grey, and they are speckled and freckled pretty well all 

 over, but far more densely at the large end, where there is an 



