72 ALLEN'S NATURALIST'S LIBRARY. 



the lower back and rump ; wing-coverts and quills blackish- 

 brown, with rufous edges; head greenish-olive; lores yellowish; 

 eyelid white; cheeks pale sulphur-yellow, separated from the 

 throat by a distinct moustachial streak of dusky greenish-olive ; 

 under surface of body cinnamon ; throat olive-yellow, the chest 

 more ashy ; no streaks on the chest or the sides of the body ; bill 

 entirely red. Total length, 6 inches ; culmen, 0-5 ; wing, 3-35 ; 

 tail, 2'5; tarsus, 075. 



Adult Female. Similar to the male, but paler in colour, the 

 lower throat and fore-neck streaked with dark brown. Total 

 length, 5-8 inches; wing, 3-2. 



Young. Like the adult female, but yellower below, without 

 any tinge of fawn-colour ; the throat, breast, and sides of body 

 streaked with dark brown. 



Range in Great Britain. An occasional visitor, of which many 

 specimens have been taken at different times. 



Eange outside the British Islands. Generally distributed over 

 Europe, but mostly as a summer visitor. It occurs as far east 

 as Central Asia, and the Altai Mountains, and its northern 

 range reaches to the Arctic Circle in Scandinavia and to lat. 

 57 in the Ural Mountains. Its winter home is supposed to 

 be Northern and North-eastern Africa, but little is really 

 known about it, which is not a little curious, considering the 

 number of the birds which come north to breed. 



Habits. A late arrival in the north of Europe, reaching its 

 breeding haunts in the middle of May. It is not shy, accord- 

 ing to Mr. Seebohm, who says : "It frequently remains for a 

 very long time on the same twig, generally near the top of the 

 tree, especially in the evening, when its simple song harmonises 

 with the melancholy stillness of the outskirts of the country 

 village. The song begins something like that of the Yellow 

 Bunting, but ends quite differently. It may be roughly ex- 

 pressed by the words, ' tsee-ah, tsee-ah, tsee-ah, tyur-tyur? 

 Sometimes there is only one ' tyur 1 at the end. It seeks 

 most of its food on the ground, where it hops with great ease, 

 and probably picks up small seeds and insects of various kinds." 



Nest. On the ground ; formed of roots and dry grass, and 

 lined with fine roots and hair. 



