354 EMBERIZA 



twigs, lined with fine rootlets and hair. The eggs, which are 

 deposited in May, June, or July, are usually 4 to 6 in number, 

 dull white, sometimes with a russet tinge, covered with long 

 hair-like streaks which have the appearance of having been 

 drawn with a pen, and spotted and blurred with reddish purple, 

 and measure about 0'86 by 0'64. Two broods are reared in 

 the season. 



Specimens have been obtained in the Ural, and on the 

 Yenesei river, which have the throat chestnut as in E. leuco- 

 cephala, (cf. Ibis 1901, p. 453, pi. x) but whether they form only 

 a variety or more I am as yet unable to say. 



512. CTRL BUNTING. 

 EMBERIZA CIRLUS. 



Emberiza cirlus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 311 (1766) ; Naum. iv. p. 251, 

 Taf. 102, figs. 3, 4 ; Hewitson, p. 190 pi. xlviii. fig. 2 (egg) ; Gould, 

 B. of E. iii. pi. 175 ; id. B. of Gt. Brit. iii. pi. 23 ; Newton, ii. 

 p. 50 ; Dresser, iv. p. 177, pi. 210 ; Sharpe, Cat. B. Br. Mus. xii. 

 p. 525 ; Saunders, p. 211 ; Lilford, iv. p. 28, pi. 15. 



Bruant zizi, French ; Sia, Sicia, Portug ; Chilla, Span. ; Zigolo 

 nero, Ital ; Zaunammer, German ; Ogorodnaya-ovsyanlca, Russ. 



<$ ad. (Spain). Crown, nape, and sides of neck olive-green, striped 

 with black ; mantle dark bay, striped with black ; lower back, rump, and 

 upper tail-coverts greenish grey, the last tinged with rufous ; wings and 

 tail, much as in E. citrinella, but the lesser wing-coverts olive-green ; 

 lores, ear-coverts, cheeks, and upper throat black ; supercilium, cheek- 

 patch, and a band across the lower throat lemon-yellow, fore-part of breast 

 yellowish olive ; sides of breast bay ; flanks greyish brown, indistinctly 

 striped ; rest of under parts lemon-yellow ; bill dark ashy brown ; legs 

 yellowish ; iris brown. CulmenO'4, wing3'15, tail 2-8, tarsus 0*7 inch. The 

 female lacks all black and yellow on the head, has only a sulphur super- 

 cilium, the chin and throat are tinged with yellow, and both upper and 

 under parts are dark, streaked, the former on a brownish, and the latter 

 on a yellowish buff ground. 



Hob. Central and southern Europe ; southern England, of 

 doubtful occurrence in Scotland ; once obtained in Ireland ; 

 south to Algeria, east to Asia Minor, Turkey, and south Russia ; 

 resident except in the northern portions of its range but 

 winters in the south of England. 



In its general habits it resembles E. citrinella and like that 

 species frequents meadows and cultivated ground, in the winter 

 ranging about the fields in search of food. Though not shy 



