MEADOW BUNTING. 155 



Salvadori ("Fauna d'ltalia") says of this bird: — "This bird is rather 

 common during the autumnal passage, and stragglers remain with us 

 till the spring. Then the greater part repass the Alps, some remaining 

 to nest on the Apennines and some on the Alps. It occurs rarely 

 in Malta, (Wright.) It is rather scarce in Sardinia, but more com- 

 mon in Sicily. It frequents the hills and the margins of groves. It 

 nests in a depression of the ground at the foot of shrubs. The 

 nest is made of moss and dry stalks externally, horse-hair and wool 

 internally. Eggs, in number four or five, are whitish, with contorted 

 black or blackish brown lines, thicker (according to Bentoni) at the 

 larger end, where they form a sort of interlaced corona." 



Count Miihle's description, in his "Grecian Ornithology," of the 

 habits and plumage of E. cia, is evidently taken from another species. 

 He himself suggests the E. fucata of Pallas, with which his description 

 to a certain extent agrees. He says the bird which he describes as E. 

 cia is "neither confiding nor stupid, but shy, and knows how to 

 escape the ambush of the hunter very skilfully. It flies up quickly, 

 and runs along the goat-paths as quickly as a Larky This certainly 

 is not the habit of the Foolish Bunting. Moreover, he remarks, "the 

 first primary is quite as long as the fifth, and much longer than the 

 sixth;" which measurements are quite different from those of E. cia, 

 as will be seen by reference to my specific diagnosis of that bird. 



Naumann concludes his account of the Meadow Bunting thus: — "The 

 Zipammer, from its confiding nature, is easily shot. They may be 

 drawn in flocks by the Yellowhammer, as a decoy, and thus be captured 

 in great numbers, so that in France they have received the name of 

 Fool. They are very good eating; they rejoice us with their song, 

 destroy pernicious insects, and do no damage." 



The adult male in its breeding plumage has the head and neck bluish 

 grey with two black bands along the sides of the vertex, and two other 

 narrower bands of the same colour, one of which passes through the 

 line of the eye, and the other forming a moustache; these lines unite in 

 the parotid region. The upper parts are bright russet, varied by 

 longitudinal black striae; rump chesnut red; the throat is white; neck 

 and chest delicate bluish grey; the rest of the under parts are russet 

 red, brighter on the sides of the chest and flanks. Wings marked 

 with two narrow whitish bands; wing coverts colour of the back; 

 primaries blackish, bordered with russet; tail black, with the middle 

 feathers bordered with russet, and the two most external marked with 

 a large white patch on the internal webs. Beak blackish above, grey 

 below; feet and iris brown. 



The female has the head, nape of the neck, and body varied with 



