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from E. saharce ; from this latter bird it may always be recognized by its striped back, this being 

 uniform in its ally. 



In North-eastern Africa it was originally discovered, and was figured by Cretzschmar from 

 examples procured by Buppell during the winter months in the neighbourhood of Ambukol and 

 Schendi, where it frequented low brushwood in sandy steppes. Dr. von Heuglin gives the 

 following note in his new work the 'Birds of North-eastern Africa': — "Resident in Central 

 and Southern Nubia, Kordofan, at Atbara, and in the mountains of the Hadendoa and Bischarin 

 Arabs, northwards as high as 20° N. lat. ; lives generally in families on the steppes where stony 

 and rocky places are covered with bushes and grass, on the cliffs by the rapids of the Nile, and 

 on desert sandy places ; is shy and cautious, and hides behind stones rather than take to wing. 

 The note is Bunting-like, but not loud, and lively." 



Canon Tristram, in his paper on the Ornithology of Palestine, says, "The lovely little 

 Emberiza striolata confines itself throughout the year to the nooks by the Dead Sea and to the 

 southward, where its hitherto unknown egg remains to be discovered by some future adventurous 

 collector." It has likewise occurred to that indefatigable naturalist Mr. T. Robson, who has met 

 with it near Constantinople ; he tells us, however, that it is only of rare occurrence in that 

 neighbourhood. On this fact rests the claim of the present bird to be included in the European 

 avifauna, according to the limits drawn by previous observers, and not on Temminck's assertion 

 of its Spanish habitat, which has yet to be proved along with that of the Hooded Shrike and 

 Dusky Bulbul, none of them having been detected in that country since Temminck's time. 



Quitting the western range of the Striped Bunting, we subjoin the notes lately published by 

 Mr. Hume on the species in India, adding one word of praise for the very complete monograph 

 of the species which that author sets before us : — " It was when travelling through Rajpootana 

 in March and April 1868, that I first met with and identified the Striolated Bunting, until that 

 time unknown in India*. I procured a few specimens both on the Taragurh Hill at Ajmere and 

 at Mount Aboo ; but I was travelling too rapidly to learn much, either of the haunts or habits 

 of the species. Later in the year my friend Mr. Brooks procured specimens of the same species 

 in the Etawah district ; and now recently, while detained at Ajmere for the purpose of negociating 

 a treaty with the Jodhpoor Government, I have obtained numerous specimens and had ample 

 opportunities of observing this pretty little bird, not only on Taragurh, but on all the bare rocky 

 hills and ranges of the Aravallis (to which hill-system Mount Aboo also belongs) that I have yet 

 visited. Hitherto, so far as I am aware, no authentic account of its nidification and eggs or 

 details of its habits has appeared ; and some little interest may therefore attach to the observa- 

 tions on these points that I have recently made. 



" The Striolated Bunting is a permanent resident of the western and central portions, at 

 any rate (I have not yet observed it on the northern), of that broad belt of bare rocky hills, 

 mounds, and parallel detached ranges which, under the names of the Inewat and Aravalli Hills, 

 run down from Delhi, and, passing through or near Ulwur, Bhurtpoor, Jaipoor, Ajmere, Pali, and 

 Serohie, culminate in Mount Aboo (the highest of the whole series), which attains an elevation 

 of 5500 feet above the level of the sea. These hills, running through and being studded about 

 on an elevated sandy tract varying from 1000 to 1700 feet above the level of the sea, rise from 



* See Ibis, 1869, p. 355. 



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