166 WILLOW BUNTING. 



Dr. Meves says lie found this Bunting near Wotnesenskio, on trie 

 south-west of Lake Onega, far west of where it has hitherto been 

 recorded as a habitat. A few pairs frequented a swamp overgrown 

 with willows, Iris germanica, etc. Its song, loud and pleasing, re- 

 minded him of that of the Ortolan and Heed Bunting. Dr. Meves 

 found it in several other localities, but always in swampy places 

 overgrown with willows and birches. He found a nest July 17th., 

 containing four half-grown young. It was placed on the ground near 

 some small bushes, was neatly constructed of grass stems, which in 

 the interior were somewhat finer, and was lined with a few horse- 

 hairs. It measured in diameter outside two inches and three quarters, 

 inside two inches. The young, which could not fly, tried to hide 

 in the grass, while the parent birds flew about uttering their anxious 

 call-note — l zitt, zitt.'' I am happy to say that Herr Meves did in the 

 journey get the eggs of the Willow Bunting, one of which is in my 

 collection, and figured in this edition. The eggs differ a good deal, 

 both in ground-colour and in markings. 



Salvadori ("Fauna d'ltalia") writes: — "Accidental in Italy. One 

 individual, taken alive in Liguria, was kept alive in a cage for two 

 years by Segnor de Negri, and afterwards made part of his collection, 

 now in the Civic Museum in Geneva. Before this another had been 

 taken by Lanfossi, near Brescia, (see Acts of the Eighth Reunion of 

 Scientific Italians held in Geneva, 1846, p. 490.) Also at the same 

 meeting Verany exhibited a drawing of two birds, $ and $ , the 

 former not quite adult, under the name of E. selysii, which were 

 specimens of E. aureola, taken in Nizzardo." 



Radde says of this bird: — "Of this beautifully-marked Bunting 

 there are now before us males and females of different ages, which, 

 while agreeing in most respects with Gould's excellent figure, show 

 also the deviations to which Middendorff directs attention. The old 

 males from the Amoorland have an equally full, broad, even at times 

 rather dark neck-band of rusty brown, as Gould figures it, whilst in 

 the young males it is only narrow, and consists of a row of more or 

 less broken drop-shaped spots. At the same time, in the latter also 

 the rusty colour of the upper part of the side, and the black in the 

 circle round the face is less clear and dark than in old specimens. 

 The females vary one from another by more or less rust-colour on 

 the rump, and while this colour in most is intense, as in Gould's 

 representation, in others it almost entirely disappears, and is replaced 

 by a brownish grey. In one of these the neck also has a cross band, 

 dotted with several rusty-brown spots. The head has, in most of my 

 examples, the same markings as those described by Middendorff, 



