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We translate the following excellent notes from Lindermayer's most useful work on the 

 birds of Greece: — "This Bunting arrives always in the last five days of April in Greece, and 

 like other migrants appears everywhere at once, so that the flats near the sea, which are covered 

 with vines and other creepers, and in places where the olive-trees are scattered about, are alive 

 with this lovely and melodious bird. It is peculiarly partial to vineyards, where it builds on the 

 vines, pomegranates, thorns, or almond-trees. Its nest is always formed of dried straws, is 

 carefully made, and lined with horse-hair. Five eggs are the usual complement ; and these are 

 pale sea-green, covered with scattered dark brown spots, though sometimes quite unspotted. 



" I have received hundreds of nests, and often found them myself, as they are not difficult 

 to discover, the bird not being at all shy, and only leaving the nest when approached within a 

 distance of about a metre. I have often known the female to lay afresh after her eggs have been 

 removed. During the breeding-season the male bird sits near the nest, on a branch or a tree- 

 top, and continually serenades his mate with his sweet song. If scared away, even by a shot, it 

 retreats to the next tree and continues its song. I cannot at all indorse Von der Miihle's 

 statement that he only saw few females. I have observed this Bunting, amongst the many 

 summer visitants who breed in Greece, as far as Arachava and Delphi, on the central heights 

 of the Parnassus at the end of May, and infer that they breed there. Like all birds that breed 

 here in Greece it is very quick in its breeding-functions : a few days after their arrival they pair 

 and begin to build ; and the first egg is laid about ten days after their arrival. This bird leaves 

 us early, about the middle of August." 



In his notes on the ornithology of Palestine, Canon Tristram writes : — " Its note is varied 

 and powerful, more like a Linnet's than a Bunting's ; and it resorts both to scrub, forest, and 

 cultivated ground, affecting particularly olive-yards, and in the north apricot-orchards, where it 

 sits pouring fourth its varied song from the topmost twig of some tall tree. The nest is placed 

 either on the ground in a tuft or in a low bush, sometimes in the clump at the root of a shrub. 

 The nest is more compact than that of most Buntings, lined with fibres of roots and hah- ; and 

 the eggs, often six in number, are of a pale blue, powdered all over their surface, sometimes 

 thickly, sometimes sparsely, with brown spots. It is strange to find Brehm quoted as stating its 

 egg to be like those of other Buntings. We may observe that its American congener, Euspiza 

 americana, lays a plain blue egg. Every thing I have observed in JE. melanocephala disposes me 

 to believe that Bonaparte is right in removing Euspiza from the Buntings, and classing it with 

 the subfamily Spizinse." 



Mr. Robson, of Ortakeuy, sends us some interesting particulars : — " Its habits are similar to 

 those of the Common Bunting, often sitting on the top of a bush or low tree, and pouring forth 

 its simple notes, or flying from one elevated part to another with its legs hanging down. The 

 nest is built not far from the ground, in a rose-bush, vine, or bramble ; indeed they are often 

 found in brambles. The gardeners who find their nests in the rows of peas, allow both peas and 

 sticks to stand until the young are fledged, and anxiously protect them, wondering very much 

 what Europeans intend to do with small birds' eggs. They also consider it a cruelty to take the 

 eggs from the old birds. These birds depart early in the autumn, as none of them are taken, 

 like many other species of Bunting, by bird-catchers." Professor von Nordmann states that when 

 the female takes wing she utters softly " tcheh." 



