134, BRITISH BIRDS. 



Altai Mountains j thence it extends westwards through Turkestan and 

 Persia to Palestine and Asia Minor. In all these countries it is a summer 

 migrantj and in the two latter it is principally known as passing through 

 on migratiouj though a few retire to the mountains to breed. This appears 

 to be the case also iu Greece and Italy ; but to the rest of Europe^ south of 

 the northern limits above mentioned^ it is a regular summer visitor. A 

 few remain to breed in North-west Africa, but the majority pass south- 

 wards in autumn and doubtless winter somewhere in West Africa. It also 

 passes through Egypt on migration, and winters in Abyssinia : a few also 

 winter in North-west India. The nearest ally of the Ortolan Bunting is 

 E. casta, which only differs in not having the slate-grey head, ear-coverts, 

 and breast suffused with yellowish green, and in having the yellow of the 

 throat replaced by pale chestnut. 



It is somewhat remarkable that a bird so common on the Continent, in 

 all the countries adjacent to the British Islands, should be so rare in 

 this country. I found the Ortolan Bunting breeding on the mountains in 

 the pine-regions both of Greece and Asia Minor. When I was at Val- 

 conswaard, we constantly heard its plaintive monotonous song, as it sat 

 perched for a long time on the branch of a tree in the lanes, or in the 

 hedges that surround the fields close to the village; and in the wilder 

 districts of Norway, when driving in our carioles from Lillehammer towards 

 the Dovre Fjeld, it was by no means uncommon in the trees by the road- 

 side. It is not a shy bird, and frequently remains for a very long time on 

 the same twig, generally near the top of the tree, especially in the evening, 

 when its simple song harmonizes with the melancholy stillness of the out- 

 skirts of the country village. The song begins somewhat like that of the 

 Yellow Hammer, but ends quite differently. It may be roughly expressed 

 by the words tsee-ah, tsee-ah, tsee-ah, tyur-tyur. Sometimes there is only 

 one tyur at the end. It seeks most of its food on the ground, where it 

 hops with great ease, and probably picks up small seeds and insects of 

 various kinds. 



Throughout Europe it is a strictly migratory bird. In Greece and Asia 

 Minor, where the season of spring migration may be said to be the months of 

 March and April, it appears during the second week of April amongst the 

 later migrants. Further north, in South-west Russia, Goebel gives the 

 second half of April (new style) as the date of its arrival. In South 

 Holland, the season of 1876 was a somewhat late one, and the arrival of 

 migratory birds began during the last week of March and ended during the 

 last week of May ; and it was not until the middle of the latter month 

 that we heard the song of the Ortolan Bunting. These birds leave Europe 

 in September, arriving in North Africa in large flocks. On their way 

 south great numbers are caught in nets and fattened for the table, and 

 many are sent to this country alive from Holland and Belgium. 



