

BLACK-HEADED BUNTING. 167 



Its song is very characteristic of the geuus, and, though more musical and 

 less monotonous than that of the Yellow Hammer, is always the same, 

 very short, consisting of only two or three slight variations of a not very 

 loud nor yet very melodious note, rapidly repeated, with a slight pause in 

 the middle. The ordinary call-note is a loud chit chit, and the call -note 

 of one sex to the other a more plaintive and longer-continued twe-a. In 

 autumn the Black-headed Bunting makes some havoc in the corn-fields ; 

 hut in summer it is said to vary its seed-diet with grasshoppers and fruit : 

 its depredations do not last long, for Dr. Kriiper states that many leave for 

 their winter-quarters before July is over, and by the middle of August they 

 have nearly all disappeared. 



The nest of the Black-headed Bunting is seldom placed at any great 

 height above the ground ; it is very frequently in a small bush, but the 

 favourite situation is amongst trailing plants such as clematis, briars, and 

 vines. In the gardens near Constantinople it is built principally amongst 

 the rows of peas or beans. Canon Tristram states that he has frequently 

 found it on the ground. It is rather a bulky structure, and though neatly 

 finished inside, has a somewhat loose and ragged appearance outside. The 

 foundation is made of dry grass, thistle-leaves, and other coarse material ; 

 but the main portion of the nest is constructed entirely of the yellow dry 

 stalks of various small flowering plants, the seed-capsules on which are 

 the most prominent object, and conjoined with the stiffness of the stalks, 

 which prevents them from bending easily, gives the nest a very slender 

 and unfinished look. The lining is of entirely different materials, brown 

 instead of yellow, and consists of dry grass, roots, and slender stalks 

 without any seed-capsules, with not unfrequently a final addition of goat's 

 hair or a few horse-hairs. The inside diameter is 2f inches, with a depth 

 of 2 inches. 



The eggs of this bird are usually four in number, not unfrequently five ; 

 but on the island of Corfu it is said to lay as many as six. Few eggs vary 

 so much in size or shape : a typical egg measures '85 by '7 inch, an un- 

 usually long and narrow egg is I'O by '6 inch, and an unusually small egg is 

 84 by '6 inch. There is scarcely any difference in the ground-colour, 

 Avhich only varies from pale greenish blue to very pale greenish blue ; the 

 overlying spots are brown, and the underlying spots are grey. On some 

 eggs all the spots are small, on others they are all large; but more 

 generally both large and small spots are found on the same egg. They 

 are generally most thickly distributed on the large end, sometimes con- 

 fluent, but occasionally are evenly distributed over the entire surface. 

 The fact that these eggs are so different from those of any other European 

 Bunting has induced some field-ornithologists to acquiesce in the removal 

 of this bird and its Asiatic ally, E. luteola, whose eggs are very similar, to 

 the genus Euspiza, a heterogeneous group of birds possessing no characters 



