176 LITTLE BUNTING. 



really belong those individuals which Doderlein said were found, 

 though rarely, in Modena in summer! Doderlein, however, affirms, 

 trusting to Benoit, that some individuals of this species have been 

 found near Palermo. This requires confirmation." 



By the kindness of M. Verreaux, of Paris, I have been favoured 

 with a series of four specimens of this bird, three marked Europe, and 

 one " ' Mer cVOchoytysk, $ ?" I have figured this last specimen, and 

 the male in breeding plumage. The other two specimens are only 

 distinguished by the less amount of russet on the throat in one, and 

 its absence in the other, which I presume represent the more or less 

 perfect winter plumage. 



The male in breeding plumage has the top of the head, cheeks, and 

 throat rich russet red, with a broad black band stretching from the 

 base of the beak over each eye to the occiput, where it joins a collar 

 of cream-colour which passes entirely round the base of the neck. 

 Upper parts of the body dark brown, mingled with light russet, so as 

 to shew a mottled appearance of those colours on the back, with the 

 broad tertials nearly brown black; primaries rich hair brown, with 

 their tips tinged with russet, and the outer web lightly edged with 

 cream-colour; secondaries same colour, edged with a band of russet 

 externally; rump greyish brown. Tail brown, the most external quill 

 nearly all white, the second having a wedge-shaped band of that colour 

 on the base of the broad inner web, the base of the wedge being at 

 the distal end of the feather. Crop and flanks cream-colour, thickly 

 covered with longitudinal marks of black brown; abdomen grey white; 

 under tail coverts cream-colour. 



Schlegel describes the beak of a blackish horn-colour, shading off 

 into yellowish upon the edges of the mandibles, and the base of the 

 lower; feet and claws slender, and of a pale yellowish horn-colour; 

 claws pointed, rather bent in, and of a pale blackish horn-colonr. 



The bird marked by M. Verreaux 9 J No. 23653, is smaller than 

 the male, but does not differ from it in plumage essentially, except in 

 the absence of russet on the throat, the more uniform greyish white, 

 and the fewer spots of the inferior parts. The colours are altogether 

 less clear. 



My figure of the egg is taken from MiddendorfF. 



The bird has been figured in Naumann's Appendix. 



END OF VOL. III. 



B. Fawcett, Engraver and Printer, Drij/ield. 



