BLACK-HEADED BUNTING. 35 



the water which the bird frequents, and occasionally in the 

 lower part of some low bush or stump, a few inches above 

 the ground; sometimes it is said to have been met with in 

 a furze or gorse bush, at a considerable distance from water; 

 and Mr. Hewitson relates that he has, though rarely, found 

 it at an elevation of two feet or more above the water, and 

 supported on a mass of fallen reeds. It is composed of grasses 

 and fragments of rushes, lined with the down of the reed, a 

 little moss, or finer grass, or hair. 



The eggs are four or five in number, of a pale purple 

 brown, greenish, or brownish, or purple white colour, streaked 

 and strongly spotted in a pleasing manner with a darker shade 

 of the same; sometimes the end is delicately marked with a 

 texture of fine lines. They are laid about the first week in 

 May, and occasionally a second brood is produced in July. 

 They are oblong, and taper at each end. 



Male; length, six inches and a quarter; bill, dusky brown 

 above, paler beneath; a white streak passes from its corner 

 backwards, meeting the white collar presently mentioned; iris, 

 dark brown; when excited, the bird raises up the feathers on 

 the head. Head on the crown and sides velvet black, bounded 

 by a collar of white, which descends to the breast; the black 

 feathers assume reddish brown tips after the autumnal moult, 

 until the following spring, and the collar becomes greyish 

 white. Neck on the back and nape, black, excepting the white 

 collar, and broadly edged with rusty brown after the autumnal 

 moult, all the colours being then obscured together; chin and 

 throat, black, ending in a point tending downwards; after the 

 autumnal moult the feathers are tipped with greyish brown 

 until the following spring; breast, dull bluish grey white, 

 darkest on the sides, where it is also streaked with brown. 

 The feathers of the back are blackish, bordered with rufous 

 brown, interspersed with grey, which latter colour prevails 

 lower down, the shafts of the feathers being blackish. 



The wings expand to the width of nine inches and three 

 quarters; greater and lesser wing coverts, dusky black, each 

 feather being broadly margined with rufous; primaries, dusky 

 black, margined with rufous; the first four quill feathers are 

 nearly equal in length, but the second is rather the longest, 

 the fifth, according to Yarrell, shorter than the first, but 

 Macgillivray says that they are equal; secondaries, dusky 

 black; tertiaries, dusky black on the inner web, reddish on 

 the outer, and margined with white. The tail is rather long 



