376 BIRDS OF INDIA. 



In some specimens the pectoral band is more or less imperfect, 

 consisting chiefly of spots, and the sides of the abdomen are 

 streaked with brown. In the cold weather the majority of birds 

 want the mesial streaks to the feathers of the back, the black lines 

 from the gape, and the black pectoral band ; and the lower parts 

 are uniformly whitish-cinereous, tinged with rufous on the throat 

 and breast, and passing into reddish-white or fulvous posteriorly. 

 The ashy of the head and neck, too, has a fulvous tinge. The 

 female is said by Blyth to want the cinnamon-colored band, and 

 the colours to be generally duller. 



This Bunting appears to be spread sparingly through Northern 

 and Central India, in the cold weather. It has been found in 

 Bengal, near Calcutta occasionally, in some seasons occurring rather 

 plentifully ; also in Xepal, and the Dehra Dhoon ; and not uncommon 

 about Simla and AInssooree. I have seen it at Jalna in the Deccan, 

 at Mhow and Saugor, and also near Nagpore. In most of these 

 cases it was frequenting rocky and bushy hills in small parties ; 

 and I occasionally saw it in the fields, near hedges and trees. 

 Its Hindustani name, which means stone-grazer, is given from 

 being seen so much about rocks and stones ; and I see that Buch. 

 Hamilton applies the same name to another Bunting. Out of 

 India it appears to be an inhabitant of Central Asia, visiting the 

 south of Europe occasionally, and common in Greece and the 

 Crimea. Swinhoe records it as frequenting standing cornfields in 

 China. 



The next bird, the last of our true Buntings, differs somewhat from 

 the others, and has received distinct generic rank from Hodgson. 

 It has the bill very acute and perfectly conic, culmen and gonys 

 being equally straight, and there is no palatal knob. It somewhat 

 resembles Emb. sehosniclus, of Europe, the type of CyncJiramus, 

 Kaup. 



720. Emberiza pusilla, Pallas. 



Zool. Eoss. Asiat. 2, pi. 47, f. 1.— E. sordida, Hodgs., J. A. S. 

 XIII. p. 958. — Ocyris oinopus, Hodgson. — Blytii, Cat. 718 — 

 Horsp., Cat, 742. 



