RUSTIC BUNTING. 141 



Sweden, Heligoland^ Germany^ Austria, Southern Prance, Northern Italy, 

 and Turkey. The Rustic Bunting has several near allies, but none of them 

 approach it very closely in the coloration of the males. 



Of the habits of the Rustic Bunting but little appears to be known. 



According to Piottuch it is said to arrive near Archangel in small flocks about 



the first of May. It is very local and generally met with in the bushy 



parts of the woods, in the spots that are clear of snow. Its habits in some 



respects resemble those of the Reed-Bunting. Like that bird, it is said 



to haunt the marshy portions of the forest. Alston and Harvie-Brown 



met with this bird near Archangel, but state that it was much rarer than 



the Little Bunting ; they found it in the marshy pine-woods and in 



openings in the forest. It appears t<j be a very restless bird, incessantly 



flitting about or hiding itself amongst the thickest parts of the cover. 



Meves found the Rustic Bunting, or " Willow-Sparrow " as it is locally 



called, rather common in some places on the Onega river. He shot his 



first specimen in a swampy fir-wood, his attention being called to it by its 



sharp cry to its mate, a note which was not unlike that of the Redwing. 



Early in July he met with two broods of this bird, some of which had not 



completed their plumage, but others were full-grown. He saw the old 



birds occasionally through the thick bushes calling very anxiously to their 



young ones, endeavouring to get them away to a safer retreat. Although 



he often found it amongst the willow bushes, its breeding-grounds 



seemed to be in the swampy pine-woods. The young birds he often found 



frequenting the corn- and oat-fields, where they preyed upon the grain. 



Middendorff describes the song of this bird as rich and melodious, a 



characteristic which readily distinguishes it from other Buntings. 



Radde states that the Rustic Bunting is the earliest Bunting to arrive 

 in East Siberia, the first pioneers appearing on the 26th of March, and 

 frequenting the vegetable gardens and places sheltered from the wind. 

 Altbough the weather was very stormy, the birds stiU continued to arrive, 

 often so fatigued as to be easily caught or knocked down with stones. On 

 the 13th of April, 1859, he also met with large flocks of Rustic Buntings, 

 even in the wildest forests, on the post-road which passes over the Baikal 

 Mountains to the river Irkut. It sometimes migrates southwards in autumn, 

 in company with Bullfinches. The chief point of interest in the migrations 

 of this species is that it belongs to a little group of birds which have, 

 within comparatively recent times, evidently extended their breeding- 

 range, which now reaches from the Pacific almost, and in some cases quite, 

 to the Atlantic, whilst their winter-quarters remain confined to Eastern 

 Asia. 



Scarcely any thing is known of the nesting-habits of this species. The 

 only information at all reliable is that published by Dresser in his ' Birds 

 of Europe' (iv. p. 233), who gives a description of its nest and eggs from 



