207 



Young birds. In Canon Tristram's collection is a female shot by himself on Mount Carmel on the 15th of 

 November 1863, which appears to us to be a young bird of the year in her first winter plumage. It is 

 fulvous-brown on the head and back, thickly streaked with dark brown centres to the feathers, these 

 stripes even extending on to the feathers of the rump ; the edges to the wing-coverts and quills are 

 rather broad, and of a distinct cinnamon colour, with the whitish band showing rather plainly ; the 

 sides of the face, throat, and upper breast are fulvescent, with numerous little triangular brown spots 

 extending in longitudinal streaks along the sides of the body, where a slightly richer cinnamon tint 

 prevails. 



The young males appear to gain the adult plumage the first autumn (which can hardly be the case with the 

 young females) , but are very dusky in plumage, thus differing very little from the old hens ; they have 

 the throat thickly covered with indistinct little triangular spots. 



Obs. At p. 114 of vol. ii. of the ' Hand-list,' the late Mr. G. R. Gray has given a list of the Buntings 

 allied to Emberiza cia, which he places in the subgenus Cia of Kaup. A few remarks on these birds and their 

 synonymy seem to be not out of place here. 



7698. cia, L. The subject of the present article, at the head of which will be found the complete synonymy. 



7699. stracheyi, Moore, P. Z. S. 1855, p. 215, pi. 112. 

 cia, p., Aliq. 



Many ornithologists consider this bird identical with E. cia ; and Mr. Blyth (Ibis, 1868, p. 354) remarks : — 

 " Of Emberiza cia, I have compared two Himalayan specimens with a European one in the possession of 

 Mr. Gould. The two former, i.e. the particular specimens in question, have the black streak on tbe head more 

 strongly developed ; but I have seen others from the Himalaya in which this certainly was not the case, and 

 am of opinion that Mr. Gould's examples are simply particularly fine old males in full summer plumage, which 

 might doubtless be paralleled in Europe. There is no other difference whatever ; and the alleged E. stracheyi, 

 Moore, I therefore consider to be inadmissible as a species sufficiently distinguished from E. cia." Dr. Jerdon, 

 however, who calls E. cia the " White-browed Bunting," separates E. stracheyi as the " White-necked Bunt- 

 ing," and says that " the chief differences from E. cia wee the whiter chin and throat." Neither of these good 

 observers, however, appears to have seized upon the most striking point of distinction between the two species ; 

 nor does Mr. Moore, in his original description of the Indian bird, allude to what we consider the best specific 

 character. Thanks to Lord Walden, we have been able to examine the fine series of E. stracheyi in his col- 

 lection ; and we notice that, beyond the much brighter colour and the uniform deep cinnamon breast, the white 

 spots on the wing-coverts are absent ; in winter the tips to these feathers are fulvous, but we have never seen 

 any Indian examples with the white bars on the wing so conspicuous in the European bird. Any one who will 

 compare Mr. Wolf's beautiful figure of E. stracheyi in the 'Proceedings' with the illustration which accom- 

 panies the present article, will at once perceive the points of difference to which we refer. 



The female is very similar to that of E. cia ; but the white bar on the wing-coverts renders the latter 

 recognizable. 



7699 a. tristrami, Swinhoe, P. Z. S. 1870, p. 441. This species has been lately described by Mr. Swinhoe as 

 the representative of E. stracheyi in China. 



7700. pithyornus, Pall. This species should stand as E. leucocephala (S. G. Gmelin), under which name it 

 is fully described in the present work. 



7701. meridionalis, Cab. Mus. Hein. Th. i. 128. The locality of this supposed species is Algeria, not 

 Lebanon, as stated by Mr. Gray. The characters adduced by the original describer are insufficient to 

 establish its distinctness from E. cia, with which we have not hesitated to unite it. Dr. Cabanis pro- 

 bably had before him a specimen in full summer plumage. 



7702. cioides, Brandt, Bull. Ac. Imp. Sci. St. Petersb. i. p. 363 (1843). 

 cia, Pall. Zoogr. Rosso-Asiat. ii. p. 39. 



