EMBERIZA 351 



rufous-buff ; the two outer rectrices with large oblique white patches ; 

 under parts below the breast yellow ; the flanks striped with brown ; bill 

 dark brown above, horny pinkish white below ; legs brownish fleshy ; 

 iris brown. Culmen 0'44, wing 275, tail 2'15, tarsus 0'75 inch. The 

 female has the upper parts browner, and lacks the black on the face, chin, 

 and forehead ; chin, throat, and breast yellow spotted and streaked with 

 brown ; rest of the under parts as in the male but duller. 



Hob. Siberia from the Yenesei valley to the Pacific, wintering 

 in China and the Himalayas from Nepal to Assam and down to 

 Manipur ; is said to have been once met with in Japan. 



Inhabits the outskirts of the forests and has a preference for 

 the banks of rivers and damp marshy localities. Its song, 

 which is uttered from the top of a bush near the nest, is short, 

 somewhat feeble, but pleasant. It arrives at its breeding-haunts 

 late in May and at once commences nidification. The nest, 

 which is placed in a low bush, or occasionally on the ground, is 

 constructed of grass-bents and plant-stems well lined with hair, 

 and the eggs, 4 to 6 in number, much resemble some varieties 

 of Passer domesticus and are white, splashed and blotched all 

 over, in some more closely at the larger end, with brown, vary- 

 ing in shade from light nut-brown to brown with an olivaceous 

 tinge and dull rufous brown. In size they average about 

 0-72 by 0-56. 



509. JAPANESE YELLOW BUNTING. 

 EMBERIZA SULPHURATA. 



Emberiza sulplmrata, Temm. and Schlegel, Faun. Jap. Aves, p. 100, 

 pi. 60 (1850) ; David and Oust. Ois. Chine, p. 330 ; Sharpe, Cat. B. 

 Br. Mus. xii. p. 519. 



Nojiko, Jap. 



<J ad. (Japan). A narrow line across the forehead, lores, and the chin 

 black ; crown and upper parts dark olive-grey, the crown washed with 

 yellowish green, the mantle tinged with yellowish and streaked with 

 black ; wings and tail dark brown, the wing-coverts and secondaries broadly 

 margined with warm buff and dull white, the two outer tail-feathers 

 strongly marked with white oblique bands ; under parts yellow, paler on 

 the lower abdomen, the flanks striped with reddish brown; bill brown 

 above, greyish below ; legs clear brown ; iris brown. Culmen 0'4, wing 

 2'7, tail 2'25, tarsus 0'7 inch. The Ifemale is duller and browner and 

 lacks the black on the head. In the winter the male has the back washed 

 with rufous and more boldly streaked with black. 



