270 EMBERIZINJ5. 



THE STRIOLATED BUNTING. 



Length, 5'5 to 5 '97 ; expanse, 9 to 975 ; wing, 2'87 to 31 ; tail, 

 2-2 to 275 ; bill at front, 0'35 to 0'39. 



Bill, upper mandible brown to blackish-brown, lower waxy, 

 fleshy or dingy-yellow ; irides brown ; legs pale waxy, dingy or 

 fleshy-yellow, the feet more or less tinged brownish. 



The male has the forehead, top of the head, and nape grey- 

 ish-white, grey or white in different specimens, each feather 

 with a conspicuous linear, median, black streak ; a narrow pure 

 white superciliary stripe starting from the base of the bill and 

 extending behind the eye over the ear-coverts ; the lores, and 

 a moderately broad stripe directly behind the eye (and immedi- 

 ately under the white stripe), involving the upper portions of 

 the ear-coverts ; below this, starting from the base of the lower 

 mandible, a black stripe ; below this, from the angle of the 

 lower mandible, a greyish-white stripe, which again is divided 

 from the greyish-white of the chin by a narrow inconspicuous 

 dark streak. 



" In the fresh bird in breeding plumage, which I am describ- 

 ing, all these streaks and stripes are as clearly and sharply 

 defined as if painted ; but at other seasons, and in stuffed speci- 

 mens, they are not so clear ; the whole of the back, scapulars, 

 and tertials are hair-brown, the former two very broadly, the 

 latter more narrowly, margined with pale, more or less sandy or 

 even rufous brown ; in many specimens the darker median streaks 

 of the back feathers are reduced to mere lines, and in some the 

 rufous tinge on the upper back is well marked ; the primaries and 

 secondaries and their coverts are a mixture of hair-brown and 

 rich rufous (recalling in color the wings of Mirafra erythroptera), 

 the extent of each varying in different specimens, but the brown 

 predominating in the earlier primaries and everywhere at the 

 tips, and decreasing in extent in the hinder part of the wing and 

 towards the bases of the feathers ; the second primary, for in- 

 stance, will be all brown, except a narrow rufous edging for the 

 basal two- thirds of the outer web and a broad rufous stripe on 

 the margin of the inner web for the same distance, while one 

 of the later secondaries will be all rufous except a narrow brown 

 stripe running down the shaft till within one-third of the end 

 of the feather, whence it gradually widens so as to occupy 

 at the tip the whole of both webs; the rump and upper 

 tail-coverts are much the same as the back, but in some speci- 

 mens slightly more rufous than the lower back ; and the longest 

 of the coverts are in some specimens very narrowly tipped with 

 very pale rufous- white ; the tail is hair-brown, darker than 

 the brown portion of the quills ; all the feathers externally very 

 narrowly margined with pale-rufous, except the external feather 

 or^ each side which has the whole outer web of that color ; the 

 throat and upper breast are greyish white or grey, with more or 

 less numerous and conspicuous black median stripes on the 



