BUNTINGS. 



119 



scraps of food that are to 'be found om the floor. The 

 birds I met with in the open country, however, were 

 much wilder; in fact they seemed to be decidedly shy 

 and suspicious. This species feeds on insects and seeds 

 of various kinds, but, like our common House-Sparrow, 

 it subsists to a great .extent upon any scraps which it 

 may pick up in and about houses. The song of the male 

 bird is low, soft and twittering, as a rule, but at times 

 ^poured forth brightly and con amore, and although not 

 very varied it is distinctly pleasing. I used often to 

 stop and listen to one of these little songsters as it sait 

 perched on top of a mud wall, within a few feet of me, 

 singing and preening its feathers alternately, ii& mate 

 probably being on her nest close 'by. The call notes of 

 the male bird may be fairly rendered by the syllables 

 ' zweet, zweet-a-twee,' to which the female replies 

 '' zeeicit.' 



" The nesting season of this species, as a rule, com- 

 mences about the end of March and is continued 

 throughout the months of April and May, but in some 

 years, after a fine, dry winter, it begins .earlier. During 

 til 3 first fortnight of April I have tfound numerous nests 

 at Gafsa, some with eggs and others with young birds in 

 them, and ... I have met with fully-grown young 

 birds on the wing, in the mountains near the Oued 

 Seldja, even before the middle of April. The nest, 

 which is generally placed in a hole or crevice in a wall, 

 is small and very shallow, being com/posed of fine fibres 

 ;and dry grasses, lightly lined with horse and goat hair, 

 and occasionally with a little wool. In the Gafsa 

 mosque, above alluded to, I found several nests placed 

 in small indentures in the capitals of the columns of the 

 building. The eggs are usually three or four in number, 

 and resemble diminutive examples of those of the House- 

 Sparrow, being of a pale bluish-white colour, speckled 

 with grey and brown, the spots often forming <a zone at 

 the larger endi. The eggs vary a good deal, both in 

 size and shape, but their average measurements may be 

 given as 19 by 14 mm." 



Two specimens of this Bunting were given to the 

 London Zoological Gardens in 1892 by .the liate Lord 

 Lilford. Russ says that it has no importance for avicul- 

 ture ; I wonder why ! 



CAPE BUNTING (Fringillaria capensis). 



Above brown, broadly streaked with black excepting 

 on the rump and upper tail-coverts, the head somewhat 

 greyish and with a central grey streak ; the upper tail- 

 coverts with grey edges ; lesser and median coverts 

 chestnut, the latter with blackish centres ; greater 

 coverts blackish with chestnut outer borders ; flights 

 blackish, the primaries edged with greyish-white, the 

 secondaries with chestnut ; tail blackish, the feathers 

 edged with ashy, the outermost with whitish and with 

 ;an ill-defined pale spot near the tip of the inner web ; 

 a long, well-defined white eyebrow-streak, followed by 

 a black streak over the lores and enclosing the eye ; 

 below this is a second white streak from the gape over 

 the lower part of the ear-coverts, then a second black 

 streak over the cheeks united to the first stripe at the 

 back of the ear-coverts ; lower parts white, the hinder 

 throat, breast, and sides, ashy ; flanks with dusky 

 streaks ; thighs brown ; axillaries and under wing- 

 co verts yellowish ; flights below dusky ; upper mandible 

 dull fleshy brown, lower paler ; feet fleshy brown ; irides 

 dark brown. Female described as larger, but with 

 shorter wings and tail; it is similar to the male in 

 plumage, but with the white streaks on the face less 

 defined. Habitat, Cape Colony, ranging into the Trans- 

 vaal and Damaraland ; perhaps Angola. 



Dr. Stark (Stark and Sclater, " Birds of South 

 Africa," Vol. I., pp. 188-189) says: "The Cape Bunt- 



ing is almost invariably met with in pairs on broken, 

 rocky ground, and in Western Cape Colony is a common 

 species from the sea-level to about 5,000 ft. in the 

 mountains. Even on the barren sandy coast of Little 

 Namaqualand it is to be found wherever there is the 

 slightest outcrop of rock. The ' Streepkopje ' is an 

 extremely tame little bird, and allows a very close 

 approach as it sits, piping its simple song of ' Zizi-zizi- 

 zi,' and opening and shutting its wings, on the top of a 

 rock. It feeds on insects, small beetles, grasshoppers and 

 spiders, as well as on the seeds of various grasses and 

 weeds. The nest, rather deeply cup-shaped, is flimsily 

 constructed of dry grass and rootlets, scantily lined 

 with hair, and is usually placed in a low bush close to 

 the ground or by the side of a rock. The three or four 

 eggs, laid in September or October in the colony, are 

 pale greenish-white, thickly spotted and blotched with 

 reddish brown and yellow, frequently in a cap over 

 the larger end. They average 0.80 by 0.62. This 

 Bunting was exhibited at the London Zoological Gardens 

 as early as 1869, but Russ says it is extremely rarely 

 seen in German bird-shops or zoological gardens, and has 

 never been present in the bird-rooms of that country. 

 Of course, it would naturally be more likely to come to 

 England than to be sent to the Continent. 



The genus Melophus, which comes next in the British 

 Museum catalogue, has somewhat the aspect of a Bulbui 

 or a Grey Cardinal in general outline ; its food is said 

 to consist apparently of small seeds, but there can be 

 no doubt that it also feeds largely upon insects and 

 spiders, like the rest of the Buntings. In captivity I 

 should feed it in the same manner as the Grey Car- 

 dinals experimentally, and if I found that it refused the 

 larger seeds, I would give canary, millet, and insects, 

 with a little soft food. 



CRESTED BLACK BUNTING (Melojihtis melanicterus). 



Glossy blue-black ; tail-coverts black and cinnamon at 

 the base ; wings and tail dark cinnamon with dusky 

 tips ; beak dusky, blackish above and fleshy at base ot 

 lower mandible ; feet flesh-brown with darker toes ; the 

 claws bluish with pale tips ; irides dark brown. Female 

 smaller than male, dusky brown above ; the feathers 

 with darker centres and pale olive-brownish edges ; 

 flight and tail feathers of a duller and paler cinnamon 

 than in the male, dusky internally and on the central 

 tail-feathers ; crest less developed ; lores and 1 feathers 

 round eye whitish ; ear-coverts and sides of neck dull 

 brown ; cheeks and under-surface of body dull ashy ; 

 chin yellowish white; throat, breast, and sides of bodr 

 dull brown with black streaks ; under tail-coverts some, 

 what reddish with black centres ; axillaries dull brown ; 

 under wing-coverts and inner edges of flights reddish, 

 the latter tipped with brown ; length 6^ in. , accord- 

 ing to Sharpe (who makes the male out to be smaller). 

 Jerdon, however, states that the male measures 6 

 inches, and that the female is a little smaller; skins 

 are very deceptive things to measure from. Habitat, 

 Himalayas and plains of India westward to Sind and 

 eastward to South China, Upper Burmese provinces, 

 Karen Hills, and Tenasserim. 



Jerdon ("Birds of India," Vol. II., p. 382) says: 

 " Sykes obtained it in the Deccan, where he found it on 

 rocky and bushy mountains. I found it in similar 

 places at Mhow and Sangor, but also occasionally in 

 hedges and trees near cultivation, not far, however, 

 from hilly ground. Hodgson found it in hedgerows and 

 brushwood on the upland downs in winter ; resorting in 

 summer to the northern region, and it is said to be 

 common near Simla and Mussooree. It does not, I 

 believe, breed in the plains of India. 



" Swinhoe states that a few couple only breed in 



