sitting and calling, the shores of a running spring which are generally overgrown with bushy 

 willows and Betula nana. I found it common at an altitude of 5000 feet in company with some 

 Muscicapce ; but it does not go as far as the boundary of tree vegetation. Flat, light, thickly 

 overgrown places, islands, and sunny birch knolls it inhabits in preference, but does not visit 

 conifer-woods. I found it breeding in Mongolia, where low willow bushes were scattered round. 

 If no willows are to be found near its abode, it takes its perch for singing on the top of last year's 

 dry plants. The song of the Willow-Bunting is pleasing, and consists, as long as the male calls, 

 of three different changes. Besides these, the birds often utter the short ' zip]) ' note." 



Dr. L. von Schrenck (p. 278) writes : — 



" E. aureola is perhaps the commonest Bunting in the Amoor country, and frequents green 

 woods where the underbrush is thick, and particularly the dense extensive willow- thickets on the 

 islands of the Amoor river. They appear to affect the latter localities more especially, as Pallas 

 speaks of them particularly as found on the willow-covered islands of the Irtisch and other rivers 

 of Siberia. I shot the first specimen of the year on the 19th (31st) of May 1855, near the mouth 

 of the Chaselach, on the Lower Amoor ; but it probably arrives at the mouth of the Amoor early 

 in May." 



Dr. v. Schrenck further remarks that he often procured it at various localities on the Lower 

 Amoor in June and July, and that Dr. von Maack brought back several females from near 

 Albasin and the mouth of the Oldoi, on the Upper Amoor, procured on the 6th and 7th of June. 

 According to Middendorff it is common in South-eastern Siberia. He first observed it on the 

 10th of May, and from that time all over the Stanowoj Mountains up to the crest, as also near 

 the Uda river and on the southern coast of the sea of Ochotsk. He found a nest on the 17th 

 of June, and another on the 6th of July with eggs, which was probably a second brood. 



We are indebted to our friend Dr. L. Taczanowski for the following notes from Dr. 

 Dybowski : — 



" It is one of our commonest birds in Eastern Siberia, and always frequents the valleys or 

 low-lying places, particularly on the plains and amongst the bushes, both where it is marshy and 

 quite dry. It also inhabits the Steppes, where it penetrates further than all the other small 

 birds, and is met with where nothing else but Larks are found. It generally perches on the 

 top of a plant or bush (on the Steppes, generally on the Polygona), and there sings con- 

 tinually. Its song is short, and often interrupted, but is sweet. The peasants look on it as the 

 best songster in Dauria ; but that is according to their taste, for there are many other birds here 

 which sing better. They arrive about the middle of May, and commence building their nests 

 early in June ; still most of them only commence breeding late in this month. Their nests are 

 placed on the ground at the foot of a little bush, often at the base of a tussock of Sjrircea amongst 

 high grass, or else in the grass only. The nest is constructed of dry bents, and well lined with 

 horsehair, is about 65 millims. in diameter, and 50 millims. in depth. They lay four or five, 

 rarely six, eggs. 



" The female sits hard, and will permit any one to approach quite close to her ; when driven 

 off her eggs she keeps flying about with the male close in attendance, perching every now and 

 then on the neighbouring bushes, and uttering a note of lamentation which resembles that of 

 Pratin co la rubeti re." 



