150 CRETZSCHMAER'S BUNTING. 



home is in Syria, Nubia, and Egypt. Temminck suggests that it 

 would probably be found more common in the south of Europe, but 

 that its similarity to E. cia causes it to be frequently mistaken for 

 that bird. Its capture near Vienna, in 1827, is also recorded by this 

 naturalist, and M. Roux states that it is found in Provence, in 

 company with E. cia. It has also been several times killed in the 

 neighbourhood of Marseilles, as recorded by Degland, and Messrs. 

 Jaubert and Barthelemy de la Pommeraye, in their "Richesses Orni- 

 thologiques." 



Count Miihle says that it is the most common Bunting in Greece. 

 "After its arrival in April, it is found in flocks among the wild and 

 rocky hills of the country, in company with S. stapazina, Surnia 

 noctua, and Turdas cyanus. It is seldom found in fields or among 

 bushes. It hops among the rocks with great agility, and its song is 

 much more refined than that of the Ortolan. This bird (the Ortolan) 

 first appears plentifully when E. ccesia has been gone some time, 

 and is never found in the same localities, preferring bushy fields." 

 Its European localities are strictly southern. 



li E. ccesia builds its nest like that of the Yellowhammer, but 

 smaller, behind blocks of stone in a sage plant, off the ground. It 

 lays four to six eggs, which are grey blue, sprinkled with liver-coloured 

 spots. It feeds its young with ground beetles and the caterpillars 

 which it finds among the flowers of the sage." 



Of this bird in Palestine Mr. Tristram remarks, (Ibis, vol. i, p. 84): 

 — "One of the most common birds of the more fertile districts of 

 Palestine. Perched on the topmost bough of a shrub or tree, it 

 continues its monotonous song through the day, and is to be seen on 

 almost every bush. In its habits and actions it is very different from 

 its Algerian congener, Emheriza saharce, which it so nearly resembles 

 in form and plumage, avoiding buildings, and not as far as I am 

 aware, perching on stones or walls. Its nest is placed near the 

 ground, in a low bush." 



As there is a considerable difference in the above two descriptions, 

 I wrote to Mr. Tristram, who obligingly forwarded me the following 

 explanation: — "I can only account for the discrepancy in the two 

 histories, by the difference in the time of year. I was only in the 

 Morea in winter, and in the north of Greece late in the spring, and 

 I did not observe E. ccesia, so far as I recollect; but neither did I 

 notice it in Palestine in the corn-fields, where we saw the Ortolan 

 consorting with the Common Bunting and the Larks, but in the hill 

 country of Judsea. It abounds in the olive-clad valleys and ravines 

 to the west of Jerusalem, and I was struck by its habit of always 



