220 LITTLE BUNTING. 
Von Middendorff was the earliest discoverer of the eggs of the 
Little Bunting. Seebohm found the species extremely abundant in 
the valley of the Yenesei from June 1st onwards, before the snow had 
sufficiently melted to make the forest penetrable, and took his first 
nest on the 23rd of that month, on the south bank of the Kuraika, a 
tributary of the Yenesei. The structure was in a hole made in the 
dead leaves, moss and grass, carefully lined with fine dry bents, and 
contained 5 eggs; two other nests afterwards obtained were lined 
with reindeer-hair, and contained respectively 5 and 6. Those of 
the first clutch are described as almost exact miniatures of Corn- 
Bunting’s eggs: the ground-colour being of a pale grey, with bold 
twisted blotches and irregular spots of very dark grey, and equally 
large underlying shell-markings of paler grey; the others were 
redder or browner in ground-colour ; measurements ‘63 by ‘56 in. 
Mr. H. L. Popham obtained a far larger series on the Yenesei in 
1895, and again in 1897; the variation in colour and markings 
being remarkable. As a rule the bird was extremely tame in its 
breeding-haunts, though in winter the late W. R. Davison found it 
excessively wild in Tenasserim, when in flocks ; in summer it appears 
to be partial to the younger woods composed of a mixture of pines, 
firs, alders and birches. All travellers, who have had the opportunity 
of observing it, describe its song as low and sweet, more like that of 
a Warbler than of a Bunting, while the call-note resembles the 
words “ck, tick, tick. The food consists of insects in summer and 
of seeds in winter. 
The adult male in breeding-plumage has the crown and sides of 
the head rich rust-colour, with a broad black stripe from above 
each eye to the nape, behind which is a dull whitish. collar ; mantle 
and rump reddish-brown with blackish streaks; wing-coverts brown, 
tipped with buffish-white ; quills ash-brown ; tail-feathers the same, 
with longitudinal white terminal patches on the two outer pairs; 
chin and throat pale chestnut ; upper breast and flanks dull white, 
thickly streaked with black ; belly whitish; bill horn-brown; legs 
pale brown. Length 5:25 in. ; wing 2°75 in. Inthe female the black 
on the head is duller, the median stripe is less pronounced, and the 
general tints are paler. In the young bird the central stripe on the 
crown is buff, and the two side stripes are reddish-brown with dark 
streaks ; the secondaries are broadly edged with rufous-brown, and 
the under parts are more streaked and mottled with black. 
