Ortolan-Bunting. INSESSORES. EMBERIZA. 295 



the Green-headed Bunting of Bewick (figured in the later 

 editions of his work, from a bird caught at sea upon the 

 Yorkshire coast in May 1822, now in the Museum of the 

 Natural History Society, at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and con- 

 sidered by him to be the same as Emb. Tunstalli, and the 

 Green-headed Bunting of Latham and Brown) is identi- 

 cal with the true Ember. Hortulana ; I feel perfectly con- 

 vincedj not only from the correct description he has given, 

 answering in every particular to a bird of this species now 

 before me, but from an examination of his very specimen. 

 The figure I am enabled to give upon the supplementary 

 Plate C, is taken from a British-killed bird, a fine male, in 

 the valuable collection of Mr Yarkell, which he kindly 

 lent me for this purpose. The present bird is closely allied 

 to the Yellow and the Cirl Buntings, and, by a common ob- 

 server, might possibly be mistaken for a female of the first 

 named species. It is a native of the central and southern 

 provinces of Europe, but is found occasionally as far to the 

 northward as Sweden and Holland, from which latter coun- 

 try it is probable our occasional visitors find their way. In 

 Italy, where it is very common, and in parts of France, it is 

 highly esteemed for its fatness and the flavour of its flesli. Nest, &c. 

 It breeds in thickets, corn-fields, low hedges, &c., and lays 

 four or five eggs of a greyish-white, tinged with a pinkish 

 black, and marked with streaks or veins of brown. — It feeds Food. 

 on millet and other grain, and in summer (previous to the 

 ripening of the grassy seeds) on insects and larvae, on which 

 the young are also principally reared. According to Tem- 

 MiKCK this species is subject to great variations of plumage, 

 specimens being occasionally met with entirely white ; others 

 with a great admixture of that colour ; and some again of an 

 uniform blackish-brown, which he attributed to their feeding 

 upon hemp-seed, a diet known to have the same effect upon 

 Bullfinches, and othei- Frin^illida:, when kept in a state of 

 confinement. 



