THE BIRDS OF HELIGOLAND 381 



migrations. The Reed Bunting is found as a breeding bird from 

 western Europe to Japan, and from Italy to upper Scandinavia. 

 Seebohm found its nest on the Jenesei as far as 70 N. latitude. 



181. Large-billed Reed Bunting [GIMPELAMMER]. 

 EMBERIZA PYRRHULOIDES, Pallas. 



Emberisa pyrrhuloides. Naumann, xiii. ; Blasius, Nachtrage, 184. 



Large-billed Reed Bunting. Dresser, iv. 249. 



Bruant de marais. Temminck, Manuel, iii. 220, iv. 639. 



This magnified repetition of the Reed Bunting has once been 

 captured a very fine old male in full adult plumage having 

 been caught here on the 24th of April 1879 by some boys in a net. 

 Several other birds of this species must have occurred on the 

 island that day ; for, in the first place, one of my shooters, who had 

 been on Sandy Island that day without having a gun at hand, 

 described to me very accurately 'the large light-coloured Reed 

 Bunting '; and I myself, on the afternoon of the same day, saw three 

 of these birds flying very low over my garden, one of them being a 

 very light- coloured male of this species, and the two others incon- 

 spicuous females unquestionably also belonging to it ; these birds 

 could not be discovered again. Nevertheless, the example referred 

 to above is a great ornament of the Bunting division of my 

 collection. 



The pure deep black colour of the head in this example does 

 not quite extend to the back of the head. On the other hand, the 

 pure white of the neck extends nearly to the back, and occupies 

 the sides of the upper breast, the breast, flanks, and under tail- 

 coverts, all of which parts are devoid of any kind of dark markings. 

 Of the five black stripes of the back, the three central ones are 

 separated by two narrow dull rust-grey streaks, while a very broad, 

 nearly pure white stripe extends downwards between the two outer 

 stripes on each side. The abundance of pure white in the plumage 

 of this bird, side by side with the deep black and the light ferru- 

 ginous colour of the outer wing-coverts, gives it an extremely dis- 

 tinguished appearance. 



The measurements taken from the fresh example caught here 

 are as follows : Total length, 6'50 ins. (165 mm.} ; length of wings, 

 3-23 ins. (82 mm.) ; length of tail, 2*95 ins. (75 mm.) ; length of tail 

 uncovered by wings, T85 in. (47 mm.). 



The bird has been met with as resident breeding species from 

 the mouths of the Volga and Ural rivers, at the Caspian Sea and 

 Lake Aral, eastwards as far as Yarkand. 



