136 BLAOK-HEADED BUNTING. 



strengthens my opinion:— -"Mr. Robson, of Ortukeny, sends ns some 

 interesting particulars. 'Its habits (E. melanocephala) are similar to 

 those of the Common Bunting, often sitting on the top of a bnsh or 

 low tree, and pouring forth its simple notes, or flying from one 

 elevated part to another, with its legs hanging down. The nest is 

 bnilt not far from the ground, in a rose bush, vine, or bramble; 

 indeed they are often found in brambles. The gardeners who find 

 their nests in rows of peas, allow both peas and sticks to stand until 

 the young are fledged, and anxiously protect them, (kind fellows,) 

 wondering very much what Europeans intend to do with small birds' 

 eggs. They also consider it a cruelty to take the eggs from the old 

 birds. These birds depart early in the autumn, as none of them are 

 taken like other species of Buntings by bird-catchers. Professor von 

 Nordmann states that when the female takes wing she utters softly 

 tcheh: " 



It sings very agreeably, preferring to perch on some post in the 

 open country. 



It nests upon shrubs, particularly, according to Degland, on "the 

 Bariums aculeatus, and not far from the ground. It lays from four 

 to five whitish eggs, which are covered with very small spots and 

 dots of a more or less ashy grey; some specimens are of a greenish 

 white, with spots of a rust brown at the largest end." 



In a long and interesting letter, full of valuable information, which 

 I have received from Dr. Leith Adams, from Malta, I extract the 

 following remarks about the bird I am now noticing: — " Euspiza 

 melanocephala, Bonaparte, is almost the prototype of E. simillima of 

 Blythe; the latter authority fixes on the following as distinctions. 

 The closed wing of simillima is three inches and a quarter, instead 

 of four inches, and altogether it is not so large a bird. The species 

 frequents southern India, and until Mr. Blythe made the above diag- 

 nosis, Indian authors considered it identical with E. melanocephala. 

 I have seen three specimens, and could not make out any decided 

 distinctions. Might not climate account for the smaller size?" 



Deputy Surgeon-General Stewart informs me that "vast flocks of 

 this bird pay winter visits to the grain crops of the north-west pro- 

 vinces of India, the Punjab, and the Deccan. I saw a few stragglers 

 on a range of hills, four thousand feet above the sea, in the Bombay 

 Presidency, November, 1870. They were busy with some tall-standing 

 grain crop." 



Count Muhle says, "It comes (into Greece) at the end of April, 

 and I have for many years observed its arrival. On a clear bright 

 morning in spring the hedges near the coast are often covered with 



