160 RUSTIC BUNTING. 



I think it will be allowed that the above letter, from so good 

 an authority, clears up much of the confusion which has been occa- 

 sioned in the natural history of the European Buntings, by mistaking 

 slight differences of plumage for specific distinctions. 



From Dr. Schlegel, of Leyden, I have also received a long letter, 

 from which I make the following extract: — "The question of the 

 synonymes of the Asiatic Emberiza killed in Europe is a very difficult 

 one. I think it is almost inrpossible to state which species are meant 

 by BufFon, but I believe that all the Asiatic Emberizce caught in 

 Southern Europe belong either to rustica or pusilla, two species 

 breeding as you know in Northern Russia, and visiting in small 

 numbers the east of Europe. 



Emberiza fucata I believe now has never yet been observed in 

 Europe: it is a species of Eastern Siberia and Japan, and very well 

 characterized by its long Lark-like claws. I am also quite sure that 

 the female and young of E. schceniculus have often been confounded 

 with one or the other of those species, although easily distinguished 

 by its longer tail." 



The Rustic Bunting is, as has been stated in the above letter, an 

 inhabitant of Northern Russia. It is mentioned by MiddendorfF as 

 occurring in Siberia, and Temminck states that it has been observed 

 in the Crimea. It has also been taken accidentally near Marseilles, 

 one individual having been captured there alive, and kept in a cage 

 for two years, by M. Barthelemy, the curator of the museum of 

 natural history in that town. This gentleman, as quoted by M. Crespon, 

 informs us that it is in its disposition lively and gay, that its cry 

 resembles that of its congeners, 'zir-zir,' and that its song, which it 

 kept up in 1838 from April to the end of October, had some re- 

 semblance to that of the Fauvette a tete noire. Its plumage became 

 rather paler at the autumn moult. It was fed upon millet and hemp 

 seed. 



The Rustic Bunting is also said to have been taken once in that 

 fertile field for rarities, Brighton, (see "Ibis," 1869.) The details, 

 however, are not satisfactory. 



In Badeker's work I find the following notice: — "It is a north- 

 dwelling bird, which comes plentifully into Siberia, and rarely into 

 Lapland, and builds in bushes. Its nest is similar to that of the 

 Reed Bunting. It lays five eggs, which are somewhat smaller than 

 those of the Reed Bunting. The ground colour is brownish grey, 

 with violet grey spots, veined, and streaked, and clouded with chesnut 

 brown." 



Dr. Von Schrenck, in his "Vogel des Amur Landes," writes of 



