36 BLACK-HEADED BUNTING. 



and slightly forked; the two outer feathers on each side are 

 white, with an oblique dusky brown patch at the base and 

 tip, the shafts black; the middle pair are dark brown, slightly 

 margined with rufous, the others blackish brown; upper tail 

 coverts, bluish grey streaked with blackish, the shafts being 

 of thai] colour; under tail coverts, white. Legs, toes, and 

 claws, dusky brown. 



The female is rather less in size than the male. Length, 

 five inches and a half; from the base of the bill extends a 

 brown streak, joining a patch of that colour under the neck, 

 and spreading over the breast in dusky spots. Iris, dusky 

 brown; over it is a pale yellowish or reddish grey streak, 

 which meets that on the back of the neck. Head and crown, 

 dusky reddish or yellowish brown, varied with darker brown 

 on the centre of the feathers ; there is a band of pale yellowish 

 or reddish grey round the back of the neck, which in front 

 is of the same colour, with two irregular bands of blackish 

 brown. On each side of the chin descends a streak of dark 

 brown; throat and breast, dull white, more clouded with 

 greyish brown than in the male, and streaked with dark 

 reddish brown; back, dusky, bordered with rusty brown. 

 Greater and lesser wing coverts, broadly edged with rufous; 

 tertiaries, broadly edged with rufous; upper tail coverts, pale 

 greyish brown tinged with red. Legs, toes, and claws, pale 

 brown. 



The young birds resemble the female, but with duller tints, 

 and the sides of the head of a brownish grey colour. The 

 black on the head is assumed by the young males in the 

 following spring after their first autumn, and the white ring 

 is not so conspicuous as in older birds; the bill is a bluish 

 red colour, and the legs the same; the eye as in the adult 

 bird. 



A pied variety of this species, a male, was met with in 

 the year 1850, at Longhirst, in Northumberland. It was 

 beautifully mottled with black, brown, and white, but white 

 was the predominant colour. 



