118 



FOREIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. 



STRIOLATED ROCK-BUNTING (Fringillaria striolata). 



Roughly speaking this bird may ! be described as 

 generally blackish with broad sandy or chestnut borders 

 to the feathers, the lower back and rump showing very 

 little and the lesser wing-coverts no blackish centres; 

 the prevalent colour therefore is of a sandy or cinnamon 

 hue ; the crown is very distinctly streaked ; the sides 

 of the head are very similar in colouring to those of 

 F. tahapisi, but the white stripes are a little more 

 ashy ; throat ashy white, becoming greyer on fore-neck 

 and chest with broad black bases to the feathers; 

 breast, thighs, and under tail- coverts sandy buff ; flights 

 below brown, with broad cinnamon inner borders ; up/per 

 mandible brown, lower yellow; feet horn yellow; irides 

 hazel. Habitat, N.E. Africa eastward over Southern 

 Asia from Palestine to India. 



Von Heuglin, speaking of this species as observed by 

 him in. Nubia, tell s us that he found it frequenting stony 

 desert country interspersed with bushes and. grass. 

 " They were shy, and preferred hiding amongst stones 

 to taking wing ; they had the moderate Bunting-like 

 note, not loud but lively." (Cf, Shelley, " Birds of 

 Africa," Vol. III., p. 162.) 



Hume (" Xests and Eggs of Indian Birds," 2nd ed., 

 Vol. II., pp. 170-173) gives a very full account of the 

 nidification of the species, from which I quote the 

 following : " The iStriolated Bunting is a permanent 

 resident of, and breeds in, all the bare stony hills of 

 Rajpootana and Northern and Western Punjab. It is 

 found, but rarely, in the hills dividing Sindh. and 

 Khelat, and very likely breeds there also. 



" I myself have only taken the eggs near Ajirnere, on 

 the slopes of ithe Aravalli ; and I can add nothing to 

 my .account of their nidification written on the spot, 

 which has been already published and which I reproduce 

 here : 



" The breeding-season appears to be November and 

 December. The natives say that they also lay early in 

 July, at the- commencement of the rains ; but as to 

 that I can say nothing. The very first birds that I shot 

 on the 2nd November, the day after I arrived here, 

 proved on dissection to be breeding ; and out of the 

 o\iduot of a female shot on the 3rd I took a nearly 

 perfect, though colourless, egg. For several days we 

 hun'ted without success, finding many nests that I 

 believed to belong to this species, and seeing everywhere 

 females about, straws in mouth, but meeting with no 

 eggs. At last, on the 12th November, I myself 

 accidentally stumbled upon two nests. I was walking 

 slowly and {if it must be confessed) footsore and some- 

 what despondent amongst the loose blocks and rocky 

 shingles of the southern flanks of the Taragurh Hill, 

 when a female suddenly sprang up and darted off from 

 within two inches of my foot. I looked down, and there, 

 on the sloping hillside, half-overhung by a moderate- 

 sized block of greyish quartz, was a little nest from 

 which the bird had risen, and which I had been within 

 an ace of stepping on. Close at hand were two or three 

 ?mall tufts of yellow withered grass, but these were 

 several inches distant from the nest. This latter (which, 

 laid on the hillside, was some 3 or 4 inches thick on the 

 valley side and ba^rely three-fourths of an inch towards 

 the hill) was composed at the base and everywhere exter- 

 nally of small thorny acacia twigs and very coarse roots 

 of grass. This, however, was a mere foundation and 

 casing, on and in which the true nest was contracted 

 of fine grass-stems somewliat loosely put together, the 

 bottom being lined with soft white feathers. The egg- 

 cavity was circular and cupshaped, about 2.25 in dia- 

 meter and 1.25 in depth, and contained two tiny yellow- 



gaped, dusky bluish, fluffy chicks apparently just 

 hatched, and one (as it proved) rotten egg. 



" Scarcely twenty yards further, on a slightly sloping 

 slab of stone, partly overhung by a huge block, between 

 two tufts of dry grass springing from the line of junction 

 of the slab and' block, I found a second precisely similar 

 nest, containing two fresh eggs, round winch both 

 parents flitted closely all the time I was occupied in 

 examining and securing the eggs and nest, exhibiting 

 no apparent sign of fear. 



" The three eggs thus obtained were regular, 

 moderately broad ovals, slightly compressed towards one 

 end, but somewhat obtuse at both. The shells were very 

 delicate, and had a slight gloss. The ground-colour 

 differed somewhat in all three ; in one it was pale green- 

 ish ; in another .pale bluish, and in, the third faintly 

 brownish-white. All were spotted, speckled, and minutely 

 but not very densely freckled with brown ; a sort of red- 

 dish olive brown in two, rather moreof amber in the third. 

 In two of the eggs the markings were far more numerous 

 towards the large end, where in one they were partially 

 confluent; on the third they were pretty evenly dis- 

 tributed over the whole siuiace, being, however, rather 

 denser in a broad irregular zone round the middle of the 



egg- 



" Judging from my present experience, I should say 

 that three was the full number of eggs usually laid." 



Three sipecimens of this Bunting were deposited in the 

 London Zoological Society's Gardens in July, 1884, but 

 Dr. Russ seems not to have been aware of this fact and 

 therefore states that it has no interest for avioulturista. 

 On the contrary a common and pretty Bunting with so 

 wide a range in both Africa and Asia is one which no 

 aviculturist 'can. afford to ignore ; having been imported 

 at least once it is likely to come again. 



SAHARA OR HOUSE-BUNTING (Fringillaria saJiarce}. 



Above back and rump dull cinnamon, slightly striped 

 on the back with dark brown ; lesser wing-coverts bright 

 cinnamon ; rest of wing and tail-feathers dark brown 

 bordered with cinnamon ; head, nape, throat, and upper 

 breast blue-grey striped with black, most distinctly on 

 the crown ; remainder of under surface pale cinnamon ', 

 upper mandible brown, lower yellow; feet pale 

 yellowish-brown ; irides blackish-brown-. Female with 

 the head and nape pale siamdy brown and the rest of the 

 plumage duller than in the male. Habitat. Southern 

 Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco. 



J. L. S. Whitaker (" Birds of Tunisia," Vol. I., pp. 

 230-231) observes : " In the fine Mosque of Sidi-Yacoub 

 at Gafsa, to which I have always obtained access with- 

 out difficulty. I found F. saharce particularly abundant, 

 and took several nests of the species there ; I also shot 

 one or two specimens of the birds with an air-gun in the 

 mosque courtyard, a proceeding which apparently in no 

 way offended the religious feelings of my Arab guide, 

 who took part in the proceedings with the greatest 

 keenness. I confess to having felt a certain degree of 

 compunction when shooting these little birds, for they 

 are so extremely confiding and unsuspicious, and I 

 abstained from, securing more specimens than were 

 necessary for my collection. I was glad to find that the 

 Arabs of G-afsa and elsewhere do not trap this species, as 

 they do so many others, and they probably look upon 

 the bird with feelings of respect, although not consider- 

 ing it absolutely sacred. In some parts of Tunisia this 

 species, indeed, goes by the name of the Marabout. 



" In it he towns and villages where it occurs the House- 

 Bunting seems to be absolutely devoid of fear, and will 

 enter the open doorway of a house with the utmost self- 

 assurance and pick up any crumbs of bread or other 



