BUNTINGS IN CONFINEMENT. 167 



being from six and a quarter to six and a half inches in total length. 

 The beak is reddish brown; the irides are brown; the legs, toes, and 

 claws pale brown. The head, nape, and front of the neck are grey, 

 with a stripe that passes from the beak down the neck, and a space 

 around the eye bright yellow. The back is reddish brown, marked 

 with dark streaks. The wings are dusky, with the quills edged with 

 reddish brown. The tail is also dusky, the two outer feathers having 

 on them a wedge-shaped white spot. The chin, throat, and breast are 

 yellowish green, fading into reddish buff on the under surface of the 

 body. The female is a little smaller, of a similar colour, but rather 

 duller. 



IN CONFINEMENT. 



BECHSTEFN kept a pair of Snow Buntings in his aviary for six years, 

 they were fed on the universal paste, always kept cool, and allowed 

 plenty of water to bathe in. He says, "If birds of this species are 

 confined in a cage, they must be fed on oats, millet, poppy, hemp, or 

 linseed." Probably the Lapland Bunting would thrive if treated in a 

 similar manner, but our readers are not likely to have an opportunity 

 of trying the experiment, in consequence of its extreme rarity in this 

 country. 



The Common and Black-headed Buntings are rather delicate birds, 

 but may be kept alive in confinement if fed on the ordinary paste, 

 varied with oats, and the other seeds above mentioned. They may 

 either be allowed the range of the room, or confined in a large Lark's 

 cage. 



The beautiful plumage of the Yellow Bunting renders it an attractive 

 occupant of an aviary, although its colours are not nearly so bright 

 when it is kept in confinement as when at liberty. It is by no 

 means a dainty feeder, indeed a continual change of diet is necessary 

 to keep it in health. Oats, poppy-seed, bread crumbs, soaked hemp- 

 seed, canary-seed, meat, all will suit it, and it will also eat freely 

 of caterpillars and insects of all kinds. It is, however, rather subject 

 to decline, a disease which manifests itself externally by a puffed and 

 inflated appearance of the body. Should such symptoms be observed, 

 it should be fed chiefly on crushed oats, hemp-seed, and ants' eggs, 

 and a piece of oak bark and a rusty nail should be kept in its drinking 

 water. 



