178 THE BUNTINGS 



For of all our buntings (if we may presume to call him so), 

 Calcarius displays his rich, if not quite gaudy livery, in the most 

 set and elaborate manner, and, more than this, he also offers a 

 crowning example of the combination of vocal and artistic allurement, 

 with which, as from a double battery, he charms, or seeks to charm, 

 the object of his choice. For, with a loud, joyous warble, he advances 

 towards her, in a curiously upright attitude, by which his glossy black 

 throat, to its fullest extent, as well as his whole under surface of 

 snow, lightly speckled with jetty flakes, are presented in one telling 

 coup d'ceil. Should the female be inclined to accept of his homage, 

 she crouches before him, whereupon, stooping to conquer, he touches 

 her bill with his. As he does so, his black crown, white eye-stripes, 

 with perhaps just a soupqon of his chestnut collar, flash in her eyes 

 she looks up dazzled, quivering, and snapping her bill in fierce 

 excitement. Then the male, who has, all this time, been singing, 

 starts up, leaps into the air, and flying to a spray of the nearest 

 willow or sallow bush for it is in such damp situations that the 

 courtship is ordinarily carried on utters his call-notes in clear, 

 jubilant tones. Immediately afterwards he flies down again, and now 

 begins the dance or " waltz " proper, to which all this, complete as it 

 may seem in itself, has been but the preliminary. Standing bolt 

 upright, as on the first occasion, the male once more bursts into song, 

 and, for the first time, spreads his wings. But did ever bird spread 

 them in so bizarre a fashion ? Both are pointed downwards, almost 

 touching the ground, but whilst the left is advanced, like a shield, 

 across the breast, the right is turned entirely backwards, as one might 

 think, for the sheer sake of contrast. In this striking attitude he 

 vibrates the wings thus oddly disposed, and, still singing loudly, 

 marches, for the second time, up to the female, who, as before, 

 crouches down, with her head turned towards him. He does not, 

 however, advance in a straight line, but obliquely, from right to 

 left, 1 so that the bright rufous feathers of the nape, and, to some 



1 See Von Homeyer in Ornithologische Monatsbei~ichte, vol. v. pp. 2, 3. 



