ORTOLAN BUNTING. 311 



shades into primrose yellow on the belly, gra- 

 dually paler on the vent and under tail coverts, 

 and running into yellowish brown on the flanks, 

 where it is also dashed with umber brown along 

 the shafts of the feathers. In the female all the 

 colours are somewhat similar, but the markings 

 are indistinct and less clear. 



THE ORTOLAN BUNTING, EMBERIZA HORTU- 

 LANA. Emberiza hortulana, Linn. E. Tun- 

 stalli. Lath. E. chlorocephala, Mont. Ortolan, 

 or Ortolan Bunting, of British authors. The 

 Ortolan Bunting, famed among the Epicures of 

 France, is of a very rare occurrence in Britain, 

 and can only be viewed as a mere straggler. Its 

 first notice as a native of our Fauna appears 

 under another name, that of E. chlorocephala, 

 or Green-Headed Bunting, and is thus figured by 

 Mr Brown in his Illustrations of Zoology. From 

 thence, the specimen which was used by Mr 

 Brown, has been traced by the perseverance of 

 Mr Fox to the collection of Mr Tunstal, and 

 thence to that of the Newcastle Museum, where 

 it now remains, and has been ascertained to be 

 identical with the Ortolan of Europe ; this speci- 

 men was taken by a bird-catcher near London. 

 The specimen which served for Mr Bewick's 

 figure was caught at sea, on the Yorkshire coast ; 

 another is mentioned as taken near Manchester, 

 and a fourth in 1837, near London. These, up 

 to last year, seem all the instances of its capture 



