RUSTIC BUNTING. 1G1 



this bird: — "In comparing the specimens from the Amoor with the 

 many descriptions and representations which we have of the same, I have 

 nothing further to remark than that the white — or in the females and 

 young yellowish — spot on the neck is missing in Gould's representation, 

 while it is shown in that of MiddendorfF. Also in the latter, besides 

 the spots on the neck, the streaks behind the eye and throat are 

 yellowish, and the black on the crown of the head is more or less 

 edged with yellowish. This is in the spring partly rubbed off. In 

 all my specimens the white or yellowish throat is bordered on each 

 side with a more or less broken row of black spots, as stated to be 

 by Pallas and the e Fauna Japonica.' In Gould's figure, however, it 

 is wanting. In recently-shot birds the iris was in October and 

 September dark brown; the beak yellowish on the ridge, and grey 

 brown at the point; the feet flesh-coloured; claws grey. In April 

 the iris is of a yellowish brown; beak greyish yellow — on the upper 

 jaw brown; feet flesh-coloured. 



"This Bunting, which, according to Pallas, occurs in Trans-Baikal 

 in March, but in Kamtschatka not until May, arrives in the Amoor 

 Land the latter half of April. MiddendorfF has observed it in the 

 Stanowoj Mountains about the 26th. of April. I saw it at the 

 Nicolajii post on the mouth of the Amoor, in the spring of 1855, 

 for the first time on the 23rd. of April. It swarmed in the light 

 pine woods near the banks of the Amoor. In the autumn of 1854, 

 the first flocks on their passage occurred on September 28th., (October 

 9th.,) in the underwood of a light larch forest on the banks of the 

 stream. I shot, however, a single belated straggler there on the 

 12th. (24th.) October, after a heavy fall of snow." 



Salvadori ("Fauna d'ltalia") writes: — "This bird is found very 

 rarely in Italy during the autumnal migration, and it does not seem 

 that it has ever been observed lower down than Western Italy and 

 Liguria. Galvi is said to have been the first to indicate it under 

 the name of E. lesbia. Cantarini mentions a specimen taken in 

 Venetia, in October, 1846. Lanfossi records one individual taken in 

 Brianza in the autumn of 1849. Before this time it was observed in 

 Lombardy, for Malherbe asserts he saw an individual killed in 1839 

 near Milan. Various individuals have been found in Liguria by Calvi, 

 Durazzo, and De Negri. The latter had one alive, which I saw, 

 and which afterwards came into the possession of the Marquis 

 Giacomo Doria, who communicated to me the following observations 

 made by him about this species: — 'Besides the E. rustica which I had 

 from De Negri, I have observed other living specimens in Liguria. 

 Almost every year some are taken upon our hills. It does not live 



VOL. III. Y 



