EMBERIZA 371 



parts white, the flanks striped with dark brown ; bill blackish 

 brown ; legs dull brown ; iris brown. Culmen 0'4, height of bill at base 

 0*2, wing 3'3, tail 2'9, tarsus 0'8 inch. The female has the crown and 

 sides of the head reddish brown marked with blackish brown ; supercilium 

 white ; throat whitish ; the collar on the hind neck nearly obsolete and 

 the lower throat and upper breast marked with reddish brown. In 

 winter the black on the head of the male is obscured by broad reddish 

 brown margins to. the feathers and the throat-feathers with dull white 

 margins ; upper parts are also more broadly margined with ochreous 



Hal. Europe generally as far north as Lapland ; Asia as 

 far east as Kamchatka and Japan; Mongolia, Manchuria, 

 Turkestan ; wintering in N.W. India and N. Africa. 



Frequents river banks where there are large reed-beds or 

 damp marshy localities overgrown with aquatic herbage, and 

 is lively and active in its habits. Its call-note is a loud clear 

 foeheek, and its song is loud but peculiar and stammering. In 

 the summer its food consists chiefly of insects, and in the 

 winter of seeds, chiefly those of aquatic plants. Nidification 

 commences late in March or early in April, and the nest, which 

 is placed in a damp place on the ground, rarely in a low bush, 

 is constructed of grass flags and moss lined with fine grass, 

 hairs, or the feathery tops of reeds. The eggs, 4 to 6 seldom 7 

 in number, are purplish clay coloured, marked with purplish 

 brown or black spots and streaks, and average about 0'75 

 by 0-56. 



This species is subject to considerable variation, especially 

 in the form and size of the beak; so much so that intermediate 

 forms are to be found showing a full gradation from the typical 

 form to E. pyrrhuloidcs, except as regards colour, for the latter 

 is always much paler than true E. schwniclus, and I am therefore 

 only able to recognise it and E. passerina as subspecies. Dr. 

 Sharpe, on the other hand (I.e.), places the thick -billed birds in 

 a separate genus (Pyrrhulorhyncha) and makes three species of 

 them, P. pcdustris, P. pyrrhuloides'and P. pyrrhulina. 



534. SUBSP. EMBERIZA PASSERINA. 



Emberiza passerina, Pall. Eeise E.E. i. app. p. 456 (1771) ; Sharpe, 

 Cat. B. Br. Mu?. xii. p. 485 ; Tacz. F. 0. Sib. 0. p. 600 ; E. polaris, 

 Midd. Sib. Keise, ii. p. 146, Tab. xiii. figs. 1-3 (1851). 



< ad. (Siberia). Differs from E. schccniclus in being smaller, the 

 white in the plumage much purer, the upper parts without any rufous, 

 the margins to the feathers being white or creamy white ; rump and 



B B 2 



