344 LOXIAEMBERIZA 



Bruant-Proyer, French ; Triguerao, Portug. ; Triguero, Span. ; 

 Strillozo, Ital. ; Grauammer, German ; Grauive Gors, Dutch ; 

 Jfornlcerke, Dan. ; Kornsparf, Swed. ; Prosyanka, Russ. 



< ad. (England). Upper parts and sides of the head greyish brown 

 striped with blackish brown, the rump and upper tail-coverts only 

 obscurely thus marked, under parts white, the throat, breast, and flanks 

 striped with blackish ; quills and rectrices dark brown with pale bufiy 

 white or pale rufous buff margins ; . median coverts with dull white tips ; 

 bill horn with a rufous tinge, the under mandible yellow ; legs pale 

 fleshy brown ; iris dark brown. Cnlmeii 0'52, wing 3'9, tail 3'1, tarsus 

 I'O inch. The female resembles the male but is smaller, and the young 

 birds also, but they are more ochraceous in colour. 



Hal. Europe generally, from southern Norway and Sweden 

 to the Mediterranean, east to the Ural; Canaries; N. Africa in 

 winter ; Asia as far east as Turkestan, and is said to have once 

 occurred in Sind. 



Frequents arable fields and less often meadows where trees 

 and bushes are scattered about, and is often seen on the ground. 

 During the breeding-season it lives in scattered pairs, but in 

 the autumn collects in flocks and in company with Sparrows 

 and Yellow Buntings visits stubble-fields, stackyards, and farm- 

 buildings in search of food. In the summer it feeds chiefly on 

 insects, the young being fed on these only, but in the autumn 

 and winter on grain and seeds of various weeds. Both on the 

 ground and on the wing it is a heavy, somewhat clumsy bird. 

 Its call-note in the pairing season is a soft zik, zik, and its song, 

 which is uttered from the top of a tree, bush, or stake, is not 

 so loud as that of JE. citrinella, and resembles the syllables zick, 

 zick, zick, ter ill, ill, ill, ill. Its nest, which is placed on or near 

 the ground, is constructed of grass, moss, and a lew twigs, usually 

 lined with a few hairs, and the eggs, 5 to 6 in number, are 

 usually deposited rather late in the season, and are dull white 

 or ochreous white blotched and streaked with purplish brown, 

 and are subject to considerable variation. In size they average 

 about 0-95 by 0'68. 



This bird roosts on the ground, and is consequently often 

 netted with Larks. 



501. STRIPED BUNTING. 

 EMBERIZA STRIOLATA. 



Emberiza striolata (Licht.), Verz. Doubl. p. 24 (1823) ; Dresser, iv. 

 p. 197, pi. 213 ; (Sharpe), Cat, B. Br. Mus. xii. p. 561 ; Gates, F. 

 Brit. Ind. Birds, ii. p. 264. 



