15?) 



Adult Female in winter-plumage. Similar to the summer dress, but much more obscure, having dull ash- 

 coloured edgings to all the feathers. 



Young Female. Similar to the old female, but much browner, and more resembling a hen Sparrow. The 

 edges to the wings are much paler and more fulvous, and the central streaks to the feathers of the 

 upper surface are much more distinct. The breast and flanks are brownish, the throat and abdomen 

 white, and only the under tail-coverts yellowish. On one specimen now before us there is a slight 

 tinge of yellow on the abdomen ; and another has a few little brown streaks on the upper breast ; the 

 bill is yellowish, inclining to brown on the ridge of the upper mandible. 



Nestling. Pale fulvous, inclining to fawn-colour on the top and sides of the head and edgings to the wing- 

 feathers. The crown is striped and the back spotted with dark brown centres to the feathers ; the rest 

 of the plumage as in the foregoing description. 



This beautiful species of Bunting is a native of South-eastern Europe, and visits the countries on 

 the northern shores of the Mediterranean, though it has not yet been known to occur as far to 

 the westward as Spain. Indeed it is only a rare visitor to the west of Greece, but sometimes 

 extends into Southern Austria and even South-eastern France. 



Gatke mentions its occurrence in Heligoland once ; and more recently it has been included 

 in the British list on the strength of a single female example killed at Brighton in November 

 1868; Mr. Gould sent the following note on its capture to 'The Ibis' for that year (p. 128): — 

 " I have now to inform you of the occurrence of E. melanocejjhala, of which a very fine old 

 female specimen, in perfect plumage, is now before me. It was brought to me by Mr. Robert 

 Brazener, of 23 Lewes Road, Brighton, by whom it was shot near Mr. Ballard's windmill, on 

 Brighton racecourse, while, as he stated, ' it was following a flock of Yellow Hammers.' His two 

 sons were with him at the time. On an examination of the bird, a number of eggs were found 

 in the ovarium." It is, to say the least, a curious fact that this bird, like the Yorkshire Lesser 

 Kestrel and other rare species, should have seized upon the winter as a fit and proper time to 

 visit the shores of England, instead of following their usual line of migration to India or Africa : 

 the solitary individual of the present species appears also to have mistaken the proper season for 

 breeding, and to have come to Britain for that express purpose. We are not surprised to hear 

 that no male bird considered it his duty to follow the course of this erratic individual in her 

 peregrinations, which thus compelled her to consort with Yellow Buntings. 



Its occurrences in France are confined to the south-eastern portion. Baron von Midler 

 notices an example in full breeding-plumage as having been procured in the Camargue, where, 

 however, he says it is rare. MM. Jaubert and Barthelemy-Lapommeraye state : — " We have 

 verified six or seven instances of its capture near Marseilles, all of which took place in April or 

 May, excepting one young male procured in the autumn by M. Bossomer." According to 

 Naumann it occurs near Trieste, and occasionally in Upper Italy and Southern Germany, 

 several having been killed near Vienna. Dr. A. Fritsch records a specimen from the Vindler 

 Thai, in Southern Austria, and says it has once occurred in Bohemia. Count Salvadori gives 

 a very good account of the species in Italy. He says that it occurs nearly every year in Liguria ; 

 and we have ourselves seen a specimen from the neighbourhood of Genoa in Mr. Basil Brooke's 

 collection. It is by no means so rare in Venetia, and has been said to breed in this province. 



