EMBERIZA 355 



it is wary and unobtrusive. Its call-note resembles the 

 syallables zi-zi-zarr-zirr, and its song resembles that of E. 

 citrinella but is less melodious and lacks the final strophe. Its 

 nest is placed in a furze- or other bush, or occasionally on a 

 bank, and is constructed of grass-bents, rootlets, and moss, lined 

 with rootlets and hair. Two broods are raised in the season, 

 the first clutch of eggs being deposited in May and the second 

 in July. These, 4 or 5 seldom 6 in number, are pale greyish 

 white with a faint blue tinge marked with pale indigo brown 

 and blackish brown stripes and hair-lines, and in size average 

 about 0*89 by 0'66. The female and young of this species are 

 distinguishable from those of E. citrinella, in having olive-green 

 lesser wing-coverts. 



513. YELLOW-THROATED BUNTING. 

 EMBERIZA ELEGANS. 



Emberiza elegans, Temm. PI. col. iii. pi. 583 (1835) ; id. et Schlegel, 

 Faun. Jap. Aves, p. 93, pi. 55 ; (Gould), B. of As. v. pi. 12 ; Kadde, 

 Reis. Sud. Ost. Sib. Vog. p. 165, pi. 5 ; David and Oust. Ois! 

 Chine, p. 322 ; Sharpe, Cat. B. Br. Mus. xii. p. 497 j Tacz. F. 0. 

 Sib. 0. p. 568 ; Seebohm, B. Jap. Emp. p. 137. 



Hoang-m&y, Chinese. 



<J ad. (Japan). Crown, lores, sides of the head, chin, and a large patch 

 on the upper breast deep black ; a narrow white line over the forehead 

 and above the lores, widening into a broad yellow supercilium continued 

 and meeting on the hind- crown ; hind-neck greyish ; back and wing- 

 coverts chestnut-brown, streaked with black and margined with sandy 

 white or buff ; rump, middle rectrices, and upper tail-coverts ashy grey, 

 the rump. with obsolete brown markings; quills dark brown, with buff 

 external margins ; tail-feathers, the central excepted, blackish brown, the 

 two outer chiefly white ; throat yellow ; under parts below the black, 

 white, the flanks striped with chestnut-red ; bill blackish horn ; legs flesh 

 colour ; iris dark brown. Culmen 0*45, wing 2'9, tail 2'65, tarsus 0'75 inch. 

 The female lacks the yellow on the head and throat, the black is hidden, 

 being only at the base of the feathers, and the upper parts are brown. 



Hob. E. Siberia; Manchuria; Japan, where it is probably 

 resident ; wintering in China as far west as Moupin. 



Frequents the outskirts of the forests, and is said to be by no 

 means shy. Its call-note is said by Radde to resemble that of 

 other Buntings, and its song is rich and melodious, it being 

 described as the best songster of the Buntings. It breeds in 

 Siberia, the nest being placed on the ground amongst bushes, 

 and constructed of grass, rootlets, and plant-stems lined with 



A A 2 



