EMBERIZA 347 



wintering on the plains of India as far east as Delhi, Nagpur, 

 and Chanda, and as far south as Belgaum. 



In habits it resembles the Corn-Bunting, frequenting fields 

 and cultivated ground, feeding on insects and seeds in the 

 summer, and grain and seeds in the winter. It call-note is a 

 soft tchdk, and its song, which is simple but sweet resembles the 

 syllables sirzirrri siriri. Its nest which is composed of dry 

 grass-bents and lined with hair, is placed on the ground, in a 

 tuft of grass, or in a low bush, and the eggs usually 5 in 

 number are deposited in May, and are delicate pale greenish 

 blue marked, chiefly at the larger end, with faint purplish 

 underlying shell-spots and light or dark brown surface-spots 

 without any of the irregular lines so characteristic of Bunting 

 eggs. In size they average about 0'87 by 0'63. 



504. RED-HEADED BUNTING. 

 EMBERIZA LUTEOLA. 



Emteriza luteola, Sparrm. Mus. Carls, fasc. iv. tab. 93 (1789) ; Dresser,, 

 ix. p. 211. pi. 680 ; Sharpe, Cat. B. Br. Mus. xii. p. 506 ; Gates, F. 

 Brit. Ind. ii. p. 262 ; E. icterica, Eversm. Add. Pall. Zoogr. Ross. 

 As. fasc. ii. p. 10 (1841) ; E. bruniceps, Brandt, Bull. Sc. Acad. 

 St. Petersb. ix. No. 195, p. 10 (1842). 



' Gandam, Hind. ; Dalchidi, Sind. : Sarik-kutchkacli, Turki ; 

 Bulle-Bulle-Goaya, Tekke. 



( ad. (Turkestan). Crown nape and hind-neck rich orange-yellow, 

 the fore-crown tinged with rufous ; back and rump deep yellow the former 

 striped with black ; rectrices and remiges brown margined with creamy 

 white ; lores, sides of head, ear-coverts, throat, and fore-part of neck chestnut- 

 red ; rest of under parts bright yellow ; bill bluish grey, dusky at the tip 

 above ; legs fleshy brown ; iris brown. Culmen 0'6, wing 3*45, tail 2'85 r 

 tarsus '85 inch. In the winter the bright colours are obscured by ashy 

 margins to the feathers, and the under parts are washed with ashy grey. The 

 female has the upper parts ashy brown, the crown and back streaked with 

 dark brown, the rump washed with olive-yellow ; under parts sandy grey- 

 washed with yellow, more richly on the abdomen ; under tail-coverts pale 

 yellow. 



Hob. Transcaspia, Turkestan, and Afghanistan, ranging north 

 to Siberia, and south to the Persian Gulf; has twice been 

 obtained on Heligoland ; in winter it is found on the plains of 

 India from the foot of the Himalayas to the Nilgiris and from 

 Sind to Chutia Nagpur. 



