EMBERIZINA. 205 
BLACK-HEADED BUNTING. 
EMBER{ZA MELANOCEPHALA, Scopoli. 
The Black-headed Bunting—not to be confounded with our com- 
mon Reed-Bunting, which is sometimes called by this name—is an 
inhabitant of the south-eastern portions of Europe; but from time to 
time it wanders westward, and, owing to the increased attention now 
paid to ornithology, its presence has been detected on four occasions 
in Great Britain. The first example, an adult female, identified by 
the late Mr. Gould and now in the collection of Mr. T. J. Monk of 
Lewes, was shot near Brighton while following a flock of Yellow 
Buntings, about November 3rd 1868. The Rev. J. R. Ashworth has 
recorded (Zool. 1886, p. 73) the acquisition of an identified speci- 
men in June or July 1884, stated to have been shot in Nottingham- 
shire. A third example, said by the dealer from whom it was 
purchased to have been captured alive near Dunfermline about 
November sth 1886, was recognized by the Rev. H. A. Macpherson 
at the Bird Show of February 15th 1887, held at the Crystal Palace 
(Zool. 1887, p. 193), where I saw it again in 1888, when in nearly 
adult male plumage. Mr. W. R. Butterfield has recorded (Zool. 
1897, p. 273) the occurrence of an adult female, picked up near 
Bexhill, Sussex, on November 3rd 1894. The fact that the females 
and young are dull-coloured birds, and therefore not likely to be 
imported, favours the assumption that these histories are substantially 
correct. 
On Heligoland the Black-headed Bunting has occurred about 
